Germany – raids and investigation relating to sanctioned car exports

It is being reported (here and here) that the German authorities have conducted raids on business and residential premises in the town of Königswinter in relation to a criminal investigation into the alleged exports of luxury cars to Russia shipped through third countries.

The raids are said to have taken place in late September and a criminal case has been opened. Cars, cash and evidence were all seized as part of the raids.

The sales are alleged to have totalled more than €4 million.

Germany – two people arrested for providing access to sanctioned Russian broadcasters

It is being reported that German authorities in the city of Karlsruhe have arrested two individuals. The individuals were husband who is a German national and wife of Ukrainian nationality.

It is alleged that they made available internet access to the sanctioned broadcasting channels Rossiya-1 and Russia Today. EU sanctions prohibit for a person “to broadcast or to enable, facilitate or otherwise contribute to broadcast” of these channels.

Raids on the couple’s home gathered evidence and €40,000. The authorities also obtained a freezing order over a bank account containing €120,000.

Germany – seizure of 47 crypto exchanges being used for sanctions circumvention

Germany’s Federal Criminal Police have seized the infrastructure of 47 Russian-language no-KYC cryptocurrency exchanges.

The website announcing the action (called “Operation Final Exchange”) states: “We have found their servers and seized them – development servers, production servers, backup servers. We have their data – and therefore we have your data. Transactions, registration data, IP addresses

Our search for traces begins. See you soon“.

It is being reported that the seizures, while certainly targeting a range of financial crimes, were also driven by the use of these exchanges as a means of circumventing sanctions, particularly by designated Russian banks.

It is likely that this Operation Final Exchange will generate substantive financial intelligence and further enforcement actions.

Germany – CJEU rules on appeal against conviction and interpretation of Myanmar sanctions

Further to our earlier post, in 2022 a German individual was convicted of importing timber from Myanmar in breach of EU sanctions and was sentenced to 19 months in jail and a substantial confiscation order of over €3m was also issued.

The case then went on appeal through the German system, and ultimately a referral was made to the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”).

The argument on the appeals, and for consideration by the CJEU, was that the timber in question underwent sufficient processing in Taiwan, such that it should no longer be considered timber of Myanmarese origin.

The CJEU has ruled that the timber which only underwent “debranching and debarking” was not processed to a level as to amount to a change of origin. The CJEU also held that the timber which was sawn into “wooden cuboids” also did not undergo sufficient processing as to amount to a change of origin.

By contrast the timber which was sawn into finished boards of lumber was held to have undergone sufficient processing to properly be considered of Taiwan origin.

On the referred question of whether the prohibition against goods “exported from Burma/Myanmar” in article 2(2)(a)(ii) of the EU Regulation prohibits imports via third countries, the CJEU held the prohibition “must be interpreted as meaning that that provision covers only goods that have been imported into the European Union directly from Burma/Myanmar“.

It should be noted that this last ruling was in the context of a separate prohibition against the importation of goods which “originate in Burma/Myanmar”, with the court ruling that this other provision was the one which caught imports via third countries.

The German courts will now need to apply these findings to the existing conviction.

 

Germany – raids in Berlin as part of sanctions investigations

It is being reported (and here) that on Tuesday the Zentralstelle für Sanktionsdurchsetzung (Central Office for Sanctions Enforcement) conducted raids with 100 officers to enforce a District Court judgment  on premises in the Tempelhof-Schöneberg region of Berlin.

The reports also state that the subjects of the raids were two logistics companies, said to be from Russia.

No details of the alleged conduct or Russian sanctions breaches giving rise to the raids has been released.

Germany – sanctions enforcement statistics: at least 1988 investigations since February 2022

The German media outlet Südwestrundfunk has conducted a survey of Germany’s state justice ministries, public prosecutors office and the Federal Prosecutor’s Office to compile statistics on recent sanctions investigations in Germany.

The vast majority of these are said to relate to Russian and Belarusian sanctions although enforcement of other regimes is included.

The results are:

    • Saxony – 451 investigations
    • Bavaria – 448 investigations
    • Hesse – 406 investigations
    • Hamburg – 161 investigations
    • Schleswig-Holstein – 112 investigations
    • Brandenburg – 107 investigations (of which 38 discontinued)
    • Bremen – 103 investigations
    • Baden-Württemberg – 90 investigations (of which 52 in Stuttgart, of which 44 discontinued)
    • Rhineland-Palatinate – 73 investigations (of which 50 discontinued)
    • Saarland – 21 investigations
    • Mecklenburg Western Pomerania – 9 investigations
    • Thuringia – 7 investigations

This is a total of 1,988 investigations conducted since 24 February 2022. No data were reported for the states of Lower Saxony or Anhalt, so this figure is not complete.

In September last year (see earlier post) it was reported that there were 150 on-going investigations in Germany. The new survey reports a minimum of 176 investigations now reported as ongoing, although many regions did not provide a figure for currently ongoing investigations.

Germany – two individuals convicted of electronics exports to Russia

A court in Stuttgart has convicted two individuals for their role in the export of 120,000 dual-use items to Russia between January 2020 and May 2023. The parts included those used for the “Orlan 10” drone. The value of the goods was estimated at €875,000. Another report states that this amount was confiscated as part of the sentencing.

One individual was given a custodial sentence of 6 years and 9 months and the other was given a suspended sentence of 1 year and 9 months.

The scheme had involved disguised sales and invoices involving Hong Kong and Turkey, as well as false documents indicating that some of the goods had been sold to customers in Germany.

As per our earlier post, the individuals were charged had been charged in March 2024.

 

Germany – fine for the captain of distressed vessel which took Russian timber into German port

Further to our earlier posts about the detention and subsequent release of the vessel the Atlantic Navigator II which carried, amongst other cargo, birch timber of Russian origin into the German port of Rostock.

It is now being reported that the Captain of the vessel has received a fine which he was directed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office to pay to the charity Human Rights Watch.

The fine was €8,000, which no doubt reflects the fact that the vessel only entered German waters after experiencing technical difficulties.

Germany – raids and arrests for suspected exports of luxury cars to Russia in breach of sanctions

On Friday the Customs office in Frankfurt raided and searched 24 residential and business premises mostly in Offenbach am Main and Aschaffenburg although Customs said the network extended across Germany. Four individuals were arrested. The actions were part of an investigation into the suspected export of luxury cars to Russia in breach of EU sanctions.

The individuals arrested were aged between 39 and 44 with one woman and three men.

The allegation is that 170 luxury cars had been exported since 2022.

Five cars were seized as part of the raids along with evidence and €300,000 in cash.  In addition a freezing order was obtained over €13.3m in bank accounts said to be the profits from the enterprise.

The German authorities have been particularly active in enforcement related to luxury cars of late:

 

Germany – raids on seven premises as part of sanctions investigation into car exports

On Wednesday more than 60 officers from customs offices and prosecutors raided seven premises in Germersheim in the Rheinland-Palatinate region.

The investigation relates to the export of approximately 190 luxury cars to Russia valued at €4.5m, with the exports conducted via Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and Turkey.

As well as evidence significant amounts of cash were seized and attachment orders have been obtained over bank accounts and real estate.

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The opinions expressed on this blog are those of the author and are not to be construed as legal advice.

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