As per our earlier post, in November last year the Public Prosecution Service in the Netherlands applied to wind up a company convicted of breaching the EU’s sanctions by unlawfully exporting goods to Russia.
Yesterday, the District Court of Gelderland issued its order and judgment in the case. The court granted the application to wind up the company and appointed a liquidator to oversee the process.
The court noted that the company had ceased to trade and that its director and shareholder (also convicted) had fled the Netherlands for Russia.
The court did not grant the Prosecution’s application to immediately turn over all funds in the company’s bank accounts as the proceeds of crime. Rather the court has left the question of what funds are the proceeds of crime “to the liquidator to make an independent assessment”.
The case is an illustration of the powers available to courts post-conviction.