In the past few years, Iran has used its cargo line, IRISL (Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines), to evade international trade sanctions in place to prevent the movement of illicit cargo to and from Iran. The shipping line has been blacklisted by the US, the EU, and the UN, but IRISL continues to use ships and containers as a way to move nearly a third of Iran’s imports and exports. To evade detection, IRISL has developed techniques such as regularly reflagging its ships and swapping their official owners. Since September 2008, IRISL has made 345 changes to its fleet at a rapid pace and scale.
In the following demo, Praescient demonstrates how Palantir can be used to significantly expedite the discovery and dissemination of a suspect entity list and to identify suspicious shipping activity.