In an earlier post we reported on the ongoing trial of the captain of the ship the “Baltic Leader”, who was being prosecuted in Rouen for alleged breaches of the EU’s Russian sanctions. French prosecutors were seeking a combined fine and confiscation of €16 million.
It is now being reported that yesterday the captain was acquitted of all charges.
Currently no further details are available.
The BBC is reporting the results of a Freedom of Information Act request it has made to OFSI.
The response itself is not currently on the website of either OFSI or HM Treasury.
The BBC is reporting the following statistics:
As per our earlier post, in an earlier Freedom of Information response OFSI confirmed that as of April 2024 it had started 12 investigations of which 9 had been discontinued without action taken.
As such 40 new oil price cap investigations have been started since April 2024.
Since April six investigations have been concluded.
It is being reported that the University of Tampere in Finland has asked the police to investigate a suspected breach of sanctions “at the institution”.
The suspicions relates to potential breach of sanctions as well as export controls on dual-use goods. The particular sanctions regime involved is not specified in the material that is public.
Little other information is available including whether the suspicions relate to staff or students.
It is being reported (here and here) that the German authorities have conducted raids on business and residential premises in the town of Königswinter in relation to a criminal investigation into the alleged exports of luxury cars to Russia shipped through third countries.
The raids are said to have taken place in late September and a criminal case has been opened. Cars, cash and evidence were all seized as part of the raids.
The sales are alleged to have totalled more than €4 million.
Further to our post of yesterday about an individual sentenced to 32 months for exporting aircraft parts to Russia in breach of EU sanctions, the Rotterdam District court has released a second judgment for the conviction of the company involved.
The company has been sentenced to pay a fine of €165,826. The prosecutor was seeking a fine of all the funds in the company’s bank accounts at the time it was raided, but it is unclear from the judgment whether the fine is that sum.
The company is not named in the judgment.
On 3 October 2024, the District Court in Rotterdam sentenced an individual to 32 months in jail, as well as confiscation of $8,000 and €250,000 in cash, as well as the forfeiture of all the stock-in-trade and business bank accounts.
The individuals had exported over 460 prohibited aircraft parts to three different Russian airlines: i) Ural Airlines; ii) S7 Engineering LLC; and iii) JSC Siberia Airlines.
The defendant had created a paper trail to mask the destination of the exports which purported to show exports to Serbia, Turkey and Tajikistan. Internal documents, however, linked the exports to the Russian customers.
Messages on seized phones included: “We’re going to keep loading until we’re arrested”.
The Dutch Prosecution Service has issued a press release stating that they are seeking a sentence for a 42-year old individual consisting of:
i) a 24 month custodial sentence of which 10 months is suspended;
ii) confiscation of all the proceeds of crime obtained from the breaches of sanctions; and
iii) forfeiture of the company’s stock.
As per our earlier posts the man was arrested in July 2023, for exports of electronic components and other dual use goods to Russia via Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The man is also alleged to have falsified records to mask the true destination of the exports.
In May this year the man had won a court hearing allowing his company to keep trading pending trial.
Details of confiscations conducted by Estonia’s Customs office have been reported including the confiscation of goods being exported to Russia at border crossings in breach of EU sanctions. The confiscations include €3,275,295 in cash, electronics parts and equipment, a Starlink antenna, drones, night vision goggles, firearms and ammunition, as well as consumer goods such as jewelry, wine, and diving equipment.
It is also being reported that some of the confiscations are now the subject of ongoing investigations.
It is being reported, based on Freedom of Information requests made to Norway’s custom office by the Barents Observer, that 23 confiscations of luxury and other goods being exported to Russia have taken place since 2023.
One of the confiscations was at an unspecified port, and the other 22 were at the land crossing at Storskog, with 10 during 2023 and 12 so far in 2024.
The reporting makes no mention of other enforcement actions taken after the confiscation.
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has today fined Starling Bank £28,959,426 for sanctions compliance failings.
The Final Notice states that the bank became aware in January 2023 that its screening was being done against a small sub-set of the Consolidated List of sanctions targets.
The FCA described the compliance program at Starling as “shockingly lax”.
The FCA also noted that the fine would have been £40,959,426 without Starling’s agreement to resolve the matter.
