The British authorities today announced the imposition by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) of a £1m compound penalty on an unnamed UK company for unlicensed exports to Russia in breach of the UK’s Russian sanctions regulations.
No further information has been released.
Update: as per our post of 28 February 2025, it has now been clarified that this fine was for the provision of “brokering and technical assistance”.
It was reported today that the Norwegian authorities have imposed their first fine for breaches of sanctions against Russia.
The fine was NOK 50,000 being the profit from the unlawful sale of a car to a Russian customer in breach of Norway’s sanctions against the export of luxury goods.
It has been announced today that a British company has pleaded guilty to one count of the attempted export of a controlled chemical which is classified as a dual use good.
The company was fined just £600 plus £2,659.5 in costs.
While HMRC did not name the company, it is being reported that the company was VWR International Limited, and that the export was bound for Pakistan.
For an earlier fine imposed on VWR see our previous post.
The UK’s HMRC has today announced compound penalties imposed on four exporters. Two related to military goods and two to dual-use goods.
The exporters were not named.
The penalties imposed were:
The Latvian State Prosecution Service has announced a conviction of a man for importing 13 packages of wooden sleepers and 8kg of nails from Belarus in breach of the EU’s sanctions.
The fine imposed was €6,200. As part of the sentencing the man was prohibited from importing any goods from Belarus for a year.
A co-accused was earlier sentenced to pay a fine of €5,000.
It has been reported today that a German company from Schleswig-Holstein has been convicted of breaching the EU’s sanctions against Russia for the illegal export of machinery that was used to help build the Kerch bridge.
The equipment was a hydraulic hammer used for driving in the piles for the bridge. The fine was imposed by the District Court in Kiel.
The UK’s HMRC has today announced the imposition of compound penalties on four UK exporters. Those companies were not named.
Little information is provided but the exports were all either dual-use goods or military goods.
The compound penalties which were imposed between November and December 2022, were:
An individual has today been convicted of exporting €11,000 in physical currency from Germany to Russia in breach of Art 5(i)1 of EU Regulation 833/2014.
The individual asserted that he was carrying the currency for the purposes of receiving dental treatment in Kaliningrad.
The judgment takes the view that the exception permitting some cash to be carried “should … be interpreted narrowly”, and that the Commission’s FAQs are a means of discerning the intention of the legislator.
He was fined €4,500 and the balance of the cash above the €500 threshold was confiscated.
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has issued a Final Notice to Al Rayan Bank PLC in relation to its failings with customer due diligence, including a lack of due diligence documentation for customers linked to sanctioned countries, or the lack of appropriate enhanced due diligence.
The bank was fined £4,023,600.
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has issued a Final Notice against Guaranty Trust Bank (UK) Limited.
The fine was £7,671,800.
The reported failings include a lack of screening against OFSI’s Consolidated List despite policies and procedures requiring such screening. Thousands of accounts had also been established in a way that screening was only done at onboarding and not periodically. Further 90% of resolved sanctions “hits” did not include information or documents demonstrating the basis for the resolution.
