It is being reported that a Lithuanian-registered aircraft being flown from Latvia to Russia via Finland has been intercepted and detained at Helsinki airport due to suspicions of sanctions evasion.
The pilot of the aircraft has been reported to have been involved in a number of previous alleged aircraft sales to Russian customers.
On 4 November 2024, HMRC published a Notice to Exporters regarding a compound penalty of £58,426.45 imposed for breaches of Russian trade sanctions.
The Notice included the line:
“Since February 2022, HMRC has issued six compound settlements against UK companies that have breached the Russia sanctions regulations for a total of £1,363,129, including one in August 2023 for £1 million“.
This struck a chord because, as captured in this blog, only three compound penalties had been publicly imposed by HMRC for breaching Russian sanctions. So a Freedom of Information request was made about the other three.
The response is here.
The response discloses details of three compound penalties (totalling c. £237,000) from August and September 2022 and April 2023. These had each been previously published, but had not previously been described as relating to Russian sanctions.
It is unclear why these penalties were not previously described as relating to breaches of Russian sanctions.
The FOIA request also asked for the names of the individuals or companies which were the subject of the penalties; whether any had self-reported; and what (if any) confiscation of the proceeds of crime was applied. These questions were not answered.
It has been reported that Estonia’s police and border guards have between them conducted over 240 inspections of vessels in waters of Estonia’s economic zone in the last 6 months. Estonia adopted the policy of conducting inspections in June of this year.
The vessels are said to belong to Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” and the inspections relate to verifying compliance with requirements such as valid insurance.
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.
Presenting a webinar this morning made me aware that this blog had missed a number of stories relating to Danish sanctions enforcement.
I have endeavoured to rectify that gap with a number of posts filling gaps from 2022 through to early 2024. Because I have back-dated the posts so that they appear in the correct sequence it made sense to collect them into a properly new post to highlight the additions.
Importantly, between February 2022 and August 2023 a total of 98 investigations were opened, with 16 referred to the police. In addition the police have charged a company and two individuals in relation to one particular case.
It is being reported that the Czech authorities have an unspecified number of ongoing investigations into Czech companies suspected of circumventing the EU’s Russian sanctions.
As per our earlier post from June 2023, it was then reported that Czechia had 40 ongoing investigations.
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.
It is being reported that Hungarian authorities have reached a settlement to resolve the prosecution of an individual identified as M.M.
The prosecution was based on importing car parts from Russia, via Belarus, in breach of the EU’s sanctions.
The imports are said to have been valued at HUF 35 million (€84,500), and the agreed settlement was for a fine HUF 1 million (€2,400), the confiscation of the imported parts and the payment of legal costs.
This is the first known example of an enforcement action in Hungary.
It is being reported that a German customs investigation has been commenced into the business affairs Jörg Dornau who is an MP in the Saxon state parliament.
It is alleged that he arranged for the export of machinery to Belarus in breach of EU trade sanctions.
It is alleged that the goods were first sent to Kazakhstan before then being on-shipped to a company in which the politician has interests in Belarus called Zybulka-Bel.
The press article mentions that before any prosecution could be brought the MP’s immunity would need to first be lifted.
It is being reported that a Belarusian businessman resident in Latvia is being prosecuted for alleged exports to Belarus in breach of the EU’s sanctions.
The businessman, Igor Medved, is also reported to be preparing a guilty plea.
It is alleged that through his company, Nordwoc Limited, exports of sanctioned machinery have been made to Belarus. The precise type of machinery is not specified in the reports.
The investigation by the State Security Service was first made public in October 2023, at which time a freeze was also imposed on the shares of Nordwoc.
The prosecution is reported to be seeking a two-year custodial sentence, a fine of €225,000 and confiscation of €30,000 as well as confiscation of the shares of Nordwoc.
