It is being reported that Latvia’s State Security Service has referred four individuals for prosecution for alleged exports of satellite communications equipment for the Russian military in breach of EU sanctions and other Latvian laws.
The investigation is ongoing and it is reported that other individuals are suspected of being involved.
The goods exported were Starlink Mini satellite communication systems.
The Dutch FIOD has issued a press release stating that a 57-year old man has been arrested and that the individual and a company are suspected of exporting US$24 million in computer motherboards and graphics cards to Russian customers in breach of the EU’s sanctions against Russia.
Residential and commercial premises were raided, and bank accounts seized.
The exports are alleged to have been done through Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and Cyprus
Lithuania’s State Security Department has issued a press release detailing raids and arrests carried out on 14 January of this year involving ten suspects.
The investigation was said to have been a collaborative effort also involving Estonia and Latvia.
The principal suspect is a Russian national who is alleged to have orchestrated the supply of high-tech equipment manufactured in Lithuania to Russian customers related to the Russian defence and security industry. He remains in custody. The other suspects have been released subject to conditions.
A pre-trial investigation has been commenced by the Vilnius Regional Prosecutor’s Office in relation to the suspects.
It is being reported that a Russian national, who was formerly an employee of chip manufacturer ASML, and of Mapper Lithography, is being prosecuted for both breach of EU sanctions and for theft of trade secrets.
The man is currently in custody. As part of the prosecution the individual has been banned from travel to the Netherlands for 20 years.
The man is alleged to have stolen documents, such as microchip manuals and passed those to Russian recipients to aid microchip production.
It is being reported that the Kurzeme District Court has sentenced the Latvian citizen Valentins Rozencovs, to 2 years in jail.
The sentence was that sought by the prosecution, although the case is subject to appeal.
Rozencovs was the editor-in-chief of Sputnik Latvija which is the Latvian branch of Sputnik which operates under the umbrella of a Russian state-owned media company Rossiya Segodnya.
The Director General of Rossiya Segodnya is a designated person (Dmitry Kiselyov), and the prosecution was based on the premise that the provision of services by Valentins Rozencovs was making economic resources available to a designated person, and that Sputnik Latvija was “owned or controlled” by Kiselyov.
This is the latest in a series of prosecutions relating to Rossiya Segodnya – see our earlier posts, here and here.
The Rotterdam District Court has issued two judgments relating to the conviction and sentencing of an individual for exporting computer goods and software destined for Russian companies via intermediaries in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
According to the judgment convicting the individual, the man had been selling computer equipment to two Russian companies prior to 2022. After the goods in questions became sanctioned, a fact he was made aware of by his customs agent, the man directed the exports to affiliates of his Russian customers in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. All the communications, however, remained with the Russian companies.
In an attempt to cover his tracks the man forged a contract between his company and the central Asian entities and provided this in response to questions from his bank.
The court convicted him of the charges, including forgery, holding that the EU Regulations did not require proof that the goods were actually delivered to Russia.
The exports in question were of thousands of items which were either dual-use or luxury goods and were predominantly computer equipment and software.
At sentencing the court made a number of comments:
The man was given a custodial sentence equivalent to the length of his time served in pre-trial detention (450 days), a suspended sentence of just over 11 months, suspended for two years, and a community service order of 240 hours.
Goods which had been seized during the investigation were returned to him.
The second judgment related to confiscation of the proceeds of crime from the man.
The court calculated that the gross proceeds of the crimes were €1,924,579, from which the court deducted €1,626,269 in what it described as “deductible costs”, leaving a final figure for confiscation of €298,310 which the court considered to be the company’s “profit”. This was the amount the man was ordered to pay by way of confiscation order.
The judgment does not record the Court (or the prosecution) giving consideration to the recent CJEU judgment which upheld a confiscation of the gross proceeds of crime.
It is being reported that a 55-year old man has been arrested in Germany on suspicion of violating the Foreign Trade Act and EU sanctions against Russia.
Six properties were raided and searched in Nuremberg, Frankfurt am Main, Gross-Umstadt and at Frankfurt-Hahn Airport by the Essen Customs and the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The man, who is a German and Russian national, is alleged to have procured and exported to Russia satellite antennas and sonars for deep-sea use through a company in Germany.
The press release from Essen Customs is here.
Finnish Customs has given an update on trade sanctions enforcement in Finland. The press release confirms that there are more than 800 such investigations being undertaken by Finnish Customs of which around 90 are being investigated as aggravated offences.
Oddly, a press report, published on the same day, reported that Finnish Customs had more than 740 ongoing investigations. The figure of 740 had been reported back in April, as per our earlier post, itself an increase on the figure of 700 investigations reported in February.
The press release from Finnish Customs also gave detail of a particular investigation into a customs warehouse company in eastern Finland suspected of exporting drones, processors, smartphones, computers and echo sounders to Russia.
The goods arrived in Finland as air freight at Helsinki Airport, after which they were attempted to be exported via the company’s intermediate storage in Virolahti by road to Russia.
The value of the sanctioned goods was about €700 000 and are said to have mostly been ordered from online stores in the US with the consignee in Russia as the Russian postal service.
To date seven people have been questioned as part of the investigation.
The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York has issued a press release, providing details of the arrest in Cyprus of Arthur Petrov a Russian-German national in August 2023 for the purposes of extradition to face charges in the US of breaching US sanctions against Russia.
Petrov only arrived in New York in August 2024 suggesting prolonged extradition proceedings in Cyprus.
Petrov operated the Cypriot company Astrafteros Technokosmos LTD, via which he procured US-origin microelectronics for onward sale, ultimately, to the Russian military through the company LLC Electrocom VPK.
Two other co-defendants remain at large.
It is being reported that a number of government ministers in Luxembourg have filed a criminal complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The complaint was filed against Spacety Luxembourg SA, the Luxembourg subsidiary of the Chinese company Spacety. The parent company has been sanctioned by the EU for providing support to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The Luxembourg company has now filed for bankruptcy and the progress of the criminal matter is not known.
