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.
France’s ACPR has issued a press release making public a fine of €600,000 imposed on Banque Delubac.
The detailed Décision, make clear that the compliance failings predominantly relate to AML and CTF failings, but Complaint 9 relates to sanctions compliance. The ACPR noted a failure by the bank to collect data on directors and beneficial owners for more than a quarter of its business customers. Further, the bank applied no screening at all on transactions valued at below €1,000 between 2020 and 2022/203.
The size of the fine is said to reflect the €3m spent on improving the bank’s compliance, and the bank’s loss for the financial year 2024.
The French media regulator, Arcom, has issued an order to Eutelsat ordering it to cease the broadcasting of two channels owned or controlled by JSC National Media Group which is a designated person under the EU’s Russian sanctions.
The channels are STS and Kanal 5.
Earlier reports had suggested that Arcom might impose a fine on Eutelsat, but no fine was imposed.
Further to our earlier post from February 2024, it is being reported that the Paris Court has ordered that the prosecution of the French cement maker Lafarge and eight individuals on charges of terrorist financing and breach of EU sanctions against ISIS should proceed to trial.
The case is part of a long running saga arising from allegations that the company paid money to ISIS in order to keep a cement plant open and operating.
In an earlier post we reported on the ongoing trial of the captain of the ship the “Baltic Leader”, who was being prosecuted in Rouen for alleged breaches of the EU’s Russian sanctions. French prosecutors were seeking a combined fine and confiscation of €16 million.
It is now being reported that yesterday the captain was acquitted of all charges.
Currently no further details are available.
The trial of the captain of a Russian cargo ship is now underway in Rouen.
It is being reported that the Rouen Prosecutor’s Office is seeking a fine of €8m, plus confiscation of the ship (valued at €8m) plus a suspended prison sentence of 10 months.
The case arises from the departure from the port of Rouen on 25 February 2022 of the vessel the “Baltic Leader” which was Russian flagged and carrying wind turbines.
Part of the prosecution’s case is that the vessel was ultimately owned and/or controlled by Promsvyazbank which is a designated person under the EU’s Russian sanctions.
It is being reported that the French port of Brest has barred the Russian vessel Shtandart from entering thereby enforcing the EU’s prohibition on Russian vessel entering EU ports.
The vessel has been re-flagged to the Cook Islands but remains operated by Russians. It is a modern replica of a frigate of Tsar Peter the Great which was sailing to Brest to take part in the Maritime Festival.
The same report notes that the vessel had previously been in another French port at La Rochelle.
France’s La Direction Nationale du Renseignement et des Enquêtes Douanières has issued a press release reporting on raids conducted on a company in Ile-de-France on Thursday and Friday of last week.
The raids by 25 customs officers came after a 10-month investigation. The conduct is stated to amount to exports valued at several 10s of millions of Euros, and to have involved 100s of false customs declarations involving several dozen different exporters each using the services of the raided customs agent.
The company had advertised on the darkweb that it could provide a turnkey sanctions evasion service.
The French authorities acknowledged the help from reports from other European countries and noted the investigation highlighted “statistical anomalies, notably an exponential growth of exports of the company in question to third countries bordering Russia”.
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.
