Iran has spent years building ways to sell oil and move money around international sanctions. A newly published cache of leaked documents now claims to reveal some of the people and financial infrastructure behind one part of that system in the United Arab Emirates.
At the center of the leak is HMS Trading FZE, a company established in Sharjah in 2021.
The company is important for one simple reason: the United States has already identified it as part of Iran’s shadow banking system.
In January, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned HMS Trading and said it acted on behalf of Bank Shahr, a sanctioned Iranian bank, as part of a network used to support Iranian oil exports and move money internationally.
The new documents, published by WikIran, claim to show who was operating behind the company.
An Emirati businessman appears in the documents
WikIran identifies Emirati businessman Omar Mohamed Zubaeer Mohamed Al Marzooqi as the managing director of HMS Trading.
Public information independently confirms that a businessman with that distinctive name has held prominent positions in the UAE, including a career in Dubai Police and advisory work connected to the private office of a member of Dubai’s ruling family.
What has not been independently confirmed is his alleged role at HMS.
WikIran says the documents also connect members of the Al Marzooqi family to other businesses involved in the wider operation.
If accurate, that would add a significant new dimension to what was previously known mainly as a network of anonymous companies.
But those family connections remain allegations based on the leaked material. They do not appear in the public U.S. sanctions record.
The leak points to accounts at major UAE banks
The documents also identify what WikIran says were HMS Trading accounts at First Abu Dhabi Bank, Emirates Islamic and Emirates NBD.
Another account at Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank is linked in the leak to a law firm that WikIran says handled legal matters for the businesses.
There is no evidence that any of the banks knew they were being used as part of an Iranian sanctions operation.
That matters because HMS was established in 2021 and was not sanctioned by the United States until January 2026.
In other words, for much of its existence it could have appeared to financial institutions as a locally registered UAE company rather than a company formally blacklisted by Washington.
The American case was already substantial
Even without the leak, U.S. authorities had already described HMS as part of a much larger Iranian financial operation.
Treasury says companies connected to the network were used to facilitate Iranian oil sales and payments abroad.
In one case, more than $30 million was paid to the National Iranian Oil Company for Iranian oil products destined for Malaysia. In another, more than $40 million was paid to the Iranian oil company through another business in the network.
Those transactions do not come from WikIran. They come from the U.S. Treasury.
That is what makes the new leak interesting.
It is not trying to establish from scratch that Iran was operating a sanctions network through the UAE. American authorities had already documented that.
Instead, the leak claims to put names, bank accounts and personal connections behind part of a system that previously appeared in sanctions announcements mostly as a maze of corporate entities.
What is proven and what is not
There is still a major gap between the official American case and the new leak.
The United States has confirmed its findings against HMS Trading and its connection to Bank Shahr.
It has not publicly identified Al Marzooqi as the man running HMS, nor has it confirmed the family connections or several of the additional companies identified by WikIran.
The leaked HMS records have also not been independently authenticated by a government agency or major news organization.
That means the most explosive part of the story remains unverified.
But the company at the center of it is very real, and so is its connection to Iran’s sanctions network.
Washington had already found the corporate shell.
The new leak claims to reveal the people behind it.
