Latvian enforcement: 14 ongoing criminal prosecutions

In response to questions about Russian sanctions enforcement the Latvian authorities have confirmed that they have 14 ongoing criminal prosecutions of which three relate to exports, including circumvention of sanctions by routing exports through China and central Asia, and the others to breaches of financial sanctions.

The Latvian authorities also stated they received 281 suspicious activity reports during 2022 in relation to Russian sanctions, and had received 309 so far in 2023.

Latvia – conviction and fine for imports in breach of Belarus sanctions

The Latvian State Prosecution Service has announced a conviction of a  man for importing 13 packages of wooden sleepers and 8kg of nails from Belarus in breach of the EU’s sanctions.

The fine imposed was €6,200. As part of the sentencing the man was prohibited from importing any goods from Belarus for a year.

A co-accused was earlier sentenced to pay a fine of €5,000.

Latvia – man arrested on suspicion of providing economic resources to designated person

Latvia’s Intelligence Services (the VDD) have arrested a Latvian national, reported as Marat Kasem.

The alleged offence is the provision of “economic resources” to a designated person, or an asset owned or controlled by such a person.

The designated person is Dmitry Kiselev, who is the Director General of Rossiya Segodnya which in turn owns a number of broadcast channels including Sputnik and Baltnews.

Mr Kasem is alleged to have provided the “economic resources” by way of being employed by these channels in Lithuania.

Latvia – three arrested to face charges of breaching US sanctions

The US Department of Justice has announced the multiple charges against individuals and companies relating to an attempt to export US-origin industrial equipment (a jig grinder) with military application to Russia.

The companies charged are CNC Weld (incorporated in Latvia) and BY Trade OU (incorporated in Estonia).

Janis Uzbalis, Vadims Ananics, Eriks Mamonovs are three of the individuals. They were arrested in Latvia on 18 October 2022 for extradition to the US.

As part of the same investigation others were arrested in Estonia – see here.

Latvia – fines of €3.1m for breaches of Russian sanctions

Following raids in Riga and Tallinn by the Latvian Security Police, in close cooperation with the Estonian Internal Security Service (ISS), it was reported today that two individuals have been fined by the Latvian courts for breaching the EU’s Russian sanctions.

The breaches involved making funds available, through contracts involving broadcasting, to a designated person. The individuals (Oleg Solodov and Margus Merima) were each fined €25,000, and a further €3 million was confiscated.

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