The Higher Regional Court of Hamburg has today sentenced a man to seven years in jail for exports to Russian in breach of EU sanctions.
Our earlier post had outlined that the man was charged with exports of chemicals and machinery to Russia which could be used in the manufacture of military rockets. False documentation had been created in an attempt to mask the exports.
The Austrian annual criminal statistics reveal 4 convictions for the year 2018 for breaches of section 7 the “War Materials Law”. Two other convictions for other offences were obtained in the year.
No information was published on the nature of the offending, the identity of the offenders or the sentences.
The Latvian Intelligence Services have announced a series of five raids in Riga and elsewhere relating to “illegal arms trade, violation of sanctions determined by international organisations” and money laundering.
As stated: “The information acquired during the investigation indicates that the group of persons has illicitly supplied a large number of arms to African countries that are subject to the sanctions determined by the UN and the EU. The accomplishment of illicit contracts was followed by laundering of criminally acquired financial resources”.
The release does not specify the African country.
The UK’s HMRC has today announced that it has imposed compound penalties on nine separate exporters for the unlicensed exports of dual use goods, military goods and related activity controlled by Export Control Order.
The fines were between £5,000 and £90,000 in value.
A trial has commenced in Hamburg of a 69-year old charged with making numerous exports to Russia in breach of EU sanctions.
The man is a Russian national and is alleged to have exported 15kg of Decaboran which is used to make rocket propellant and explosives.
He is also alleged to have exported special machinery used to manufacture rockets. The total value of the exports is said to be over €1.8 million.
Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has today published details of a compound penalty of £10,234.26 imposed on a UK exporter/trader.
The penalty was in relation to unlicensed trading of body armour. The goods were not exported from the UK, but the transaction involved a UK national.
The Notice to Exporters noted that the Export Control Order 2008 requires a trade control licence when certain goods are exported from a country other than the UK, and that exporters should be aware that trafficking and brokering military goods outside the UK will need a trade control licence, even if the goods do not pass through the UK.
The UK’s HMRC has today announced that it has fined a UK exporter £82,152.33 for the unlicensed exports of military goods.
The identity of the exporter, and of the destination for the goods, were not published.
Three managers of Sig Sauer, the arms manufacturer have been convicted (after guilty pleas) of the unlicensed export of small arms to Colombia. See our earlier post.
One manager was fined €600,000 and given an 18-month suspended prison sentence. Another was fined given a 10-month suspended sentence and also fined €600,000. A third was fined €60,000 and given a 10-month suspended sentence.
The company itself was fined €11 million.
The German arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch has today been fined €3.7 million for illegal arms exports to Mexico.
The conviction relates to the export of over 4,000 assault rifles and other weapons and ammunition. The fine included confiscation of the gross profits from the sales.
Two Heckler & Koch employees were also convicted and given suspended prison sentences of 17 and 22 months respectively.
The German Federal Prosecutor’s Office has issued a press release regarding the arrest of an individual (Vladimir D.) on suspicion of exporting dual-use goods to Russia in breach of EU sanctions.
The goods are valued at €1.7 million and were said to have been exported in two consignments in 2014 and 2018.
As stated in the press release: “In order to circumvent the export controls, the accused is said to have carried out his transactions via changing fictitious recipients, presented false documents and carried out technical manipulations on the goods”.
