Lithuania – European Sanctions Enforcement

July 11, 2024 by Mark Handley

Lithuania – company operating crypto exchange fined €8.23m for EU sanctions violations

Lithuania’s Financial Crimes Investigation Service has imposed a fine of €8.23m for breaches of the EU’s sanctions and a fine of €1.06m for breaches of Lithuania’s Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing.

The company fined is UAB Payeer. The press release notes that the company did not cooperate with the investigation and did not provide responses to questions raised.

The investigation commenced after an inspection in 2023 that was conducted after Payeer commenced its operations in Lithuania.

Payeer operated a crypto exchange at Payeer.com which allowed customers to make transfers to or from Russian banks that were designated under EU sanctions.

The AML fine relates to the failure to conduct KYC and the failure to report suspicious transactions.

The press release notes that Payeer had revenues of more than €164m during the 1.5 years of its breaches, but does not note what proportion of this came from prohibited activity.

May 31, 2024 by Mark Handley

Lithuania – four suspects being investigated for dual-use exports

Further to our earlier post, it is being reported that the Lithuanian Prosecutor General is now investigating four separate suspects in relation to the alleged export of dual-use goods to Russia by the Vičiūnai Group.

The alleged recipient of the goods, which includes high-priority battlefield items, was a Russian subsidiary within the Vičiūnai Group.

May 13, 2024 by Mark Handley

Lithuania – Customs Office fines company € 329,944

The Lithuanian Customs Office has announced in a press release the imposition of a fine of € 329,944 imposed upon an unnamed Lithuanian company.

The fine was for purchasing goods from the Russian companies which are designated under the EU’s sanctions.

Lithuanian Customs noted that this was the first enforcement by them of the EU’s sanctions on Russian designated persons.

May 8, 2024 by Mark Handley

Lithuania – investigation commenced into attempted export of luxury cars

It is being reported that he Lithuanian Customs Authority has today prevented the attempted export of two Tesla Cybertrucks valued at over €400,000 and has commenced a preliminary criminal investigation into the case.

The vehicles were being exported to Belarus, but the Customs Authority suspected that Russia was the intended final destination.

The drivers have been questioned and subsequently released.

April 29, 2024 by Mark Handley

Lithuania – investigation commenced into alleged exports to Belarus via Kazakhstan

Following prominent reporting in Lithuania (e.g. here), the Lithuanian Customs Department has confirmed that it has commenced an investigation into the alleged activities of the company UAB Vilpra.

It is alleged that the company exported nearly €1m in air conditioning units to Belarus via Kyrgyzstan in breach of the EU’s sanctions.

The company is reported to deny the allegations and to have stated that it complies with all sanctions.

April 22, 2024 by Mark Handley

European Sanctions Enforcement – milestone of over 2000 announced and active investigations reached

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.

April 10, 2024 by Mark Handley

Lithuania – Customs Department launches investigation into exports to Russia

Following press reporting into allegations that the Viciūnai Group of companies were exporting sanctioned goods to Russia, it is now being reported that the Lithuanian Customs Department has commenced a pre-trial investigation.

The allegations include that dual use and “battlefield” goods were being exported to a factory in Kaliningrad operated by a related company.

It is reported that the company has confirmed the fact of the exports, but claims that it was not aware that the goods in question (which includes ball bearings, semi-conductors, electrical components and other goods) were subject to sanctions.

March 15, 2024March 15, 2024 by Mark Handley

European sanctions enforcement: the last two months

This blog has been live now for just over two months.

During that time and by way of recap, a number of states have provided updated enforcement statistics in that period (Finland, Switzerland, Latvia), but the period has also seen a significant volume of new enforcement activity:

Continue reading “European sanctions enforcement: the last two months”

March 13, 2024 by Mark Handley

Lithuania – first enforcement of ban on Russian vehicles

The Criminal Customs Service of Lithuania has undertaken its first enforcement of the EU sanctions which prevents a Russian-registered car from driving in Lithuania.

The car in question, valued at over €40,000 was confiscated and the driver was fined.

November 7, 2023January 11, 2024 by Mark Handley

Lithuania – investigation commenced into car exports

Following a report by the Lithuanian state-owned railway company to the Prosecutor General’s Office, an investigation has been commenced into suspected illegal exports of goods to Russia.

The railway announced the suspension of the transport of luxury cars as part of its efforts to reduce the risk of sanctions breaches.

The report to the Prosecutor was focussed on the activities of four companies and the transshipment of cars to Russia via other neighbouring countries.