It has been reported in Ireland that four suspected breaches of Russian sanctions have been reported to the Gardaí for investigation.
No further details on the investigations or the alleged conduct were reported.
See our earlier post for a case for criminal prosecution being referred by the Gardaí to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The Criminal Customs Service of Lithuania has undertaken its first enforcement of the EU sanctions which prevents a Russian-registered car from driving in Lithuania.
The car in question, valued at over €40,000 was confiscated and the driver was fined.
It is being reported today that the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland has commenced a criminal prosecution in a case handed to it from SECO.
Neither the name of the company involved, nor the sector, nor the alleged offences have been made public.
It is also being reported that the Office of the Attorney General has rejected a second case referred to it by SECO.
The same report quotes SECO as saying that it has received 240 reports of possible sanctions breaches and had imposed 10 penalties. As in our earlier post , last month SECO was quoted as saying it had imposed 9 fines, indicating that a further fine has been imposed since. No further details are known of this fine.
It has been reported today that French national Gabriel Temin has been convicted in Finland for exporting military goods to Russia in breach of EU sanctions.
He was given a suspended 9-month sentence and fined €11,000.
He was acquitted on a number of other more serious charges, and other defendants were acquitted as well. The prosecution had alleged that nearly 3,000 drones had been exported to Russia, but the court found there was insufficient evidence for this. The sale was to a customer in Kazakhstan and there was only circumstantial evidence that the goods had been retained in transit within Russia.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Germany has charged two individuals (named as Waldemar W. and Natalie S.) with the export of electronic drone components to Russian in breach of EU sanctions.
The components were first imported into Germany and then exported via Kyrgyzstan and Hong-Kong. The charges relates to 54 separate shipments up to March 2023. The shipments date from both before and since the large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The total value of the components is stated as €875,000.
Waldemar W was the managing director of two involved companies incorporated in Saarland wand Natalie S managed a company in Baden-Württemberg. It is alleged that suppliers were provided with false end-user information which purported to confirm that the goods were to remain in Germany.
Waldemar W. has been in custody since 9 March 2023. Natalie S. was in custody previously but was subsequently released.
It is being reported today that officers from the Berlin-Brandenburg Customs Investigation Office and the Berlin State Police conducted raids on seven private and commercial addresses and arrested three people on suspicion of the unlawful export of luxury cars in breach of the EU’s Russian sanctions.
The sanctions prohibit the export of cars valued at more than €50,000.
The allegations relate to the export of 400 cars valued in total at €28 million. The cars are said to have been indirectly exported to Russia via Belarus since June 2022.
The German company Hörmann, which manufactures garages doors, gates and other products, is reported to be under investigation by the Public Prosecutor’s office in Germany. Also being investigated are the Hörmann subsidiaries Alutech Group based in Minsk and Eluteck Investments Limited based in Cyprus.
The company is reported to have denied the allegations which were first by WirtschaftsWoche in January 2024.
The allegations relate to the alleged importation of sanctioned goods from Belarus via Russia for the time when the products in question were prohibited from Belarus but were not prohibited imports from Russia.
It has been reported that the Danish Business Authority is currently investigating the Danish shipping company Hafnia for possible breaches of the EU’s Russian sanctions.
The allegations relate to the importation in October of 30 million litres of aviation fuel from a refinery in India which may be owned or controlled by designated persons.
Hafnia is reported to have denied the allegations and stated that it acts in full compliance with all relevant laws and regulations.
Comments by a United Nations rapporteur have revealed an ongoing criminal investigation into imports of timber products from Belarus allegedly in breach of EU sanctions.
The case was referred to prosecutors by the German customs authorities and raids were conducted in March 2023, and further investigatory steps have taken place this month.
The individual charged is Alena Bekker and the importing company was Texforum-Interhandel e.K.
Both appear to deny the allegations in part on the basis that the imports were done in accordance with grand-fathering provisions when the Belarus timber ban was introduced.
The Latvian State Security Service has today announced multiple raids and inspections took place last week in relation to an ongoing criminal investigation into plywood imports into Latvia where counterfeit documents mask the Russian or Belarusian origin of the products in favour of false origins in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
The importation of many timber products is prohibited under the EU’s Russian sanctions.
The report notes that the criminal proceedings were commenced in November 2023.
It is unclear whether this investigation in Latvia is related to a similar investigation into plywood imports being undertaken in Lithuania. See our earlier post.
UPDATE: The Latvian VDD has now provided some further clarification of the location of the raids including the premises in Valmiera of the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
