It has been reported today that Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) has referred two of its investigations into commodity trading companies to the Attorney General’s Office for criminal prosecution.
A third, allegedly similar, case is still being investigated and has not been referred.
It is reported that the allegations relate to the attempt to use of foreign subsidiaries to undertake trade in breach of the relevant Swiss sanctions against Russia.
On Friday France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office applied to the Paris court to have charges of terrorist financing, and breach of the relevant EU sanctions heard against Lafarge Holcim and nine individuals.
This criminal trial would go ahead before the trial of Lafarge on allegations of crimes against humanity after the Court of Cassation ruled last month that those charges should proceed.
For our earlier posts on the Lafarge matter see here.
The Latvian authorities have provided a further update to their enforcement efforts. As reported:
Of the convictions, all involved guilty pleas and all involved Latvian nationals. The highest penalty related to the export of a luxury car, and the fine was €170,000.
The conduct prosecuted included in relation to the sale of a professional footballer to a club owned by a company designated under Belarus sanctions, and the provision of content to the Russian Federal News Agency.
UPDATE: It has now (18 March 2024) been reported that the fine imposed in relation to providing economic resources to the Russian news agency in the form of employment services, was €15,500.
There has been press reporting into the ongoing investigation by the German financial service regulator, BaFin, into the German bank Varengold Bank AG.
The investigation remains ongoing and so far no individuals have been accused of wrongdoing, and no reference has been made in relation to a criminal prosecution.
For our earlier post regarding the BaFin announcement see here.
Following widespread press reports (initially in the Financial Times) that a series of front companies linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard held accounts in the UK with Lloyds Bank and Santander, it is now being reported (behind a paywall) that both banks have been contacted by the Financial Conduct Authority in relation to the allegations.
Both banks have denied breaching sanctions.
It has been reported that the Moldovan authorities are investigating allegations that three Moldovan companies have sold $15m in aircraft parts to Russian airlines.
Moldova, although not a part of the EU, has adopted its own sanctions against Russia.
The three companies are Airrock Solutions, Aerostage Services and Maxjet Service. It is alleged the companies acted as intermediaries, purchasing the parts from suppliers and then on-selling.
It is being reported that the companies deny knowing that the parts were being delivered to Russia and that they each thought the parts were going to other CIS countries.
The confirmation of an investigation is reported to have come from the office of the President of Moldova.
It has been reported today that the UK’s National Crime Agency has arrested and charged Dmitry Ovsyannikov, a Russian national, with seven counts of circumventing sanctions as well as two money laundering charges.
Ovsyannikov was formerly the governor of Russian-seized Sevastopol and was designated by the EU in 2017 and then post-Brexit by the UK in 2020.
He is due to first appear in Southwark Crown Court on 20 February. He was arrested on 22 January.
To date the National Crime Agency has not issued a press release
In an earlier post we reported that the Latvian authorities had 14 ongoing criminal prosecutions.
This morning, Raimonds Zukuls of the Latvian State Revenue Service has given an interview announcing that 114 criminal cases were opened during 2022 and a further 144 cases were opened during 2023.
These cases all concern the EU’s Russian and Belarusian sanctions. It was also said that most cases relate to electrical goods, car parts, luxury goods, timber products, fuel, fodder and metal products.
It was also stated that over 5,000 imports/exports had been stopped by the State Revenue Service.
The Dutch FIOD has today announced three arrests as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into suspected exports in circumvention of the EU’s trade sanctions against Russia.
The individuals are two men from Diemen and a woman from The Hague. The men were both directors of a company founded in 2017, and the arrested woman was an employee.
UPDATE: it is now being reported that the Dutch company involved is ETW-Tekhnologiya and that the company’s founder, Mikhail Volovik, is being sought but has not yet been arrested
The goods are described as technological and laboratory goods capable of military use – i.e. dual-use goods.
Searches and witness interviews have taken place in the Netherlands, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania and Canada.
It has been reported today that the UK has provided the UN Committee responsible for oversight of the UN’s sanctions against North Korea with a dossier of evidence said to establish breaches of those sanctions by Russian shipping.
The Committee has the power to designate vessels which it finds were complicit in breaching the existing sanctions.
