On Sunday Sweden’s Prosecutors announced the arrest of a Chinese national who was the captain of the Syrian-flagged vessel suspected of belonging to the Russian shadow fleet, the Jin Hui.
The particular offences forming the basis for the captain’s arrest are the use of false documents and suspected violations of the Maritime Act in relation to seaworthiness.
The vessel is reported to have been in Swedish territorial waters at the time it was detained and is now anchored off Trelleborg.
Further to our earlier post regarding the boarding and capture of a cargo vessel, the Caffa, the Swedish Prosecutor’s Office has announced that the vessel has now been formally seized the vessel “in order to obtain a judicial review of whether the vessel can be handed over to the state”.
Press headlines that the vessel has already been fully confiscated appear to be overstating the current position.
The press release adds that the investigation involves a request for mutual legal assistance from another state, but that state is not named. The vessel is suspected of having been carrying stolen Ukrainian grain and to have been sailing under false flag documentation.
The German authorities have published the third instalment of their 6-monthly updates on their current enforcement actions.
The report highlights:
The update also reports on a decision of the CJEU from 5 February 2026 upholding the seizure by German customs of a Mercedes car purchased in Russia and imported to Germany. The CJEU held that the single specific import did not need to “generate significant revenue for the Russian state”, so long as the general category of goods did.
Further cases noted previously in the blog over the last few months, but not included in the report are:
Tucked away in a Guardian article otherwise about allegations of breaches of the UK’s sanctions, it is being reported that the Cypriot Ministry of Finance has confirmed that it is investigating whether Cypriot subsidiaries of the Essar Group entered into transactions with Russia’s VTB Bank that breached, or circumvented, the EU’s sanctions.
The allegations relate to the movement of debt obligations owed by the Essar Group to VTB Bank from Cyprus to Mauritius in 2022.
Poland’s National Tax Administration has fined a company based in Małopolska and run by Belarusian citizens PLN 20,000,000 – or approximately €4,726,000. The fine is administrative, and was the maximum allowable fine.
The company had exported over 100 luxury cars to Russia via Lithuania and Belarus in breach of EU sanctions.
The total value of the cars is said to have been PLN 49m. The press release states that “The evidence gathered indicates that the company’s managers acted knowingly and deliberately participated in the circumvention of sanctions”.
The press release does not mention if proceedings are also being brought against the individuals involved or if the company will be subject to a confiscation of its profits.
The UK’s National Crime Agency has published a press release confirming that it has charged John Michael Ormerod with two counts of breaches the UK’s Russian sanctions as well as a money laundering offence.
Ormerod was designated by the UK on 20 May 2025, and the charges relate to his efforts to transfer £200,000 on the same day in breach of the asset freeze imposed upon him.
Ormerod’s UK listing had been lifted on 2 March 2026.
Further to our earlier post, the owner of the “shadow fleet” vessel the MV Deyna, agreed in a Marseilles Court on Wednesday to pay an undisclosed fine for the release of the vessel.
The owner admitted that it had no evidence to support the vessel’s alleged Mozambique flag status.
Upon payment the vessel was released and is now reported to have left French waters.
Further to our earlier posts, a court in Paris had today handed down judgment in the long-running Lafarge prosecution.
The company has been convicted of breaches of the EU’s Syrian sanctions as well as terrorist financing and has been fined €1.125m as well as a separate fine of €4.57m for breach of sanctions.
Of the executives also being prosecuted:
– Bruno Pescheux (former director of the Syrian cement factory) received a 5-year jail term and was fined €225,000;
– Bruno Lafont (former Lafarge CEO) was sentenced to 6 years in jail and fined €225,000;
– Christian Herrault (former deputy Managing Director) was sentenced to five years in jail and fined €225,000;
– Frederic Jolibois (successor to Pescheux) was sentenced to three years in jail, two of which were suspended, and fined €80,000;
– Jacob Waerness was sentenced to 18 months in jail and fined €20,000 and a ban from entering France;
– Ahmad Al Jaloudi was sentenced to 2 years in jail and fined €20,000 and a ban from entering France;
– Amro Taleb, a Syrian intermediary, was sentenced to 3 years in jail and fined and fined €60,000 and a ban from entering France;
– Firas Tlass, tried in absentia, was convicted and sentenced to seven years in jail with a €225,000 fine and a ban from entering France.
It appears that a decision on the confiscation of the proceeds of crime in this case is awaited. The prosecution was seeking confiscation of €30m.
Some of the individual defendants have already indicated their intention to appeal.
On Friday 3 April, the Swedish Coast Guard boarded and seized control of the sanctioned “shadow fleet” tanker the Flora 1. The vessel is suspected of having caused a 12 km (8 mile) oil spill in the Baltic Sea near the island of Gotland.
The vessel was then anchored off Ystad.
The Coast Guard’s press release states that the vessel’s flag status is uncertain, and states that “this is the first time we have been able to trace a discharge to a vessel subject to sanctions, and which may be suspected of environmental crimes”.
We have updated our vessel seizure tracker.
The vessel has since been released, with the Coast Guard citing a lack of evidence linking the vessel to the oil spill, and that the Coast Guard had been able to confirm the flag status of the vessel.
Further to our earlier post relating to the trial of the captain of the Boracay, the shadow fleet vessel seized by France in October 2025.
The trial has concluded with the Chinese national captain, Chen Zhangjie, sentenced to a year’s jail and ordered to pay a fine of €150,000.
As the captain was tried in absentia, the French authorities have issued an arrest warrant for him.
The offence that was the basis of the conviction was for failing to stop the Boracay when ordered to do so.
