The District Court of East Brabant in the Netherlands has convicted an individual for breaches of the EU’s Iran sanctions. The offence consisted of the export of 5 items to an Iranian person in breach of the EU regulation.
The defendant was acquitted of other charges and was fined €5,000.
OFSI has today imposed a fine of £146,341 against Telia Carrier UK Limited for breaches of the EU’s Syrian sanctions.
The breaches arose out of Telia facilitating telephone calls for SyriaTel which is a designated person under the EU sanctions. The phone connections were treated as “economic resources” for the purposes of the sanctions.
The fine in this instance was reduced from £300,000 after Telia opted to seek a ministerial review of OFSI’s penalty.
Further to our earlier post, the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office has issued a press release stating that charges have now been laid against Vladimir D. for allegedly exporting dual use goods for military use to the Russian military.
The products are said to have been hot isostatic presses, as well as decaboranes, a chemical use in rocket fuel and explosives.
The goods are valued at €1.8m.
We reported in an earlier post that the Lithuanian authorities had commenced an investigation into three companies suspected of breaching the EU’s Crimean sanctions.
The Prosecutor’s Office has today announced the conclusion of the investigation with no charges being brought.
Prosecutors in Germany have concluded their investigation into allegations that chemicals had been shipped to Syria in breach of EU sanctions.
Prosecutors in Duisburg have confirmed that they do not intend to prosecute Brenntag AG over the allegations.
The Dutch authorities have obtained a further conviction for transfers of small sums of money in breach of the EU’s ISIS sanctions.
The transfers in this instance were of €500 and €950.
The man was given a suspended 5 month sentence with a 2 year probation period.
The Luxembourg financial services regulator, the CSSF, has today fined Banque Puilaetco Dewaay Luxembourg SA €15,000 for AML and sanctions compliance failings.
The penalty notice noted that the failing was “a temporary deficiency of the ongoing screening system of the client database against sanction lists”, and noted that the deficiency had since been remediated.
After press reports alleging that German company Brenntag AG was involved in the indirect export of chemicals to Syria potentially in breach of the EU’s sanctions, prosecutors in Essen, where Brenntag AG is located, have confirmed that they have initiated legal proceedings and are probing whether to open a formal investigation.
Three NGOs have already filed criminal charges over the chemical exports, including the Berlin-based Syrian Archive, the Switzerland-based organization Trial International, and the New York-based Open Society Justice Initiative.
Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has today published details of a compound penalty of £10,234.26 imposed on a UK exporter/trader.
The penalty was in relation to unlicensed trading of body armour. The goods were not exported from the UK, but the transaction involved a UK national.
The Notice to Exporters noted that the Export Control Order 2008 requires a trade control licence when certain goods are exported from a country other than the UK, and that exporters should be aware that trafficking and brokering military goods outside the UK will need a trade control licence, even if the goods do not pass through the UK.
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has issued a Decision Notice against Standard Chartered Bank including a fine of £102,163,200.
The fine related to KYC failings in general, with a focus on failure to conduct customer due diligence even in situations where sanctions red flags were evident. The FCA noted a lack of financial crime risk, and concerns as to the quality of the advice being given.
A particular focus were the UAE branches of the bank, and also export financing in relation to the export of military goods.
