The District Court of East Brabant in the Netherlands has convicted an individual for breaches of the EU’s Iran sanctions. The offence consisted of the export of 5 items to an Iranian person in breach of the EU regulation.
The defendant was acquitted of other charges and was fined €5,000.
The Dutch authorities have obtained a further conviction for transfers of small sums of money in breach of the EU’s ISIS sanctions.
The transfers in this instance were of €500 and €950.
The man was given a suspended 5 month sentence with a 2 year probation period.
The Dutch authorities have obtained the conviction of an individual for making financial transfers to two family members in breach of the EU’s sanctions against ISIS.
Five transfers were made in total with the largest being €3,500.
The man was given a suspended 100 day prison sentence with a 2 year probation period and 240 hours of community service.
The Dutch District Court in Limburg has convicted two companies and three individuals of unlicensed exports of gas turbine machinery to Iran.
The companies were Euroturbine BV, and its Bahraini subsidiary, and they were fined €500,000 and €350,000 respectively.
The exports were routed via indirect channels to and mask the destination.
The individuals were respectively sentenced to 12 months in jail, of which 11 months were suspended and 240 hours of community service; 8 months in jail, of which 7 months were suspended and a community service of 200 hours. The third individual , a company employee, was sentenced to 180 hours of community service.
A fourth individual had earlier pled guilty and been sentenced to 120 hours of community service.
Three money transfers totalling €445 completed in breach of the EU’s sanctions against ISIS has resulted in a conviction of an individual.
He was sentenced to four months, suspended for 2 years, and 180 hours of community service.
The Dutch Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal against the 19-year sentence for (amongst other crimes) breach of the EU’s Liberian sanctions.
The appeal was largely on the grounds that the Liberian government had granted an amnesty which was said to apply. The Supreme Court disagreed, and in any event held that such an amnesty is incompatible with Dutch obligations under the European Convention of Human Rights.
Further to our earlier post relating to a fine imposed on the Dutch airline KLM, after an appeal by the Dutch prosecutors the fine has been raised to €60,000 from 40,000 with half suspended for 2 years.
The District Court of Amsterdam has convicted a company on multiple charges of exporting military goods for a Russian end user. The intended Russian recipient of the exports was named as JSC Global Security, but the name of the convicted Dutch company was anonymised.
The goods (mostly bullet proof vests and other military equipment) were stopped at Schiphol airport and had been brought from South Africa.
The company was fined €30,000 (half suspended for 2 years).
The District Court of Rotterdam has upheld fines of €170,000 imposed by the Dutch National Bank on a payment services provider for breaches of Dutch sanctions law and AML rules.
The appeal was largely based on arguments that the internal compliance function had adequately performed its function. The court was highly critical of this argument, noting the lack of due diligence and periodic training.
