General – European Sanctions Enforcement

April 29, 2024April 29, 2024 by Mark Handley

The enforcement of sanctions circumvention in Europe

Sanctions circumvention. It is one of the key topics of the moment.

It is a routine question for people to ask which countries provide a circumvention risk. It is also a common perception that enforcement of sanctions circumvention is lacking.

Based on the material in this blog we have listed out below the more than 40 examples where of recent enforcement of sanctions circumvention on a third-country by third-country basis. Where a particular case involved circumvention via several countries they are listed separately.

Continue reading “The enforcement of sanctions circumvention in Europe”

April 5, 2024 by Mark Handley

Cyprus – sanctions investigation into purported share transfer by Mordashov in the “final stages”

Further to our earlier post there has been an ongoing investigation in Cyprus in relation to the alleged transfer of over $1 billion in shares by Alexey Mordashov in breach of the asset freeze imposed upon him by the European Union.

It is now being reported that the Cypriot investigation has reached its “final stages”.

The report gives no indication of the outcome of the investigation.

The allegations relate to transfers of the shares in the tourism operator Tui.

February 19, 2024 by Mark Handley

Finland – 700 Russian trade sanctions investigations of which 70 are large and complex

In September 2023, the Finnish Customs authorities announced they had 600 ongoing criminal investigations of which 60 were “aggravated”.

As reported in Wirtschaft Woche Sari Knaapi , the Chief Economic Crimes Investigator at Finnish Customs has now given details of the current figures, stating that there are now 700 ongoing investigations, with around 70 that are described as “large, complex cases”.