In line with the parallel example from Lithuania, the Latvian authorities have imposed their first fine for breach of the ban on Russian registered vehicles.
The driver was fined €750 and the car was confiscated.
Lithuania – first enforcement of ban on Russian vehicles
The Criminal Customs Service of Lithuania has undertaken its first enforcement of the EU sanctions which prevents a Russian-registered car from driving in Lithuania.
The car in question, valued at over €40,000 was confiscated and the driver was fined.
Switzerland – a new criminal investigation for sanctions breaches and a further SECO fine
It is being reported today that the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland has commenced a criminal prosecution in a case handed to it from SECO.
Neither the name of the company involved, nor the sector, nor the alleged offences have been made public.
It is also being reported that the Office of the Attorney General has rejected a second case referred to it by SECO.
The same report quotes SECO as saying that it has received 240 reports of possible sanctions breaches and had imposed 10 penalties. As in our earlier post , last month SECO was quoted as saying it had imposed 9 fines, indicating that a further fine has been imposed since. No further details are known of this fine.
Finland – conviction (and acquittals) for exports to Russia
It has been reported today that French national Gabriel Temin has been convicted in Finland for exporting military goods to Russia in breach of EU sanctions.
He was given a suspended 9-month sentence and fined €11,000.
He was acquitted on a number of other more serious charges, and other defendants were acquitted as well. The prosecution had alleged that nearly 3,000 drones had been exported to Russia, but the court found there was insufficient evidence for this. The sale was to a customer in Kazakhstan and there was only circumstantial evidence that the goods had been retained in transit within Russia.
Switzerland – updated enforcement statistics including 9 fines
Sanctions enforcement statistics for Switzerland’s SECO have been reported today. These are an update on those previously published in May last year.
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- 230 reports to SECO of potential sanctions breaches:
- 47 proceedings commenced, of which:
- 18 cases remain active;
- 9 fines imposed; and
- 20 cases discontinued.
SECO also stated that new cases are being added all the time, and that most relate to trade sanctions.
No information was published as to the level of the fines imposed (other than “varying severity”), or the identities of those fined or being investigated or prosecuted.
Finland – conviction of Russian national for breach of the EU travel ban
In a rare example of the enforcement of the travel ban imposed on designated persons, a court in Finland has convicted the Russian national Yan Petrovsky for travelling into Finland under an assumed alias, Voislav Torden, in 2022 and 2023.
Petrovsky was sentenced to 40 days in jail, and ordered to pay a fine of €80.
Latvia – further sanctions enforcement statistics including seven convictions
The Latvian authorities have provided a further update to their enforcement efforts. As reported:
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- 281 sanctions-related suspicious activity reports in 2022
- 510 sanctions-related suspicious activity reports in 2023
- 310 criminal cases commenced
- 22 prosecutions in which the trial has started
- 7 convictions to date.
Of the convictions, all involved guilty pleas and all involved Latvian nationals. The highest penalty related to the export of a luxury car, and the fine was €170,000.
The conduct prosecuted included in relation to the sale of a professional footballer to a club owned by a company designated under Belarus sanctions, and the provision of content to the Russian Federal News Agency.
UPDATE: It has now (18 March 2024) been reported that the fine imposed in relation to providing economic resources to the Russian news agency in the form of employment services, was €15,500.
Netherlands – sanctions fines imposed by Dutch National Bank upheld and reduced on appeal
An unnamed financial services provider regulated by the Dutch National Bank has challenged fines imposed upon it in relation to KYC and due diligence failings including in relation to sanctions screening.
The DNB had initially fined the provider €1.1m and €625,000, but these were reduced through a review process to €850,000 and €480,940.
The first fine in particular related to allegations of a failure to screen any of the sample of analysed customers against EU and Dutch sanctions lists.
On further appeal to the Rotterdam District Court the fines were upheld but further reduced to €718,841.25 and €451,250.
Romania – company fined and €2.9 million profits confiscated
An Advocate-General’s opinion in Case C-351/22 before the Court of Justice has revealed details of a not-previously publicised enforcement action from 2020 in Romania, by which the company Neves 77 Solutions SRL was administratively fined approximately €6,000 and had gross profits of €2.9 million confiscated.
The company had brokered a transaction whereby radio sets manufactured in Russia were sold by a Ukrainian company to an Indian company.
The question which came to be addressed by the Advocate-General was whether the confiscation of gross profits was compatible with fundamental principles of European law including whether it was a proportionate abrogation of the right to property. The Advocate-General’s opinion is that such confiscations are not a breach of European law.
UK – HMRC imposes three compound penalties for exports
The UK’s HMRC has today announced three new compound penalties imposed on experts for unlawful exports.
The first penalty was £67,000.31 imposed for the attempted export of goods in breach of the UK’s Russian sanctions. The person or company involved was not named.
The second penalty was for £1,000 and the attempted unlicensed export of dual-use goods. Again the penalised company was not named.
The third penalty was for £9,088.99 for exporting dual-use goods without a licence. This too was anonymised.