It has been reported today that the Belgian authorities, after a tip-off from unnamed US “agencies” have conducted searches at homes and business addresses in Knokke-Heist and Eeklo.
The Belgian government announcement is here.
Related search and arrests took place in the Netherlands (see our related post) at the same time, and in total across both countries six have been arrested, four of whom were arrested in Belgium
The allegations relate to the export of products and technology to Russia.
It has been reported today that Finnish Customs are preparing to charge six with Russian sanctions offences.
The activities relate to two Finnish companies suspected of exporting microcontrollers and semi-conductors valued at more than €600,000 to Russia, as well as nearly 3,500 drones value at over €2 million.
The investigation is said to have also involved the authorities from the Netherlands, the UK, the US, as well as Europol and Finland’s Security and Intelligence Service.
The US authorities today have announced that a national of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been arrested in Croatia on a US arrest warrant on suspicion of obstructing justice.
The individual was named as Vladimir Jovancic. He is alleged to have assisted Artem Uss flee house arrest in Italy after an Italian court has ordered Uss to be extradited to face sanctions charges in the US.
A Spanish national, Alejandro Cao de Benos, has been arrested on an US arrest warrant on suspicion of breaching sanctions against North Korea.
It is alleged that he was providing cryptocurrency advice to North Korea to assist with circumventing US sanctions.
The UK’s HMRC has today announced three new compound penalties imposed on experts for unlawful exports.
The first penalty was £67,000.31 imposed for the attempted export of goods in breach of the UK’s Russian sanctions. The person or company involved was not named.
The second penalty was for £1,000 and the attempted unlicensed export of dual-use goods. Again the penalised company was not named.
The third penalty was for £9,088.99 for exporting dual-use goods without a licence. This too was anonymised.
It has been reported today that 28 reports to the Cypriot authorities have been received between May and November of this year.
The reports are said to have come from multiple sources including the Ministry of Finance, the Foreign Ministry, the anti-money laundering unit MOKAS, the Association of Cyprus Auditors, the Cyprus Bar Association, the Legal Service, and the Central Bank.
The Prudential Control and Resolution Authority has announced a reprimand and a fine of €600,000 on the firm Mutuelle de Poitiers for failures in its internal compliance program in relation to sanctions.
The failures related not only to delays in detecting designated persons, but in reporting to the ACPR.
Today the Cypriot authorities confirmed that they have a number of sanctions investigations ongoing. No specifics were provided as to the nature or number of the investigations, although President Nikos Christodoulides stated that there were “many” such investigations.
The Italian Financial Intelligence Unit is investigating cash withdrawals of €4.3m by staff of the Russian embassy in Rome, including withdrawals of over €100,000.
One line of inquiry is that the withdrawals are part of a sanctions evasion scheme.
A law firm which self-reported itself to the legal regulator in relation to three real estate transactions has been fined £101,357 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
The transactions did not actually involve sanctioned persons or entities, but screening had not been conducted at the time of the transactions and subsequently a possible link between one of the transactions and a designated person was identified.
