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.
It is being reported that the Tartu Country Court yesterday convicted Erna Moisejeva of a range of offences including the multiple attempted exports of luxury goods to Russia n breach of the EU’s sanctions.
She was also convicted of espionage and supplying information to the FSB.
Moisejeva was sentenced to 3 years’ jail and ordered to pay court costs of €3140.
The judgment remains subject to appeal.
Estonia’s Office of the Prosecutor has issued a press release regarding an agreed settlement with Pavel Kapustin convicting him of sanctions offences as well as espionage and supplying false information.
The man was sentenced to 6.5 years’ jail and assets valued at €90,000 were confiscated. The press release does not break down the sentence by offence.
The man took orders for luxury goods from Russian customers and arranged for their transport to Russia in breach of the EU’s sanctions.
This is the sixth custodial sentence handed down in Estonia for sanctions offences so far this year.
As first reported in Global Sanctions, and as per a press release by German Customs, the Marburg Regional Court on 8 July has sentenced an individual to 5 years in jail for exporting luxury cars to Russian breach of the EU’s sanctions.
The man was convicted of 71 separate counts.
The court also confiscated approximately €5m as the gross proceeds of the cars sales.
The Dutch courts have published two sanctions judgments.
In the first case, the District court of Rotterdam has sentenced an individual to three years in jail.
The individual was convicted for providing technical assistance to a person in Russia or for use in Russia of different computer files containing information on the manufacture of microchips. The files were shares by Google Drive and Telegram between January 2023 and August 2024.
The defendant was acquitted of charges of physically taking similar files to Russia on USB sticks.
On sentencing the judgment stated:
“Providing advice to and sharing technology with Russia is extremely serious. It can contribute to strengthening military or strategic capabilities of that country, which has an impact on Ukraine and can indirectly affect international security and stability. It is therefore a serious offence. … The nature and seriousness of the facts justify a prison sentence of considerable duration. The fact that the files would contain outdated information is irrelevant because this information can be of great value to a country with a (much) lower level of knowledge. It must be prevented that a country at war can benefit in any way from advanced technological knowledge. After all, for that reason, an extensive package of sanctions has also been agreed against Russia, among others“.
In the second case, the District Court of Amsterdam has issued an order confiscating €1,013,956.00.
The unnamed corporate defendant had been provided goods and services in relation to the construction of the Kirch Bridge, and had been convicted on 28 November 2024 (our previous post here), with a fine of €120,000 imposed.
The court calculated that the gross revenue obtained in breach of sanctions was €2,711,085, but allowed certain costs including internal time incurred and the cost of insurance resulting in a final confiscation of €1,013,956.
The effect of this is that revenue of nearly €1.7m obtained in breach of the EU’s sanctions was retained by the convicted company.
Further to our earlier post, it has been reported that journalist Svetlana Burtseva has been convicted of breaches of the EU’s sanctions.
The offence was committed by making “economic resources” available to a designated person. The designated person was the sanctioned media outlet Rossiya Segodnya.
The “economic resources” were articles and photos written and taken by the journalist.
Ms Burtseva was sentenced to 2 years in jail for this offence.
Separately the same journalist was also convicted of treason and given a 4-year sentence for the treason offence.
