France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) is reported to have confirmed to the Associated Press that it has charged five individuals on suspicion of fundraising for the designated terrorist group Hamas.
The arrests were done by the General Directorate for Internal Security which is leading the investigation said to have commenced in April of this year.
The authorities are seeking the continued pre-trial detention of the two of the suspects.
Further to our earlier post from 2024, it is now being reported that the Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating possible breaches of the EU Russian sanctions relating to the now-closed ‘Russia House’ in Berlin which for many years had served as a cultural centre.
The Prosecutor’s Office is quoted as responding to query by stating that there are “ongoing investigations against unknown persons or tenants of the Russian House for violations of the Foreign Trade and Payments Act“.
It is being reported that the Regional Administrative Court of Lithuania has upheld a challenge to a fine of €418,677 imposed by the Financial Crime Investigation Service against the company Dage Capital for breaching the EU’s sanctions against Belarus.
The company sold luxury cars to entities in Poland and the UK for on-sale to Belarus.
The company was also found to have used accounts with the designated Alfa-Bank in Belarus.
It is being reported, that Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) is investigating the company World Machinery Works S.R.L. and two of its senior managers on suspicion of export of dual use goods to Belarus in breach of EU sanctions.
The attempted exports were in two parts valued at €980,000 and €1.75m and are suspected of being destined for BelAz Holdings in Belarus.
The machine tools were initially exported to Germany. One remains there, the other got as far as Kazakhstan before being stopped. It had been routed via Germany, Austria, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and then Kazakhstan with the alleged destination being Belarus.
The report notes that several of the suspected individuals have already admitted involvement.
The Dutch Openbaar Ministerie has issued a press release relating to raids and arrests conducted by FIOD today.
Two individuals, a 52-year old Russian and a 50-year old Dutch national were arrested and are in pre-trial detention. The Dutch company of which the Russian national is a shareholder is also listed as a suspect.
The investigation relates to the suspected provision of prohibited IT services and the suspected export of high-tech goods “that can be linked to applications for the Russian defense industry” via a third country.
The Dutch company is said to be linked to a Russian company with clientele that includes “a sanctioned Russian bank, a high-tech software company, and a manufacturer of military helicopters”.
Further to our earlier post regarding the convictions, the UK’s judiciary has published the Sentencing Remarks relating to the sentencing of David Greenhalgh and Christos Farmakis (who was tried in absentia and is believed to be in Greece). They were convicted of supplying prohibited military equipment without a licence to a range of destinations including those subject to sanctions such as Libya, Sudan and South Sudan.
The Court noted the absence of published (or even analogous) Sentencing Guidelines for the court to follow and so approached sentencing by reference to previous decisions. Most influential appears to have been the decision in R v John Knight [2008] EWCA Crim 478 in which the court had given a range of factors to be considered including:
“the nature of the weapon, the quantities and values involved, the nature of the intended customer, the level of involvement of the particular defendant, the degree of planning by the defendant, his level of involvement, and his degree of knowledge and status. The Court went on to observe that in a case such as this, previous good character would count for relatively little, anything other than a significant term of imprisonment would be rare, and a deterrent element was appropriate“.
The court also noted that an assessment of the “harm” caused is “not confined to harm actually done but also by reference to the harm risked or intended, and the financial gain intended to the offender”.
The court assessed various aggravating features including the payment of bribes for fake end-user certificates, the longevity of the offending over 7 years (ending 9 years ago), the warning given of the need for UK licences, and the efforts to mask the conduct through companies and banking outside the UK.
Each man was given 9 years for Count 1, and 7 years for count 2 (to be served consecutively), with the jail term of 6 years for each of the other counts (7 and 8 respectively) to be served concurrently.
It is being reported that the Swedish authorities have brought a criminal prosecution against an unnamed car dealership for purchasing three vehicles valued at SEK 415,000 (c. €37,000) from the Russian embassy.
The unnamed car dealer from the Stockholm area denies the charges.
It is alleged that the payment was made through a front company in an effort to avoid detection of the purchase from an arm of the Russian government, and that no application was made for the licence that might otherwise have permitted the transactions.
It is being reported that Luxembourg’s Finance Ministry has tasked the public prosecutor to investigate suspected sanctions circumvention, and possible insider trading, by ex-managers of Gazprombank Luxembourg.
The bank and one of the ex-managers has denied wrongdoing.
The allegations arise out high profile reporting (behind a paywall, but also here) of a bond-trading scheme whereby cut-price Luxembourg bonds were swapped for full-priced bonds in Russia.
Finland’s Customs has issued a press release relating to the latter stages of an investigation into suspected exports to Russia of nearly €6m in “hydraulic pumps and motors as well as various valves” in breach of the EU’s sanctions.
The exports were declared as destined for Kazakhstan and Türkiye, but are alleged to have been exported to Russia.
Two individuals are the suspects with the offences treated as aggravated offences. One of the suspects is also said to be the subject of four other criminal matters pending in the courts.
The press release note that the case will be forwarded to prosecutors by the end of the year.
The Norwegian company Telenor ASA has issued a press release confirming that it is the subject of an ongoing investigation by Norwegian authorities into suspected breaches of sanctions against Myanmar.
The press release notes a police search took place earlier today at the company’s premises and that there has been an ongoing dialogue with the authorities “for a long time”.
The press release also quotes the company’s Media Relations Director as saying:
“Our employees risked imprisonment, torture or the death penalty if the military authorities’ orders were not complied with. This was a very demanding situation in which we found that we had no real choice and that we could not put our employees’ lives at risk”.
A press release from Norway’s National Criminal Investigation Service confirms that the company has been charged both with sanctions offences and human rights related offences.
The investigation relates to the period before the sale of Telenor’s operating subsidiary in Myanmar in 2022 and relates to both the transfer of “historical traffic data on customers” and “sanctioned surveillance equipment”.
