Estonia – bank to contest FIU’s €300,000 fine for breaching sanctions

LHV Pank in Estonia has today issued a press release to say that it intends to challenge a fine of €300,000 imposed on it by the FIU for breaching EU sanctions.

According to the press release the fines were imposed in relation to three incidents (two in 2022 and one in 2023) where the bank is accused of insufficiently rigorous due diligence and of permitting a transaction in breach of sanctions.

The press release does not state which sanctions regime the conduct relates to.

The bank says it takes regulatory compliance seriously and will challenge the fine in court.

Germany – trial starts of three individuals accused of drone exports to Russia

Further to our earlier post about the laying of charges against three individuals accused of exporting drones and drone parts to Russia in breach of the EU’s sanctions, the criminal trial of these individuals started on Friday.

The three are, between them, accused of 54 counts of breaching sanctions.

The conduct is alleged to have included exports to front companies in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Hong Kong, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, and of deceiving component suppliers based in the US by saying that Germany was to be the final destination of the products.

The enforcement of sanctions circumvention in Europe

Sanctions circumvention. It is one of the key topics of the moment.

It is a routine question for people to ask which countries provide a circumvention risk. It is also a common perception that enforcement of sanctions circumvention is lacking.

Based on the material in this blog we have listed out below the more than 40 examples where of recent enforcement of sanctions circumvention on a third-country by third-country basis. Where a particular case involved circumvention via several countries they are listed separately.

Continue reading “The enforcement of sanctions circumvention in Europe”

Lithuania – investigation commenced into alleged exports to Belarus via Kazakhstan

Following prominent reporting in Lithuania (e.g. here), the Lithuanian Customs Department has confirmed that it has commenced an investigation into the alleged activities of the company UAB Vilpra.

It is alleged that the company exported nearly €1m in air conditioning units to Belarus via Kyrgyzstan in breach of the EU’s sanctions.

The company is reported to deny the allegations and to have stated that it complies with all sanctions.

 

Malta – first published fine imposed by Sanctions Monitoring Board

Malta’s Sanctions Monitoring Board (the “SMB”) has, for the first time , imposed a fine for breach of EU sanctions.

The company in question was ArabMillionaire Limited. The SMB publishes the names of all company’s fined more than €800, but the size of the fine is otherwise unspecified.

Also unspecified is the conduct giving rise to the fine, but it was said to have been identified “at the time of supervisory examination conducted between June and August 2020”.

It is unclear when the fine was issued as this information is not specified on the website and the Sanctions Monitoring Board has confirmed that such information is confidential.

ArabMillionaire operated as an online casino (trading as Playfooz.com) based in Dubai. It’s licence from the Malta Gaming Authority was suspended in October 2022, and then cancelled in October 2023.

It has been reported that alongside other regulatory failings part of the reason for these actions by the Malta Gaming Authority was non-compliance with money laundering and counter terrorist financing.

United Kingdom – HMRC issues £2.3m in compound penalties for sanctions and export controls breaches

His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, the body empowered to enforce export controls and trade sanctions in the UK, has today published two Notices to Exporters setting out compound penalties  in relation to Russian sanctions and export control violations.

The first Notice, in relation to an unnamed company,  relates to a penalty of £1,058,781.79 imposed for breaches of the UK’s Russian sanctions regulation.

No information is given as to the nature of the conduct, the value of the goods, or why a criminal prosecution was not brought. There is no mention of a confiscation of the proceeds of crime.

The second Notice relates to export control violations that are not described as breaches of the UK’s sanction. Again no information is given as to the names of the companies, the nature of the violations, or an indication given as to the confiscation of the proceeds of crime.

To quote the Notice:

The 6 settlements made by UK companies were:

    • January 2024 – £12,700.00 was paid for a breach of licence conditions in relation to the export of military goods
    • February 2024 – £33,822.64 was paid relating to the unlicensed exports of military goods controlled by The Export Control Order 2008
    • February 2024 – £971,726.00 was paid relating to the unlicensed exports of military goods controlled by The Export Control Order 2008
    • February 2024 – £139,841.85 was paid relating to the unlicensed exports of military goods controlled by The Export Control Order 2008 and dual use goods controlled by Retained Regulation 428/2009
    • March 2024 – £92,817.40 was paid relating to the unlicensed exports of military goods controlled by The Export Control Order 2008
    • March 2024 – £56,915.27 was paid relating to the unlicensed exports of military goods controlled by The Export Control Order 2008“.

Germany – investigation by Berlin prosecutor into “Russian House”

It is being reported today that the Berlin public prosecutor’s office is investigating whether the operations of the “Russian House” in Berlin are in breach of the EU’s Russian sanctions.

The “Russian House” is a scientific and cultural centre that was founded in the 1980s. It is being reported that the Zentralstelle für Sanktionsdurchsetzung (Central Office for Sanctions Enforcement) has concluded that is a “dependent branch” of the government body Rossotrudnichestvo, which has been designated in the EU since July 2022.

Luxembourg – CSSF imposes €785,000 fine for sanctions compliance failings

The Luxembourg financial services regulator, the CSSF, has today published a report of an administrative penalty imposed on Fuchs & Associés Finance SA.

The fine was €785,000.

Some of the compliance failings relate to AML and KYC more generally, and some were specific to sanctions. The sanctions-specific failings were:

      • “name screening controls aiming at detecting persons subject to prohibitions and restrictive measures in financial matters had not been carried out for all clients of the trading desk, as their names were not
        included in the databases used to feed the name screening systems”;
      • “the name screening tools were updated only once a week, and
        no additional controls were in place, particularly when new European and United Nations lists are issued”; and
      • “the absence of a complete and exhaustive client database”.

Germany – charges laid in relation to exports to China

The German Federal Prosecutor’s office issued a press release earlier today in relation to the charging of three individuals for alleged export control violations.

The three charged are German nationals named as Herwig F., Ina F. and Thomas R.

It is alleged that the three were working for or on behalf of a Chinese intelligence agency and that they worked to procure information in relation to technology with military application, including ship engines.

The defendants are also charged with the unlicensed export of a laser to china in breach of the EU’s Dual-Use Regulation.

 

© 2009- Duane Morris LLP. Duane Morris is a registered service mark of Duane Morris LLP.

The opinions expressed on this blog are those of the author and are not to be construed as legal advice.

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