Fine – Page 12 – European Sanctions Enforcement

March 4, 2021January 11, 2024 by Mark Handley

Germany – convictions and fines for Russian exports

Further to our earlier post, it has been reported today that the Higher Regional Court in Hamburg has sentenced two men to prison for supplying machine tools to a Russian arms company.

The first defendant received a sentence of three years and nine months. In addition, almost €8 million in profits from the sale of the machinery will be confiscated

The second defendant was sentenced to two years’ probation for aiding and abetting with a payment of €150,000 to secure that probation. A further €184,000 are to be confiscated.

November 24, 2020March 15, 2024 by Mark Handley

UK: HMRC fines 19 companies for export controls violations

Today the UK government announced compound penalties of £700,386.01 imposed for breaches of the UK’s export controls.

The announcement from the Export Control Joint Unit provides little detail, but there were 19 settlements in all with the individual penalties ranging from £1,000 to £211,250.

The exports were of dual-use goods and military goods.

This announcement is in line with the HMRC’s policy of entering into civil settlements using its compounding powers, and with anonymised publication of the details.

June 17, 2020March 15, 2024 by Mark Handley

UK: FCA imposes fine including sanctions compliance

Today, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority imposed a fine of £38,805,400 on Commerzbank.

The Penalty Notice can be found here.

The penalty reflected a 30% reduction from £54,007,800 to reflect cooperation by the bank.

The fine related to failings identified by the FCA in AML and sanctions screening and compliance.

February 18, 2020March 15, 2024 by Mark Handley

UK: OFSI imposes £20.4m civil penalty

Today the UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation imposed a civil penalty of £20,471,809.83 on Standard Chartered Bank in the latest (and largest) use of its civil enforcement powers. The fine included a 30% reduction to take account of self-reporting and cooperation.

OFSI’s Penalty Report can be found here.

The breaches of the EU’s Russian sanctions regulation 833/2014 arose out of the provision of multiple loans to the non-EU subsidiary of a Russian bank in breach of the restrictions on certain Russian banks accessing the EU’s capital markets. In total 21 loans valued at over £97m were issued during the period after OFSI acquired its civil enforcement powers.

Initially OFSI’s fines were £31.5m, but the fines were reduced after Standard Chartered exercised its right to a ministerial review of the penalties.

February 7, 2020January 11, 2024 by Mark Handley

Netherlands – €4.6m in gross profits confiscated from Iran exports

Further to our earlier post, following the successful prosecution of two companies for exports to Iran in breach of sanctions, the Dutch authorities have secured confiscation orders against the two companies for the gross profits obtained from the unlawful exports.

The confiscations were of €600,000 and €4 million respectively.

December 20, 2019January 14, 2025 by Mark Handley

Latvia – bank fined €1.1m for Russian sanctions compliance failings

The Latvian financial services regulator (the FKTK) has fined SEB Bank €1.8 million, of which €1,121,140 related to shortcomings in the bank’s sanctions compliance.

The inspections leading to the fine had taken place in 2017 and 2018.

The failings are said to have been specific to the EU’s Russian sanctions in regulation 269/2014 (as amended).

The fine was stated to be for not screening for companies and other assets owned by designated persons.

November 15, 2019January 26, 2024 by Mark Handley

France – Council of State upholds €50m fine for bank’s sanctions compliance failings

The French Council of State has today dismissed the appeal by Banque Postale against the fine of €50m imposed by the regulator, the ACPR.

The fine was imposed for EU sanctions compliance failings which had permitted designated persons subject to asset freezes to still transfer funds through the use of “money orders”.

This is the largest fine imposed by the French authorities.

See our earlier post in relation to the original fine.

November 12, 2019March 15, 2024 by Mark Handley

UK – 9 companies issued compound penalties for unlicensed exports

The UK’s HMRC has today announced that it has imposed compound penalties on nine separate exporters for the unlicensed exports of dual use goods, military goods and related activity controlled by Export Control Order.

The fines were between £5,000 and £90,000 in value.

November 1, 2019January 11, 2024 by Mark Handley

Netherlands – Dutch National Bank fines trust office for KYC failings

The Rotterdam District Court has heard an appeal against fines imposed by the Dutch National Bank on a trust office.

The fines were of €593,750 and €10,000.

Some aspects of the appeal were upheld and the fines were reduced, but the court agreed with the KYC failings (including related to sanctions screening) and imposed revised fines of €534,375 and €9,000.

October 3, 2019January 11, 2024 by Mark Handley

Netherlands – conviction for breaching Iran sanctions

The District Court of East Brabant in the Netherlands has convicted an individual for breaches of the EU’s Iran sanctions. The offence consisted of the export of 5 items to an Iranian person in breach of the EU regulation.

The defendant was acquitted of other charges and was fined €5,000.