The White House said Wednesday that the oil tanker seized by US forces in the North Atlantic, which had claimed to be Russian-flagged, had been “deemed stateless after flying a false flag.”
“This was a Venezuelan shadow fleet vessel that has transported sanctioned oil. The vessel was deemed stateless after flying a false flag, and it had a judicial seizure order, and that’s why the crew will be subject to prosecution,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
