US moves to forfeit Chinese-registered G550 after Tehran stay

US federal prosecutors want to permanently keep a Chinese-registered Gulfstream G550 that agents seized in Anchorage, Alaska, on May 24, 2026 — more than a year after the business jet made an unauthorized six-day trip to Tehran.

The Justice Department filed a civil forfeiture complaint on October 28 in a federal court in California. The aircraft is a 2012-vintage Gulfstream G550, registration B-8259, registered to Deer Jet (Beijing) Co., Ltd., one of China's best-known business aviation operators.

What does the government allege?

Prosecutors lay out two distinct violations. The first concerns how long the jet stayed in Iran.

According to the complaint, B-8259 flew from Beijing to Tehran on December 13, 2024, and remained there until it returned to Beijing on December 19, 2024. At the time, a US Treasury Department general license — a blanket authorization allowing certain transactions without an individual application — permitted foreign-registered civil aircraft to stay in Iran for up to 72 hours, provided they met the license's other conditions. The Gulfstream's six days exceeded that window, and prosecutors say the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which administers US sanctions programs, never approved a longer stay for this aircraft.

The second allegation concerns export control. Because the G550 was built in the United States, prosecutors argue that flying it from China to Iran counted as a reexport — the shipment or transfer of US-origin goods from one foreign country to another — under US export control law. The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), which licenses such movements, never issued a license for the trip, the complaint states.

How did the seizure unfold?

The aircraft did not enter US custody at the time of the alleged violation. Instead, federal agents seized it under a warrant when it landed in Anchorage on May 24, 2026 — roughly 17 months after it returned from Tehran.

That gap matters operationally. US-origin business aircraft registered abroad remain exposed to US jurisdiction wherever they travel, and any US stopover creates a seizure opportunity. By the time prosecutors filed the forfeiture case, the jet had been moved to FBI custody in Virginia.

What does this change for operators of US-built jets?

The case is a reminder that ownership by a foreign entity and registration abroad do not insulate US-manufactured aircraft from American export and sanctions law. For operators of US-built business jets in China, the Middle East and elsewhere, any itinerary touching Iran carries two separate legal tests: an OFAC sanctions test on the length and conditions of the stay, and a BIS export test on whether the flight itself is licensed.

A 72-hour ceiling under a general license is a hard limit, not a formality. Exceeding it without specific OFAC approval converts a permitted visit into a sanctions exposure that can follow the airframe for years — as the Anchorage seizure demonstrates.

What happens next?

The Justice Department has asked the court to give anyone with a claim to the aircraft an opportunity to contest the forfeiture before the judge decides who keeps it. That process will likely determine whether Deer Jet contests the government's account of the December 2024 trip.

If the court grants forfeiture, the US government could sell the Gulfstream or keep it for official use. The complaint does not say which option the Justice Department intends to pursue. For now, the 2012 G550 sits in FBI custody in Virginia while the civil case proceeds.