The Prudential Control and Resolution Authority has announced a reprimand and a fine of €600,000 on the firm Mutuelle de Poitiers for failures in its internal compliance program in relation to sanctions.
The failures related not only to delays in detecting designated persons, but in reporting to the ACPR.
The Italian Financial Intelligence Unit is investigating cash withdrawals of €4.3m by staff of the Russian embassy in Rome, including withdrawals of over €100,000.
One line of inquiry is that the withdrawals are part of a sanctions evasion scheme.
A law firm which self-reported itself to the legal regulator in relation to three real estate transactions has been fined £101,357 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
The transactions did not actually involve sanctioned persons or entities, but screening had not been conducted at the time of the transactions and subsequently a possible link between one of the transactions and a designated person was identified.
Further to our earlier post about the German authorities investigating a share transfer suspected to have been carried out in breach of an asset freeze imposed on Alexei Mordashov, the Cypriot authorities have confirmed that, following a report from the German authorities, they have commenced their own investigation.
It has been reported that the French authorities have arrested a prominent Russian oligarch on suspicion of various offences including sanctions offences.
Searches were conducted in Paris and in the south of France.
It has been reported today that the German authorities in Bavaria have conducted raids on multiple properties belonging to a designated person.
While the German authorities have not stated the identity of the designated person, press reporting has stated the person is Alisher Usmanov.
It has been reported today that the FCA is currently investigating Revolut for permitting transactions valued at £1.7 million in breach of the UK’s sanctions between July and August this year.
Revolut has stated in response that it reported the transactions to the FCA and that the value is £500,000.
As part of the ongoing reporting of an investigation into the sale of a tugboat from Finland to Russia in breach of EU sanctions, it was reported today that the Finnish authorities are have been undertaking over 600 investigations into potential sanctions breaches since February 2022.
Sixty of these are said to be “aggravated” indicating that they are of a more serious, or high value, nature.
The Dutch have announced that the Public Prosecution Service is currently undertaking 55 criminal investigations into suspected breaches of Russian and Belarusian sanctions.
Little information on the breaches is available, but the authorities have stated that roughly two thirds relate to breaches of trade sanctions, and one third to financial sanctions.
As of December the number was at 27, meaning 28 have been added during 2023 to date.
In response to questions about Russian sanctions enforcement the Latvian authorities have confirmed that they have 14 ongoing criminal prosecutions of which three relate to exports, including circumvention of sanctions by routing exports through China and central Asia, and the others to breaches of financial sanctions.
The Latvian authorities also stated they received 281 suspicious activity reports during 2022 in relation to Russian sanctions, and had received 309 so far in 2023.
