The Public Prosecutor in Munich has today announced the prosecution of four unnamed individuals in relation to the unlicensed exports of surveillance software to Turkey.
The alleged exporting company is the FinFisher Group. It is alleged that export documents were falsified to mask the destination of the goods.
The investigation has included cooperation with Sweden, Cyprus, Malaysia, Bulgaria and Romania.
It has been reported today that the Greek authorities have arrested a Bulgarian national for the purposes of extraditing them to the US on suspicion of breaching US sanctions against Russia.
The exports are said to have been of microchips and one tranche alone to have been valued at $1.7 million.
The name of the individual and the company he traded through have not been released.
Latvia’s Intelligence Services (the VDD) have arrested a Latvian national, reported as Marat Kasem.
The alleged offence is the provision of “economic resources” to a designated person, or an asset owned or controlled by such a person.
The designated person is Dmitry Kiselev, who is the Director General of Rossiya Segodnya which in turn owns a number of broadcast channels including Sputnik and Baltnews.
Mr Kasem is alleged to have provided the “economic resources” by way of being employed by these channels in Lithuania.
It was reported today that the Paris Court has dropped charges against Nexa Technologies, and four of its management, in relation to the sales of surveillance equipment to Egypt.
We had earlier reported on the commencement of the investigation.
Further to our earlier post, a former university professor in Norway has been convicted of breaching Norway’s Iran sanctions.
The man has been sentenced to 8 months in jail.
The conviction relates to sharing technology without a licence with Iranians.
The Dutch authorities have announced the arrest of a 55-year old on suspicion of exporting dual-use microchips to Russia in breach of the EU’s sanctions.
Searches were carried out at a number of premises.
The man is alleged to have falsified the end-user information for the exports.
The Estonian Internal Security Service has arrested two individuals, Elena Cherysheva and Mati-Dmitri Terestal, on suspicion of making “economic resources” available to a designated person.
The allegations relate to the sanctioned media outlet, Sputnik. The economic resources are reported to amount to €350,000 in value.
Following raids in Riga and Tallinn by the Latvian Security Police, in close cooperation with the Estonian Internal Security Service (ISS), it was reported today that two individuals have been fined by the Latvian courts for breaching the EU’s Russian sanctions.
The breaches involved making funds available, through contracts involving broadcasting, to a designated person. The individuals (Oleg Solodov and Margus Merima) were each fined €25,000, and a further €3 million was confiscated.
It has been reported today that the Norwegian authorities have charged a German-Iranian national on suspicion of breaching UN sanctions (as implemented in Norway) against Iran.
The person is a professor at a technical university and is alleged to have invited four Iranian scientists to visit a laboratory in breach of Norway’s, and then permitted them access to technical data in breach of sanctions, export control laws, and data breach legislation.
The Latvian security service, the VDD, and the Estonian Internal Security Service, have conducted joint raids in the two countries as part of ongoing criminal investigations.
The raids were on the premises of companies in Riga and Tallinn owned or controlled by designated persons under the EU sanctions.
It is reported that one of the companies raided was Baltic Media Alliance.
