The travel company Tui has confirmed that the German authorities are investigating the circumstances behind the alleged transfer of a 34% stake in the company from Alexi Mordashov, now a designated person under the EU’s Russian sanctions, to his wife.
The allegation is that the transfer would be a breach of the asset freeze imposed upon Mordashov.
The German Ministry of Economy has launched an investigation into whether engineering company Bosch has made unlawful exports to Russian in breach of EU sanctions.
It has been reported that the Romanian Tax Office (ANAF) has confirmed that it has a number of ongoing investigations into possible breaches of the EU’s Russian sanctions.
No further details were reported.
The French authorities have seized the cargo ship, Baltic Leader, claimed to be owned by sanctioned Russian bank Promsvyazbank.
The vessel was headed to Russian but seized in the channel.
Further to our earlier post, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office has issued a press release confirming the indictment of Alexander S. on further charges relating to the export of dual-use goods to Russia in breach of EU sanctions.
The value of the exports is estimated at over €1 million.
The press release documents warning issued to Alexander S by the German authorities and his efforts to circumvent the prohibitions through falsifying documents and arranging for export from an Asian country.
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.
The Court of Appeal in the Hague has upheld the conviction of an individual on charges of breaching the EU sanctions against terrorist organisations.
Amongst other charges the individual was charged with making a financial transfer through intermediaries in Turkey and/or Syria to ISIS.
The man was sentenced to 9 months, of which 3 was conditional.
The UK’s HM Revenue and Customs has today announced the imposition of 10 compound penalties in relation to failures to comply with the UK’s export control regulations for dual-use and military goods. The fines were imposed between March and November 2021.
HMRC’s Notice to Exporters can be found here.
In line with HMRC’s standard practice the compound penalties are anonymised and of low value, with little information made available. The information provided is supplied below.
Continue reading “UK’s HMRC imposes 10 fines for export control violations”
It is being reported today that the Hamburg Public Prosecutor’s Office is currently investigating five individuals in relation to the export from Germany to Crimea of gas turbines manufactured by Siemens.
The broader investigation into the export of these turbines has been ongoing since 2018. See our earlier post.
Four of the individuals being investigated are German nationals, three of whom worked for Siemens in Russia, and the fifth is a Swiss national.
Two Danish companies have been convicted of exporting 177,000 tonnes of jet fuel to Syria in breach of the EU’s sanctions.
In total some 33 transactions took place between 2015 and 2017, with the exports routed through Russian companies bound for Syria.
The company Dan-Bunkering was fined DKK 30 million ($4.6m), with a further DKK 15 million of unlawful profits confiscated.
The parent company Bunker Holding was fined DKK 4 million.
The Dan Bunkering CEO was also convicted and given a four-month custodial sentence , suspended pending a one year probation period.
