It is being reported that on Friday three Russian nationals, aged 25, 25 and 18, were arrested in Finland on suspicion of the export of dual-use goods to Russia in breach of the EU’s sanctions.
The goods are reported to be electronic components such as sensors and lasers.
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.
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:
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.
Following press reporting into allegations that the Viciūnai Group of companies were exporting sanctioned goods to Russia, it is now being reported that the Lithuanian Customs Department has commenced a pre-trial investigation.
The allegations include that dual use and “battlefield” goods were being exported to a factory in Kaliningrad operated by a related company.
It is reported that the company has confirmed the fact of the exports, but claims that it was not aware that the goods in question (which includes ball bearings, semi-conductors, electrical components and other goods) were subject to sanctions.
This blog has been live now for just over two months.
During that time and by way of recap, a number of states have provided updated enforcement statistics in that period (Finland, Switzerland, Latvia), but the period has also seen a significant volume of new enforcement activity:
Continue reading “European sanctions enforcement: the last two months”
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Germany has charged two individuals (named as Waldemar W. and Natalie S.) with the export of electronic drone components to Russian in breach of EU sanctions.
The components were first imported into Germany and then exported via Kyrgyzstan and Hong-Kong. The charges relates to 54 separate shipments up to March 2023. The shipments date from both before and since the large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The total value of the components is stated as €875,000.
Waldemar W was the managing director of two involved companies incorporated in Saarland wand Natalie S managed a company in Baden-Württemberg. It is alleged that suppliers were provided with false end-user information which purported to confirm that the goods were to remain in Germany.
Waldemar W. has been in custody since 9 March 2023. Natalie S. was in custody previously but was subsequently released.
The Dutch FIOD has today announced three arrests as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into suspected exports in circumvention of the EU’s trade sanctions against Russia.
The individuals are two men from Diemen and a woman from The Hague. The men were both directors of a company founded in 2017, and the arrested woman was an employee.
UPDATE: it is now being reported that the Dutch company involved is ETW-Tekhnologiya and that the company’s founder, Mikhail Volovik, is being sought but has not yet been arrested
The goods are described as technological and laboratory goods capable of military use – i.e. dual-use goods.
Searches and witness interviews have taken place in the Netherlands, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania and Canada.
An Advocate-General’s opinion in Case C-351/22 before the Court of Justice has revealed details of a not-previously publicised enforcement action from 2020 in Romania, by which the company Neves 77 Solutions SRL was administratively fined approximately €6,000 and had gross profits of €2.9 million confiscated.
The company had brokered a transaction whereby radio sets manufactured in Russia were sold by a Ukrainian company to an Indian company.
The question which came to be addressed by the Advocate-General was whether the confiscation of gross profits was compatible with fundamental principles of European law including whether it was a proportionate abrogation of the right to property. The Advocate-General’s opinion is that such confiscations are not a breach of European law.
It has been reported today that the Dutch authorities, after a tip-off from unnamed US “agencies” have conducted searches at homes and business addresses in Sluis and Rotterdam.
Related search and arrests took place in the Belgium (see our related post) at the same time, and in total across both countries six have been arrested.
The allegations relate to the export of products and technology to Russia.
