It has been reported that the Danish Business Authority is currently investigating the Danish shipping company Hafnia for possible breaches of the EU’s Russian sanctions.
The allegations relate to the importation in October of 30 million litres of aviation fuel from a refinery in India which may be owned or controlled by designated persons.
Hafnia is reported to have denied the allegations and stated that it acts in full compliance with all relevant laws and regulations.
Comments by a United Nations rapporteur have revealed an ongoing criminal investigation into imports of timber products from Belarus allegedly in breach of EU sanctions.
The case was referred to prosecutors by the German customs authorities and raids were conducted in March 2023, and further investigatory steps have taken place this month.
The individual charged is Alena Bekker and the importing company was Texforum-Interhandel e.K.
Both appear to deny the allegations in part on the basis that the imports were done in accordance with grand-fathering provisions when the Belarus timber ban was introduced.
The Latvian State Security Service has today announced multiple raids and inspections took place last week in relation to an ongoing criminal investigation into plywood imports into Latvia where counterfeit documents mask the Russian or Belarusian origin of the products in favour of false origins in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
The importation of many timber products is prohibited under the EU’s Russian sanctions.
The report notes that the criminal proceedings were commenced in November 2023.
It is unclear whether this investigation in Latvia is related to a similar investigation into plywood imports being undertaken in Lithuania. See our earlier post.
UPDATE: The Latvian VDD has now provided some further clarification of the location of the raids including the premises in Valmiera of the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Sanctions enforcement statistics for Switzerland’s SECO have been reported today. These are an update on those previously published in May last year.
SECO also stated that new cases are being added all the time, and that most relate to trade sanctions.
No information was published as to the level of the fines imposed (other than “varying severity”), or the identities of those fined or being investigated or prosecuted.
The Parquet de Paris (Paris Prosecutor’s Office) has seized a villa valued at €120 million in the south of France, and the shares of the company that is the registered owner of the villa.
The Paris Prosecutors allege that the villa is really owned or controlled by GazpromNeft, the Russian state-owned gas company which is designated in the EU and so subject to an asset freeze.
The seizure forms part of a ongoing investigation.
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”.
In a rare example of the enforcement of the travel ban imposed on designated persons, a court in Finland has convicted the Russian national Yan Petrovsky for travelling into Finland under an assumed alias, Voislav Torden, in 2022 and 2023.
Petrovsky was sentenced to 40 days in jail, and ordered to pay a fine of €80.
It has been reported today that Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) has referred two of its investigations into commodity trading companies to the Attorney General’s Office for criminal prosecution.
A third, allegedly similar, case is still being investigated and has not been referred.
It is reported that the allegations relate to the attempt to use of foreign subsidiaries to undertake trade in breach of the relevant Swiss sanctions against Russia.
On Friday France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office applied to the Paris court to have charges of terrorist financing, and breach of the relevant EU sanctions heard against Lafarge Holcim and nine individuals.
This criminal trial would go ahead before the trial of Lafarge on allegations of crimes against humanity after the Court of Cassation ruled last month that those charges should proceed.
For our earlier posts on the Lafarge matter see here.
The Latvian authorities have provided a further update to their enforcement efforts. As reported:
Of the convictions, all involved guilty pleas and all involved Latvian nationals. The highest penalty related to the export of a luxury car, and the fine was €170,000.
The conduct prosecuted included in relation to the sale of a professional footballer to a club owned by a company designated under Belarus sanctions, and the provision of content to the Russian Federal News Agency.
UPDATE: It has now (18 March 2024) been reported that the fine imposed in relation to providing economic resources to the Russian news agency in the form of employment services, was €15,500.
