It is being reported that Latvia’s State Security Service conducted a number of raids, and arrested an individual suspected of breaching the EU’s sanctions against Russia.
It is being reported that the individual is Viktors Guščins, who is alleged to have provided an economic resource to a designated person in the form of publications and propaganda material.
After a six-week trial, verdict in the Lafarge prosecution is now expected on 13 April 2026.
The Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office is seeking a fine of €1.125 million, as well as a fine of €4.57 million that is directly related to the alleged breaches of EU sanctions.
The prosecution is also seeking lengthy jail terms for the eight individual defendants of between 18 months and 8 years, including 6 years for the former CEO, as well as a €225,000 fine and a 10-year ban on serving in any management position in a company.
It is being reported in an article published in trans.info that the German authorities currently have approximately 6000 criminal proceedings for sanctions offences that are ongoing.
This number is said to be specific to the EU’s Russian and Belarusian sanctions regimes.
No further information is provided on the status of the cases.
The UK’s Gambling Commission has fined Done Brothers (Cash Betting) Limited, trading as Betfred £825,000.
While much of the fine relates to player welfare and AML issues, it is being reported that part of the fine relates to the lack of an “effective policy for identifying and handling customers who might be subject to financial sanctions”.
This is not the first fine by the Gambling Commission related to sanctions compliance, as two other operators were fined in April 2024.
Finland’s Financial Supervisory Authority has published the results of an “audit” on Nordea Bank in relation to the bank’s compliance with the asset freeze and export prohibition aspects of the EU’s Russian sanctions.
The result of the audit was a finding of a “very significant lack of information obtained and retained by the bank”, with a lack of updating on the information that was obtained. In addition, “shortcomings of great significance” were found in relation to customer due diligence, and a lack of adequate assessment of the risk of sanctions circumvention including payments that involved “a high risk country from the perspective of sanctions evasion”.
The announcement from the FIN-FSA does not indicate whether any further regulatory action will be taken.
My thanks to Louis Vargas of the Network for Financial Crime Prevention for informing on this published audit.
It is being reported that the Gardaí have conducted multiple cash seizures targetting a criminal network used for laundering money and sanctions circumvention.
The seizures value €1.36m and took place in multiple operations in Dublin and Leitrim in April and October this year.
It is alleged that the network “cleaned” the proceeds from ilegal activity and turned it into crypto currency. It is also alleged that the network provided sanctions circumvention services to the Russian state.
The Irish seizures were part of the broader Operation Destabilise which involved the UK’s National Crime Agency (see our post).
The National Crime Agency has issued a press release relating to Operation Stabilise, which is targetted a criminal money laundering network that was also used to aid the circumvention of sanctions by Russia.
The NCA states that 45 money launderers have been arrested in the UK, and £25m seized in the UK, with international partners seizing $24m and €2.6m and arresting another 83 people.
The NCA notes the alleged involvement of networks called Smart and TGR and that a company linked to TGR’s head had purchased a 75% stake in a previously state-owned Kyrgyzstan bank – Keremet Bank – which was then used as part of the evasion/circumvention network.
The NCA reports a number of convictions for money laundering offences of individuals involved in the networks, and that the head of the Smart network is currently in custody in France.
The operation involved cooperation with the DEA, and FBI in the US, the Direction Centrale de la Police Judiciaire in France, the Jersey Police, Scottish Police, Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation, the Dutch National Police and Spanish law enforcement.
The Swedish Police have issued a report on sanctions compliance in the country, concluding that trade flows to countries neighbouring Russia suggests Swedish involvement in the circumvention of the EU’s sanctions.
In relation to the work of Swedish customs, the report noted that in 2023 more than 200 export shipments were stopped, and that 3,000 export declarations in 2024 were “subject to special review measures”.
The press release to the report notes that “a handful of preliminary investigations [are] underway regarding sanctions violations at the Police Authority and at Swedish Customs”.
The report also highlights an earlier 2024 report by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority on the outcome of its review of the sanctions screening processes and methodologies of 19 banks operating in Sweden. The report noted that none of the banks assessed had good enough automatic screening in place, but that the larger banks were better at screening than the small and medium sized banks.
The Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland has issued a €540,000 fine to online retailer Verkkokauppa.com for failings under the Anti-Money Laundering Act. As one of the compliance requirements under the act is compliance with EU and UN sanctions, some of the compliance failings identified included a lack of sanctions screening for customers, including high risk customers seeking to pay cash.
The full Decision is here.
My thanks to Aleksi Pursiainen for mentioning this case on the most recent monthly sanctions webinar hosted by the Network for Financial Crime Prevention.
Recent reporting on a Swiss judgment has thrown light on an ongoing criminal prosecution for alleged sanctions breaches being undertaken in Czechia.
The investigation resulted in the commencement of a criminal prosecution in August 2023 against Dmitry Kalantyrsky who is alleged to have dealt with a designated person’s frozen assets in 2015.
In October 2024 it was reported that the Czech Constitutional Court had dismissed a complaint brought against the prosecution, with the report noting that the allegations involve funds valued at approximately €4m, and that the designated person in question is alleged to be Arkady Rotenberg.
