Further to our recent post on the seizure of the shadow fleet tanker, the Tagor, it has now been announced that that the vessel’s captain was arrested on 2 June, and was released from detention yesterday.
The captain has not been charged but investigations are ongoing. The prosecutor’s in the town of Brest is reported to have said the captain may face a custodial sentence of up to a year.
French President Macron has announced the seizure yesterday of the tanker the Tagor in the Atlantic. The British Royal Navy provided support.
It is reported that the vessel was en route from Murmansk, and so was presumably carrying cargo.
The vessel was in international waters some 400 nautical miles west of France, and is suspected of sailing under a false flag.
We have updated our Vessel Seizure tracker – here.
It is being reported (here and here) that the Polish authorities have arrested and imposed bail and travel restrictions on several members of a ring suspected of exports of sanctioned goods to Belarus.
Also arrested, and a search conducted at her house, was a Polish Customs official who is alleged to have taken bribes in return for allowing goods to be exported without inspections.
The exporters are said to have used two sets of paperwork, with Polish Customs shown export documents for food and beverage products, and Belarusian customs shown accurate paperwork for the sanctioned spare parts and other engineering products.
The exports are said to have taken placed between June 2025 and April 2026 using the Kukuryki-Kazlovichy border crossing.
On Friday the trail commenced of two brothers suspected of their role in 65 exports to Russia in the mechanical engineering sector said to be valued at c. €833,000.
The brothers were each managing directors of the exporting company.
A separate prosecution is underway against the father.
The exports to Russia were, it is alleged, masked through exports to shell companies in Turkey and Kyrgyzstan.
The District Court in Viru has convicted Aleksei Toom of sanctions offences and sentenced his to nine months in prison suspended for one year conditional upon no further offending.
Mr Toom’s conviction was for authoring over 100 press articles for a media outlet that is controlled by Dmitry Kiselyov, a designated person under the EU’s Russian sanctions.
Mr Toom’s employment had ended in October 2020, but he continued to write under the pen name Paul Tomson until December 2023.
The Prosecution, and the court, took the view that such articles were an economic resource, and that Russia Today’s portal, Baltnews, was controlled by Mr Kiselyov.
It has been reported that the Lithuanian authorities have arrested a Polish national on suspicion of trying to export to Belarus the equivalent of €60,000 in physical currency in Polish zlotys and US dollars.
The man was attempting to climb over a border fence when he was detected.
The Dutch FIOD has issued a press release relating to the arrest of 59 and 37 year-old men from Amsterdam and the Hague respectively. Three business premises were also raised and searched.
The investigation relates to a web-hosting company founded in 2022 and designated by the EU in May 2025 for its role in the facilitation of “destabilizing activities directed against the European Union, including interference, cyberattacks and the spread of disinformation”. Following the designation the 57-year old set up a new company in the Netherlands which is alleged to have acted as a front for the continuing operations of the sanctioned entity.
A second Dutch company, of which the 39-year old was the sole shareholder and director is alleged to have played a facilitating role in providing interet connectivity.
Further to our earlier post, Finnish Customs has issued a press release relating to the conclusion of an investigation, that is now being forwarded to the Prosecution District of Eastern Finland for criminal prosecution.
The investigation alleges the prohibited export of 135 trucks and 29 trailers to Russia in breach of the EU’s sanctions. The vehicles are said to be valued at €17.5 million.
The Finnish exporting company declared that the exports were bound for Kazakhstan and Turkey via Russia, but the investigation showed the vehicle remained in Russia.
The same press release gives updated statistics on Finnish Customs’ recent enforcement activity with 58 cases between the start of 2025 and March 2026.
In 2025 the following offences (which are of differing levels of severity) were registered:
Between January and March 2026 Customs registered the following:
The UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation has issued a Penalty Notice against the London branch of Deutsche Bank AG fining it £165,000.
The fine related to two payments made in June 2022 and July 2022 that had been voluntarily reported to OFSI in September 2022. The “pace” of resolving this matter is in keeping with previous cases from OFSI.
The first payment leading to the fine was of £356,429.27 processed on 29 June 2022 in favour of a company called Okko LLC. Earlier that same day the UK had designated the 100% shareholder of Okko, JSC New Opportunities.
The second payment of £279,189.48 was made a month later.
OFSO took the view (particularly in light of the second payment) that even though there had been a limited window to stop the first payment, nonetheless there was such a window. The screening methods used by Deutsche Bank failed to identify that a newly-designated entity wholly-owned the intended transferee. This failing continued for the next month and was not purely a function of the short window for the first payment.
OFSI also took the view that the breaches could only be seen as such after the UK adopted a strict liability rule for the civil enforcement of sanctions breaches on 15 June 2022. An additional payment made before this date, was not considered a “breach” for this reason.
The notice was resolved under OFSI’s new settlement regime, and involved a 45% discount on what would otherwise have been a £300,000 fine based on the self-disclosure and Deutsche Bank agreeing to settle.
Further to our earlier post from March regarding Sweden’s seizure of the Sea Owl I, Sweden’s Coast Guard has issued an update.
At the time of the seizure the flag was purporting to be Comorian flagged, but the Swedish authorities doubted the validity of that registration.
Following the seizure the vessel purported to re-register with another flag state. The Coast Guard’s update is reporting that a second crew member has now been arrested on suspicion of using false documents relating to the purported re-registration of the vessel.
