Further to our earlier post, the Latvian VDD is investigating arms sales to an unnamed African country allegedly in breach of UN sanctions.
As part of that investigation the VDD has today announced the confiscation of $4m uncovered in an offshore account.
It has been reported today that the German authorities have conducted raids across Germany as part of investigations into alleged exports of chemicals to Russia in breach of EU sanctions.
The raids included the premises of the companies Riol Chemie GmbH and R.R. Rhein Reserve GmbH.
It is alleged that more than 30 separate exports have taken place in the last three or so years, and that the chemicals could be used to make chemical weapons including Novichok.
HMRC has announced that British national Alexander George has been ordered to pay £700,000 in a confiscation order issued by the Southwark Crown Court. The funds are the proceeds of crime related to his conviction for exporting parts for jet fighters to Iran.
For more on his conviction back in 2018 see our earlier post.
Included in the annual criminal prosecution statistics for Austria in 2020 is the figure that the authorities there have secured 4 convictions for breaches of section 7 the Austrian “War Materials Law”, and 9 convictions over all.
No detail is published on the nature of the offending, the identity of the offenders, or the sentences imposed.
The UK’s HM Revenue and Customs has today announced the imposition of 10 compound penalties in relation to failures to comply with the UK’s export control regulations for dual-use and military goods. The fines were imposed between March and November 2021.
HMRC’s Notice to Exporters can be found here.
In line with HMRC’s standard practice the compound penalties are anonymised and of low value, with little information made available. The information provided is supplied below.
Continue reading “UK’s HMRC imposes 10 fines for export control violations”
The German Federal Court of Justice has upheld the confiscation of €11 million imposed on Sig Sauer for unlicensed exports of small arms to Colombia.
See our earlier post, for the original fine from 2019.
The exports were made as part fulfilment of a contract by the US government to supply weapons to the Colombian police, but the necessary export licences were not obtained from the German authorities.
The judgment is available here.
Further to an earlier post, the German Federal Court of Justice has today upheld an earlier conviction of two individuals and a company for unlawful exports of assault rifles to Mexico.
The company, Heckler & Koch, had appealed the earlier judgment and the confiscation of its gross profits from the sales. The two convicted individuals had also appealed.
The Federal Court has upheld the earlier judgment finding that the company had falsified export licence applications to mask the final destination for the weapons.
Further to our earlier post, it has been reported today that the Higher Regional Court in Hamburg has sentenced two men to prison for supplying machine tools to a Russian arms company.
The first defendant received a sentence of three years and nine months. In addition, almost €8 million in profits from the sale of the machinery will be confiscated
The second defendant was sentenced to two years’ probation for aiding and abetting with a payment of €150,000 to secure that probation. A further €184,000 are to be confiscated.
Today the UK government announced compound penalties of £700,386.01 imposed for breaches of the UK’s export controls.
The announcement from the Export Control Joint Unit provides little detail, but there were 19 settlements in all with the individual penalties ranging from £1,000 to £211,250.
The exports were of dual-use goods and military goods.
This announcement is in line with the HMRC’s policy of entering into civil settlements using its compounding powers, and with anonymised publication of the details.
It has been reported today that the Maltese authorities have charged five individuals with breaching the EU sanctions against Libya.
Only one individual was named – James Fenech.
The case relates to the use of military-grade inflatable vessels allegedly used to move military personnel into, and out of, Libya.
The court has also ordered that the accounts of the companies involved be frozen.
