Latvia – European Sanctions Enforcement

November 10, 2025November 10, 2025 by Mark Handley

Latvia – 247 administrative penalties for Russian trade sanctions breaches since June

At a conference held last week in Riga, the Director of Latvia’s Customs Board, gave figures on the number of penalties imposed under new rules introduced on 10 June 2025 allowing administrative penalties for import/export breaches of Russian sanctions where the value of the goods was less than €10,000.

Under those rules, in addition to confiscation of the goods in question, the minimum fine for a company is €10,000 and a maximum of €30,000. For individuals the maximum fine is €10,000.

At the conference (video is here, with the figure given at 3:15), it was stated that Latvia had imposed 247 such penalties to date, although some of those are the subject of appeals.

October 21, 2025October 21, 2025 by Mark Handley

Latvia – State Security Service seeks two prosecutions of individuals for alleged Russian sanctions breaches

Latvia’s State Security Service (VDD) has issued two press releases relating to investigations in which they have asked the Prosecution Service to initiate a criminal prosecution.

The first, relates to a Russian national with Latvian residency who is alleged to have held positions of Advisor to the General Director, Director of Finance and Chief Economist for three different Russian companies. The VDD allege that holding these offices amounts to a breach of the prohibition against providing economic and governance consultancy services to Russian companies.

The second, relates to the investigation against two individuals who managed the so-called “Moscow House” in Riga. The individuals are alleged to have “dealt” with the economic resources of Moscow House by renting out its facilities, including asking such customers to pay bills on behalf of Moscow House.

The prosecution is premised on the basis that Moscow House is owned or controlled by the Moscow City Property Department, which is owned or controlled by Moscow’s Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, who is a designated person under the EU’s sanctions, or owned or controlled by President Putin in his official capacity.

October 6, 2025 by Mark Handley

Latvia – State Security Service seeks prosecution for providing project management services

Latvia’s State Security Service (the VDD) is seeking the prosecution of two Latvian nationals accused of providing project management services to Russian companies.

This is one of few known prosecutions for breaching the EU’s professional services prohibitions. It is alleged that the individuals were co-owners of a company through which the services were provided.

The investigation started in January of this year.

September 30, 2025September 30, 2025 by Mark Handley

Latvia – more than 600 criminal investigations into sanctions violations

In evidence before the European Parliament last week (timed at 11:29), and in a LinkedIn post today, Paulis Iljenkovs, the Deputy Head of Latvia’s FIU, has stated that Latvia currently has more than 600 criminal investigations (mostly into breaches of trade sanctions) ongoing into alleged Russian sanctions breaches.

August 27, 2025August 27, 2025 by Mark Handley

Latvia – investigations into sanctioned Belarusian urea imports

It is being reported that the Latvian authorities have been conducting multiple investigations into suspected imports of urea from Belarus in breach of the EU’s sanctions.

The investigations are reported to be focussed on four Latvian companies and were commenced in July.

After a referral from the Customs Administration the VID Tax and Customs Police Department initially declined to prosecute, but that decision is now the subject of an appeal brought by the Customs Administration and Latvia’s FIU.

July 3, 2025July 3, 2025 by Mark Handley

Latvia – 91 proceedings to confiscate the “proceeds of crime” arising from EU sanctions breaches

Latvia’s Customs has issued a press release providing details on a recent confiscation proceeding, and providing some data on confiscation proceedings over all.

The press release states that 91 proceedings have been commenced to confiscate criminal property arising from breaches of EU sanctions.

It is noted that to date 57 of these proceedings have resulted in the confiscation of assets totalling €1,935,683.

The particular recent case outlined in the press release relates to the confiscation of a truck and trailer that had been stopped and searched at the Terekhova customs point. Officers suspected that the truck was itself being exported, and an investigation was commenced.

By court decision of 9 June 2025 the truck and its trailer, valued at €52,500, were confiscated.

June 3, 2025June 3, 2025 by Mark Handley

Latvia – 61 new criminal prosecutions for sanctions breaches commenced in 2025

In a previous post from April we reported on the 2024 annual report for Latvia’s FIU.

This included the statistic that 392 criminal proceedings had been commenced between 2022 and the end of 2024.

In an interview recently published with Global Investigations Review (behind a paywall), the head of Latvia’s National Customs Board has stated that Latvia has now brought a total of 453 criminal prosecutions.

This indicates that 61 new prosecutions have been brought so far in 2025.

May 28, 2025May 28, 2025 by Mark Handley

Latvia – sanctions investigation launched into activities of Russian state funder

It is being reported that the Latvia State Security Service has launched an investigation into the activities of the sanctioned entity “Pravfond”.

Pravfond is said to be a funding conduit by which the Russian state provides support for promoting Russia’s influence and interests abroad. It was designated under the EU’s Russian sanctioned in mid 2023.

The allegation is that it has continued to operate and provide funding despite being subject to the asset freeze.

May 27, 2025May 27, 2025 by Mark Handley

Latvia – investigation launched into Russian industrial exports

It is being reported that Latvia’s State Security Service (the VDD) has launched a criminal investigation into alleged exports of sanctioned machinery and equipment from the KLC Group to buyers in Russia via Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

The investigation follows the publication of a media investigation by The Insider.

The exports, said to be equipment used for military manufacturing, are said to be valued at $1.3m and to have included products from a number of western manufacturers.

April 24, 2025April 24, 2025 by Mark Handley

Latvia – updated sanctions enforcement statistics

The Financial Intelligence Unit of Latvia has published its Financial Integrity Newsletter for its activity during 2024.

This includes a range of sanctions enforcement-related statistics:

451 suspicious activity reports in relation to suspected sanctions breaches;
attempted cash exports to Russia of €18.9 million stopped;
more than 8,500 shipments across Latvia’s border with Russia stopped, of which 89% were exports and 11% were imports; and
392 criminal proceedings started between 2022 and the end of 2024.

The Newsletter does not provide figures on the outcomes (to date) of the 392 criminal proceedings.