It is being reported that on Friday three Russian nationals, aged 25, 25 and 18, were arrested in Finland on suspicion of the export of dual-use goods to Russia in breach of the EU’s sanctions.
The goods are reported to be electronic components such as sensors and lasers.
With the recent news that Finland has increased the number of its ongoing investigations, Europe (meaning the EU, the UK, Switzerland, etc) has reached the milestone of over 2,000 ongoing and public sanctions enforcement investigations being undertaken by regulators and prosecutors.
No doubt there are other investigations which are ongoing in the countries shown on the graph, and no doubt there are investigations ongoing in countries not shown and which remain confidential.
How many of these will be dropped due to inconclusive evidence or exculpatory evidence, and how many will lead to a conviction or fine or acquittal is impossible to say.
It is, without question, an unprecedented level of enforcement.
At the time of our earlier post in February the Finnish authorities were stating that they had 700 ongoing investigations into alleged breaches of the EU’s trade sanctions against Russia.
It is now being reported that they have “over 740” preliminary investigations into such breaches which suggests that a further 40 investigations have commenced in the interim.
No further details have been published on these new investigations.
This blog has been live now for just over two months.
During that time and by way of recap, a number of states have provided updated enforcement statistics in that period (Finland, Switzerland, Latvia), but the period has also seen a significant volume of new enforcement activity:
Continue reading “European sanctions enforcement: the last two months”
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.
In September 2023, the Finnish Customs authorities announced they had 600 ongoing criminal investigations of which 60 were “aggravated”.
As reported in Wirtschaft Woche Sari Knaapi , the Chief Economic Crimes Investigator at Finnish Customs has now given details of the current figures, stating that there are now 700 ongoing investigations, with around 70 that are described as “large, complex cases”.
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.
It has been reported that the Finnish authorities have charged five individuals with sanctions offences.
The allegations relate to the export of drones to Russian in breach of EU sanctions.
The first defendant is Gabriel Temini who is the CEO of the Finnish companies Luminor and Siberica.
Three employees of Siberica have also been charged as well as an employee of a freight forwarding company.
The charges are denied.
Trial is scheduled to commence on 26 January 2024.
It has been reported today that Finnish Customs are preparing to charge six with Russian sanctions offences.
The activities relate to two Finnish companies suspected of exporting microcontrollers and semi-conductors valued at more than €600,000 to Russia, as well as nearly 3,500 drones value at over €2 million.
The investigation is said to have also involved the authorities from the Netherlands, the UK, the US, as well as Europol and Finland’s Security and Intelligence Service.
It was reported today that the Finnish National Enforcement Authority, along with offices from the Eastern Finland Police Department, conducted raids on the property of Igor Kasaev, a designated person under the EU’s Russian sanctions, on the island of Kotasaari.
