Latvia – man arrested on suspicion of providing economic resources to designated person

Latvia’s Intelligence Services (the VDD) have arrested a Latvian national, reported as Marat Kasem.

The alleged offence is the provision of “economic resources” to a designated person, or an asset owned or controlled by such a person.

The designated person is Dmitry Kiselev, who is the Director General of Rossiya Segodnya which in turn owns a number of broadcast channels including Sputnik and Baltnews.

Mr Kasem is alleged to have provided the “economic resources” by way of being employed by these channels in Lithuania.

Luxembourg – CSSF fines bank €1.56 million for sanctions and AML compliance failings

The Luxembourg financial services regulator, the CSSF, has announced today the imposition of a fine of €1.56 million on Banque Degroof Petercam Luxembourg SA.

The fine followed an inspection which started in September 2019, and relates to compliance failings in the context of AML and terrorist financing, and a failure to adequately screen clients for inclusion on EU sanctions lists.

The CSSF noted that remedial steps have been taken by the bank since the inspection of 2019/2020.

UK – National Crime Agency claims 100 “disruptions”

The National Crime Agency has today claimed to have undertaken 100 “disruptions” since the uptick in Russian sanctions following the large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The NCA stated:

“To date, the NCA has secured nearly 100 disruptions – actions that demonstrably remove or reduce a criminal threat – against Putin-linked elites and their enablers.

These include a number of Account Freezing Orders (AFOs) over accounts held by individuals who are closely linked to sanctioned Russians. The Cell has also investigated and taken discreet action against a significant number of elites who impact directly on the UK, as well as targeting less conventional routes used to disguise movements of significant wealth, such as high value asset sales via auction houses.

Internationally, the NCA’s work has assisted in the freezing of numerous properties, eight yachts and four aircraft, and it continues to work in concert with the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation  to ensure that other assets in the UK are frozen, as well as with global partners to target illicit wealth held abroad”.

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

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