The Dutch FIOD, has issued a press release regarding its arrest of a 32-year old man suspected of violating the Dutch Sanctiewet 1977 through the suspected transfer of bitcoins to sanctioned terrorist organisations between 2020 and 2022.
The investigation was commenced as a result of a suspicious activity report made by a crypto exchange to the Dutch FIU.
Updated enforcement statistics are being reported (here behind a paywall, and here in summary) for the Dutch Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD) and from Dutch Customs.
FIOD is reported to have conducted 30 cases in the three years since February 2022, with six resulting in convictions, and twenty investigations ongoing.
Customs are reported to have started 80 cases, with 16 ongoing, and 64 settled with fines of between €500 and €200,000.
On 31 January the Rotterdam District Court published its decision convicting an individual of breaches of the EU’s ISIS sanctions.
The individual was sentenced to 90 days in jail, of which 74 days is suspended for 2 years. Community Service of 80 hours was also imposed.
The transfers giving rise to the offences were US$4,350 and 150,000 Syrian pounds.
The individual was also charged with financing of terrorism and human trafficking.
The District Court in Amsterdam has issued a judgment arising from the export of machinery from the Netherlands to Crimea in 2016 and 2017 for use in the construction of the Kerch Bridge.
The company (a B.V. unnamed in the judgment) reached a settlement with the prosecution, whereby no defence was advanced, no appeal would be lodged, and the company agreed to pay the fine of €120,000.
The court found that the prosecution case was made out, and confirmed the terms of the settlement and the proposed fine.
The judgment does not mention any confiscation of the proceeds of crime.
Judgments have also been released in relation to the related prosecutions of two individuals (here and here), both of whom were acquitted.
The Dutch FIOD has issued a press release relating to the arrest of an individual suspected of various offences including unlicensed ‘hawala’ banking and breaches of the Dutch Sanctions Law.
As part of the investigation a residential property was raised and mobile phones and other devices seized.
It is alleged that the suspect was at the centre of a network capable of large-scale financial transfers from the Netherlands to other countries.
The Dutch FIOD has issued a press release stating that a 57-year old man has been arrested and that the individual and a company are suspected of exporting US$24 million in computer motherboards and graphics cards to Russian customers in breach of the EU’s sanctions against Russia.
Residential and commercial premises were raided, and bank accounts seized.
The exports are alleged to have been done through Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and Cyprus
Further to our earlier posts from 8 October and 7 October relating to the conviction of a company and individual for exporting aircraft parts to Russia in breach of EU sanctions, the Rotterdam District Court ruled on 22 November that the third co-defendant is also guilty.
The judgment is here.
The individual was an employee of the Ministry of Defence and was first arrested in September 2023 (see our earlier post).
The conviction was based on the export of parts via Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey the UAE and Serbia. The Defendant was also convicted of falsifying documents and of a minor fire arms charge.
The court accepted findings of PTSD by court psychologists and the probation service.
At sentencing the court stated: “In view of the seriousness of the proven facts, from the point of view of general prevention, a prison sentence of considerable duration is in principle appropriate“.
In the circumstances of the defendant, however, the custodial sentence was limited to the period of pre-trial detention with a further period of 195 days suspended for two years. In addition 240 hours of community service was imposed.
The individual was also disqualified from acting as a company director for three years.
It is being reported that a Russian national, who was formerly an employee of chip manufacturer ASML, and of Mapper Lithography, is being prosecuted for both breach of EU sanctions and for theft of trade secrets.
The man is currently in custody. As part of the prosecution the individual has been banned from travel to the Netherlands for 20 years.
The man is alleged to have stolen documents, such as microchip manuals and passed those to Russian recipients to aid microchip production.
Although one of the filters on this blog is “custodial sentence”, I thought it might be helpful to collect all the examples in one place.
As such, here is the full list of custodial sentences that have been imposed across Europe for sanctions offences since 2017. Please note this excludes suspended sentences.
2017:
2018:
2019:
2020:
2021:
2022:
2023:
2024:
Overall the figures are dominated by the Netherlands and Germany with approximately 68 of the 80 years of sentences between them. Indeed, as the graph below demonstrates, other than Finland’s 40-day sentence for breaching a travel ban, the Netherlands and Germany are the only European countries to have sent someone to prison for sanctions offences since 2019.
The Rotterdam District Court has issued two judgments relating to the conviction and sentencing of an individual for exporting computer goods and software destined for Russian companies via intermediaries in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
According to the judgment convicting the individual, the man had been selling computer equipment to two Russian companies prior to 2022. After the goods in questions became sanctioned, a fact he was made aware of by his customs agent, the man directed the exports to affiliates of his Russian customers in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. All the communications, however, remained with the Russian companies.
In an attempt to cover his tracks the man forged a contract between his company and the central Asian entities and provided this in response to questions from his bank.
The court convicted him of the charges, including forgery, holding that the EU Regulations did not require proof that the goods were actually delivered to Russia.
The exports in question were of thousands of items which were either dual-use or luxury goods and were predominantly computer equipment and software.
At sentencing the court made a number of comments:
The man was given a custodial sentence equivalent to the length of his time served in pre-trial detention (450 days), a suspended sentence of just over 11 months, suspended for two years, and a community service order of 240 hours.
Goods which had been seized during the investigation were returned to him.
The second judgment related to confiscation of the proceeds of crime from the man.
The court calculated that the gross proceeds of the crimes were €1,924,579, from which the court deducted €1,626,269 in what it described as “deductible costs”, leaving a final figure for confiscation of €298,310 which the court considered to be the company’s “profit”. This was the amount the man was ordered to pay by way of confiscation order.
The judgment does not record the Court (or the prosecution) giving consideration to the recent CJEU judgment which upheld a confiscation of the gross proceeds of crime.
