As part of the ongoing reporting of an investigation into the sale of a tugboat from Finland to Russia in breach of EU sanctions, it was reported today that the Finnish authorities are have been undertaking over 600 investigations into potential sanctions breaches since February 2022.
Sixty of these are said to be “aggravated” indicating that they are of a more serious, or high value, nature.
The Dutch have announced that the Public Prosecution Service is currently undertaking 55 criminal investigations into suspected breaches of Russian and Belarusian sanctions.
Little information on the breaches is available, but the authorities have stated that roughly two thirds relate to breaches of trade sanctions, and one third to financial sanctions.
As of December the number was at 27, meaning 28 have been added during 2023 to date.
It has been reported today that the German authorities have confirmed the commencement of an investigation following press reporting regarding whether German companies which attended a trade fair in Iran had done so in breach of EU sanctions.
It has been reported in a country-specific report on Sweden by the Royal United Services Institute that the Swedish customs authorities charged and prosecuted a company for Russian trade sanctions offences, but were unable to secure a conviction.
No further details were provided.
The Latvian State Security Service (VDD) has announced that it has forwarded a case to the Prosecution Service for the initiation of criminal proceedings relating to the export of luxury goods to Russian in breach of EU sanctions.
The luxury good in question was a car.
In another announcement today, the VDD has announced the referral of another case for prosecution relating to the import of iron and steel products from Belarus in breach of EU sanctions.
The Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service has announced the arrest of an employee of the Ministry of Defence on suspicion of exporting aircraft spare parts through various companies and countries to Russian in breach of the EU’s sanctions.
The announcement confirms that this is the second arrest in the same investigation with an earlier arrest and raid conducted on 29 August 2023.
It is being reported (behind a paywall) that an individual has been convicted by the Koblenz Regional Court for exporting engines for the “Altius” drones to Russia in breach of EU sanctions.
The 62-year old unidentified individual was sentenced to 5 years in prison.
The British authorities today announced the imposition by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) of a £1m compound penalty on an unnamed UK company for unlicensed exports to Russia in breach of the UK’s Russian sanctions regulations.
No further information has been released.
Update: as per our post of 28 February 2025, it has now been clarified that this fine was for the provision of “brokering and technical assistance”.
It is being reported that so far during 2023 a total of 45 investigations have been opened by the Danish Business Authority in relation to alleged breaches of the EU’s sanctions against Russia.
Of these:
No further details on the cases have been published.
It has been reported today that the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is investigating potential breaches of sanctions, after a “Made in Ireland” tag was found on components within drones used by Russia in Ukraine.
