The President of Romania’s ANAF (National Agency for Fiscal Administration) has confirmed that ongoing results of the organisation’s sanctions enforcement actions.
Without providing details he stated that fines of 280,000 lei (c. €56,000) had been imposed and amounts of 13.171 million lei (c. €2,650,000) had been confiscated.
No further details on these enforcement actions were published.
Further to our earlier post, the Jersey authorities have admitted that the raids conducted in relation to an investigation involving Roman Abramovich had been conducted unlawfully.
Compensation has also been agreed.
It has been reported today that the UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation and the English Solicitors Regulation Authority are actively investigating a number of law firms for suspected sanctions breaches.
The law firms were not named.
Further to the ongoing German investigation into Alisher Usmanov, the German authorities have conducted searches at two branches of UBS in Frankfurt and Munich.
The authorities stated that no allegations of wrongdoing are being made against the bank or its employees.
Further to our earlier post, a Magistrate in Malta has acquitted James Fenech, Bertrand Agius, Konrad Agius, Charles Bugeja, Michael Cauchi and the company Sovereign Charters Ltd of breaching EU sanctions against Libya.
The case related to the use of outboard motor boats to bring private military personnel out of Libya. The allegation was that the vessels were included amongst those products that could not be exported or transferred to Libya.
The court held that the particular vessels included, as identified by their 8-digit Combined Nomenclature Code, were not amongst the categories of vessels prohibited under the EU’s sanctions. Accordingly, the charges were dismissed.
The company accepted a fine of €15,000 for immigration irregularities.
The Romanian company Liberty Galati has successfully overturned an administrative fine and the confiscation of over 7.6 million lei (c. €1.5m).
The alleged breach of EU sanctions related to a shipment of iron ore pellets which left Russian on 22 February 2022, and arrived in Romania on 25 February 2022. The seller of the pellets was Metalloinvest, which is owned or controlled by Alisher Usmanov who was designated on 28 February 2022. The pellets were on-sold in Romania on 1 March 2022.
The initial fine and confiscation was based on the allegation that it was a breach of the EU’s sanctions to deal with Metalloinvest in this way. The court disagreed and held that Liberty Galati had taken title to the pellets on 22 February at a time that Metalloinvest was not subject to sanctions.
The US Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York has issued a statement confirming the arrest in Germany of Yury Orekhov on suspicion of breaching US sanctions.
The US authorities are seeking the extradition of Mr Orekhov.
The Norwegian authorities have arrested a Russian for flying a drone within Norwegian airspace in breach of the ban on Russian flights.
The man is reported to be Andrey Yakunin, the son of the former head of the Russian Railways.
The US Department of Justice has announced the multiple charges against individuals and companies relating to an attempt to export US-origin industrial equipment (a jig grinder) with military application to Russia.
The companies charged are CNC Weld (incorporated in Latvia) and BY Trade OU (incorporated in Estonia).
Stanislav Romanyuk is one the individuals. He was arrested in Estonia on 13 June 2022 for extradition to the US.
As part of the same investigation others were arrested in Latvia – see here.
The US Department of Justice has announced the multiple charges against individuals and companies relating to an attempt to export US-origin industrial equipment (a jig grinder) with military application to Russia.
The companies charged are CNC Weld (incorporated in Latvia) and BY Trade OU (incorporated in Estonia).
Janis Uzbalis, Vadims Ananics, Eriks Mamonovs are three of the individuals. They were arrested in Latvia on 18 October 2022 for extradition to the US.
As part of the same investigation others were arrested in Estonia – see here.
