It is being reported that the jury in the criminal prosecution of designated person Dmitrii Ovsiannikov, his wife Ekaterina Ovsiannikova, and his brother in law Alexei Owsjanikow have returned two guilty verdicts and one acquittal.
See our earlier posts on the progress of this case here and here.
These are the first criminal convictions obtained by the UK authorities under the UK’s Russian sanctions regime, and the first criminal conviction under any sanctions regime since 2017. It is also a rare example of the prosecution of a designated person.
Ekaterina Ovsiannikova was acquitted on four counts of circumventing sanctions arising from payments to her husband of £76,000 in 2023.
Alexei Owsjanikow was acquitted of several counts relating to access to a car, arranging car insurance and use of a bank account. He was, however, convicted of two counts of circumventing sanctions relating to the payment of £41,027 in private school fees.
Dmitrii Ovsiannikov was convicted of six of the seven counts he was charged with, all relating to breaches of the asset freeze imposed upon him by reason of his status as a designated person.
Sentencing will take place in due course, and it is to be hoped that the judge’s Sentencing Remarks are made public.