Further to our earlier post, the owner of the “shadow fleet” vessel the MV Deyna, agreed in a Marseilles Court on Wednesday to pay an undisclosed fine for the release of the vessel.
The owner admitted that it had no evidence to support the vessel’s alleged Mozambique flag status.
Upon payment the vessel was released and is now reported to have left French waters.
Further to our earlier posts, a court in Paris had today handed down judgment in the long-running Lafarge prosecution.
The company has been convicted of breaches of the EU’s Syrian sanctions as well as terrorist financing and has been fined €1.125m as well as a separate fine of €4.57m for breach of sanctions.
Of the executives also being prosecuted:
– Bruno Pescheux (former director of the Syrian cement factory) received a 5-year jail term and was fined €225,000;
– Bruno Lafont (former Lafarge CEO) was sentenced to 6 years in jail and fined €225,000;
– Christian Herrault (former deputy Managing Director) was sentenced to five years in jail and fined €225,000;
– Frederic Jolibois (successor to Pescheux) was sentenced to three years in jail, two of which were suspended, and fined €80,000;
– Jacob Waerness was sentenced to 18 months in jail and fined €20,000 and a ban from entering France;
– Ahmad Al Jaloudi was sentenced to 2 years in jail and fined €20,000 and a ban from entering France;
– Amro Taleb, a Syrian intermediary, was sentenced to 3 years in jail and fined and fined €60,000 and a ban from entering France;
– Firas Tlass, tried in absentia, was convicted and sentenced to seven years in jail with a €225,000 fine and a ban from entering France.
It appears that a decision on the confiscation of the proceeds of crime in this case is awaited. The prosecution was seeking confiscation of €30m.
Some of the individual defendants have already indicated their intention to appeal.
Further to our earlier post relating to the trial of the captain of the Boracay, the shadow fleet vessel seized by France in October 2025.
The trial has concluded with the Chinese national captain, Chen Zhangjie, sentenced to a year’s jail and ordered to pay a fine of €150,000.
As the captain was tried in absentia, the French authorities have issued an arrest warrant for him.
The offence that was the basis of the conviction was for failing to stop the Boracay when ordered to do so.
On Friday the French authorities, with British Royal Navy support, boarded and seized the tanker the MV Deyna which was sailing from Murmansk to Port Said. It was off the coast of Algeria in the western Mediterranean at the time of the boarding.
The MV Deyna is a designated vessel under the EU’s Russian sanctions and a specified ship under the UK’s Russian sanctions.
The vessel is registered in Mozambique and said to be carrying Russian crude.
According to data from Vesselfinder.com the tanker is now off the southern coast of France at Fos-sur-Mer.
The same website indicates that it left its last port on 1 March. If this date is right, and the vessel was carrying Russian crude, then it would have been benefitting from the US sanctions waiver for Russian crude that was “on the water” as of 12 March at the time that it was seized.
This serves as a reminder, if one were needed, of the complexities of navigating the interlocking and overlapping sanctions regimes that are in place.
Further to our earlier post on the French seizure of the “shadow fleet” tanker “Boracay” off western France in September 2025, it is now being reported that the trial of the captain is due to commence on Monday.
The trial is taking place in absentia, with the captain Chen Zhangjie – a Chinese national – not attending the trial in the town of Brest.
The charges allege that the Captain refused to comply with a lawful order from the French Navy to allow the inspection of the vessel.
Mr Zhangjie is represented in the trial, and it is being reported that the defence will include arguments that French law and French jurisdiction do not apply.
The company that owns the oil tanker ‘Grinch’ has, according to a press release by the Prefecture of Bouches-du-Rhône pleaded guilty in a Marseilles court.
It is being reported that the company was fined several million euros.
The vessel has been allowed to leave French waters with its cargo intact.
The offence alleged was failing to provide proof of the ship’s flag status under article L 5233-2 of the French Transport Code.
After seizing the oil tanker the “Grinch” in international waters last week, the vessel is now anchored off Foss-sur-Mer in the south of France.
The captain of the vessel, an Indian national, has been detained by the French authorities pending further investigations. It is being reported that one part of the investigation being conducted by the Maritime Gendarmerie’s Investigation Unit in Toulon and the Marseille Ship Safety Centre, is charges of failure to fly a valid flag.
Further to our earlier post from October 2025, this is not the first such seizure, with the French authorities seizing the vessel the Boracay off the west coast of France. In that case the vessel was allowed to depart and the captain was released without charge,
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.
On 4 November, the US Justice Department issued a press release following the extradition from France of Yana Leonova to face charges of exports of aviation equipment to Russia in breach of US sanctions.
The press release gives little information on when she was arrested or whether the extradition was contested.
It is alleged that she falsified the final destinations for exports and used a variety of front companies in Armenia, the Maldives and elsewhere.
It has been widely reported (e.g. here and here) that the French military boarded and seized control of an oil tanker reputed to to be part of the “shadow fleet”.
The vessel, the “Boracay” has been sanctioned by the EU and the UK. It is alleged that the crew failed to provide information to authorities on the nationality of the vessel or otherwise comply with orders.
It has now also been reported that the vessel has now continued on its voyage and the captain has been released.
