Further to our earlier post relating to the trial of the captain of the Boracay, the shadow fleet vessel seized by France in October 2025.
The trial has concluded with the Chinese national captain, Chen Zhangjie, sentenced to a year’s jail and ordered to pay a fine of €150,000.
As the captain was tried in absentia, the French authorities have issued an arrest warrant for him.
The offence that was the basis of the conviction was for failing to stop the Boracay when ordered to do so.
The Latvia Prosecutor’s office has secured a conviction and 11-year jail term against an Azerbaijani national.
Three other defendants (including two Latvian nationals) are to be tried separately.
The man was convicted for his role in exporting dozens of Starlink Mini Kits to the Russian military, as well as “other goods used for military activities, including weapons parts, cartridge shells, bullets, ballistic weather meters, in total worth about 200, 000 euros”.
As well as sanctions offences the man was convicted of being part of an organised group to assist a foreign state in undermining the territorial integrity and independence of a democratic state.
In addition to the 11-year jail term, upon release he will be expelled from Latvia and be subject to a 5-year ban on re-entry.
This is the longest known sentence for breach of the EU’s Russian sanctions.
Further to our earlier post regarding his extradition from Italy to Estonia, it is now being reported that Ivan Anchevsky has been sentenced to 3 and a half years jail for prohibited exports of equipment to Russia.
The judgment remains subject to appeal.
The conviction relates to the shipping of equipment from Switzerland to Russia with assistance from Anchevsky and his companies Militec LLC and Militec Europe.
As part of the same trial Anchevsky was acquitted of charges of exporting dual use goods.
Further to our earlier post, it is being reported that the Estonian-Russian national prosecuted for attempting to export 10,000 rounds of ammunition to Russia hidden in a truck cab has been convicted.
He has been sentenced to 3 years in jail.
The verdict remains subject to appeal.
The UK’s HMRC has issued a press release announcing the conviction and sentencing of Steven Gates for unlicensed exports of eight military-grade rifle sights to a buyer in Hong Kong.
Customs declarations were also falsified to say the sights were camera equipment.
One export was prevented in February 2022 by Border Force staff at Manchester Airport, and another in April 2023.
Searches at his house revealed evidence of another 10 exports.
Mr Gates has been sentenced to jail for 2 years and one month.
Importantly, the press release notes that HMRC is “pursuing 51 criminal investigations in 2024/2025 compared with give in 2021/22”.
Further to our earlier post, it is being reported (here, here and here) that in September a court in Frankfurt convicted Alexander S. of exports of sanctioned goods to Russia.
He is reported to have been sentenced to 4 years and 11 months in jail. Both the defence and prosecution have appealed.
The conviction relates to exports of dual use maritime technology to Russia via a procurement network said to be run through the Cypriot company Mostrello.
This story is actually from September 2024, and was previously missed by this blog.
Three individuals were convicted of 430 separate violations of the German Foreign Trade Act by way of exports of nearly 500 luxury cars to Russia in breach of sanctions.
The individuals falsely declared the exports were for Belarus.
Two of the individuals were each sentenced to 6 years in jail, and the third to 4 years.
In addition €30m in the gross proceeds of the sales were confiscated.
The Tallin Circuit Court has denied an appeal from Svetlana Burtseva against a conviction for sanctions and treason offences.
As per our earlier post, Burtseva has been sentenced to 6 years in jail, of which 2 years were for the sanctions offence.
The sanctions offence was the making of economic resources available to a sanctioned person. Ms Burceva worked for Russian state media outlet RIA Rossiya Segodnya, the head of which is Dmitry Kiselyov who is sanctioned by the EU.
It has been reported (and here) that Ivan Dmitriev, an Estonian national has been convicted of a range of offences including breaches of sanctions and espionage on behalf of Russia’s FSB.
He was sentenced to four years and 11 months in jail.
The reports do not provide detail on the conduct constituting breaches of the EU’s Russian sanctions.
Last month we posted regarding the conviction of five individuals for Russian trade sanctions offences by the Hamburg Regional Court.
It is being reported that the sentences have now been handed down.
Of the five individuals, one was given a custodial sentence of four and a half years, and two others were given custodial sentences of three years.
The final two defendants were given suspended sentences.
The offending concerned the shipment of electronic components valued at over EUR850,000 to Russia via third countries such as Hong Kong, China, Armenia and the UAE.
