France – acquittal of ship’s captain charged with sanctions violations

In an earlier post we reported on the ongoing trial of the captain of the ship the “Baltic Leader”, who was being prosecuted in Rouen for alleged breaches of the EU’s Russian sanctions. French prosecutors were seeking a combined fine and confiscation of €16 million.

It is now being reported that yesterday the captain was acquitted of all charges.

Currently no further details are available.

United Kingdom – 37 ongoing oil price cap investigations

The BBC is reporting the results of a Freedom of Information Act request it has made to OFSI.

The response itself is not currently on the website of either OFSI or HM Treasury.

The BBC is reporting the following statistics:

  • 52 investigations opened since December 2022
  • 15 of those have been concluded with no further action taken; and
  • 37 of the investigations are ongoing.

As per our earlier post, in an earlier Freedom of Information response OFSI confirmed that as of April 2024 it had started 12 investigations of which 9 had been discontinued without action taken.

As such 40 new oil price cap investigations have been started since April 2024.

Since April six investigations have been concluded.

Netherlands – company convicted and fined for aircraft part exports

Further to our post of yesterday about an individual sentenced to 32 months for exporting aircraft parts to Russia in breach of EU sanctions, the Rotterdam District court has released a second judgment for the conviction of the company involved.

The company has been sentenced to pay a fine of €165,826. The prosecutor was seeking a fine of all the funds in the company’s bank accounts at the time it was raided, but it is unclear from the judgment whether the fine is that sum.

The company is not named in the judgment.

Netherlands – two years and eight months sentence for exporting sanctioned goods to Russian airlines

On 3 October 2024, the District Court in Rotterdam sentenced an individual to 32 months in jail, as well as confiscation of $8,000 and €250,000 in cash, as well as the forfeiture of all the stock-in-trade and business bank accounts.

The individuals had exported over 460 prohibited aircraft parts to three different Russian airlines: i) Ural Airlines; ii) S7 Engineering LLC; and iii) JSC Siberia Airlines.

The defendant had created a paper trail to mask the destination of the exports which purported to show exports to Serbia, Turkey and Tajikistan. Internal documents, however, linked the exports to the Russian customers.

Messages on seized phones included: “We’re going to keep loading until we’re arrested”.

France – trial underway against the captain of a Russian cargo ship for sanctions breaches

The trial of the captain of a Russian cargo ship is now underway in Rouen.

It is being reported that the Rouen Prosecutor’s Office is seeking a fine of €8m, plus confiscation of the ship (valued at €8m) plus a suspended prison sentence of 10 months.

The case arises from the departure from the port of Rouen on 25 February 2022 of the vessel the “Baltic Leader” which was Russian flagged and carrying wind turbines.

Part of the prosecution’s case is that the vessel was ultimately owned and/or controlled by Promsvyazbank which is a designated person under the EU’s Russian sanctions.

Lithuania – two companies fined for Russian sanctions breaches

The Lithuanian Customs Department has today issued a press release confirming that two companies – unnamed – have each been fined €10,000.

The breaches were the provision of services – described as “temporary storage, clearance of customs documents, representation at customs” – to entities included on the EU’s list of designated persons under the EU’s Russian sanctions.

United Kingdom – 12 oil price cap investigations by OFSI

It is being reported (here albeit behind a paywall), that as of April 2024 the UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) had twelve ongoing investigations relating to possible breaches of the oil price cap imposed as part of the UK’s sanctions against Russia.

The information comes from a Freedom of Information Act request made by the publication Trade Winds. The response is not available on OFSI’s website.

OFSI is also reported to have confirmed that 9 of the twelve investigations were discontinued in April 2024 with no further action taken.

No information was provided on the current status of the other three investigations that were live in April, or whether any further investigations have been commenced since April.

As noted in our previous post from May, at that stage HM Treasury had stated that it “a number of investigations” then ongoing into alleged oil price cap breaches.

 

Lithuania – company fined over €1.2m for importing Russian coal and rubber from designated persons

The Customs Office of Lithuania has issued a press release confirming that it has imposed a fine of €1,274,960 on an unnamed Lithuanian company for the importation of both coal and rubber from Russia in breach of EU sanctions.

The Russian suppliers are themselves said to be the subject of sanctions, but have not been named.

The enforcement action was conducted by the Business Entity Inspections Department of the Kaunas Region.

Germany – raids in Berlin as part of sanctions investigations

It is being reported (and here) that on Tuesday the Zentralstelle für Sanktionsdurchsetzung (Central Office for Sanctions Enforcement) conducted raids with 100 officers to enforce a District Court judgment  on premises in the Tempelhof-Schöneberg region of Berlin.

The reports also state that the subjects of the raids were two logistics companies, said to be from Russia.

No details of the alleged conduct or Russian sanctions breaches giving rise to the raids has been released.

European Public Prosecutor’s Office conducts Russian sanctions-related raid in Bulgaria

It is being reported (here and here) that the European Public Prosecutor’s Office has conducted a raid on the premises of Bulgartransgaz in Bulgaria.

The investigation is said to concern whether natural gas supplied via the Turkish company Botas may include gas of Russian origin and be being done in circumvention of the EU’s Russian sanctions.

This would be the first public and specific investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office into allegation of sanctions breaches.

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The opinions expressed on this blog are those of the author and are not to be construed as legal advice.

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