The United Nation's International Labor Organization (ILO) confirmed that hijackers had captured an oil tanker off the coast of the United Arab Emirates and sailed it to Iran. The MT Gulf Sky is suspected of smuggling petroleum on behalf of Iran. In May, the U.S. Justice Department filed criminal charges against two Iranians alleged to have laundered $12 million in a bid to purchase the oil tanker through a series of front companies. The vessel was then operating as the MT Nautica; both Iranians remain at large. The scheme also involved the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), and the Quds Force, a military branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). An American bank froze assets involved in the planned transaction, leading the vessel's seller to file a lawsuit in the UAE to repossess it from the buyers. Emirati authorities had seized the oil tanker before the hijacking, in response to the legal action.