It has been reported today that the Polish Interior Ministry has confirmed an investigation into the alleged importation of timber from Belarus.
The allegations include that the timber was accompanied by forged documentation purporting to show a Kazakhstan origin for the timber.
Other investigations into alleged imports of timber from Russia or Belarus in breach of EU sanctions are underway in:
In not commenting on whether a specific investigation was or was not ongoing , the Dutch Foreign Ministry has confirmed publicly that there are currently 192 ongoing investigations into possible Russian sanctions breaches.
Further to our earlier post from September 2023 there were at that stage 55 ongoing investigations.
The new figures indicate that 137 new investigations have been commenced since September last year.
No further information has been released on the status or nature of those investigations.
It is being reported that the German customs authorities have seized a cargo of Russian timber bound for the United States valued at over $40 million.
The seizure arose because the vessel carrying the timber to the United States was required to call into the port of Rostock due to technical difficulties.
The customs authorities have taken the view that this amounts to an import into the EU of sanctioned timber products from Russia. This determination is currently the subject of an appeal.
The Canadian company, Atlantic Ro-Ro Carriers owns the vessel involved.
It is also being reported that 10% of the cargo is products of a company owned or controlled by a person designated under the EU’s sanctions.
On Friday the Antwerp Public Prosecutor’s office announced that it conducted six raids and arrested four individuals in relation to suspected breaches of the EU’s trade sanctions relating to Russian diamonds.
It is being reported that the investigation arose after the seizure of a cargo of diamonds on February, and that a total of three shipments had been seized with a reported value of over €8 million.
This blog has been live now for just over two months.
During that time and by way of recap, a number of states have provided updated enforcement statistics in that period (Finland, Switzerland, Latvia), but the period has also seen a significant volume of new enforcement activity:
Continue reading “European sanctions enforcement: the last two months”
In line with the parallel example from Lithuania, the Latvian authorities have imposed their first fine for breach of the ban on Russian registered vehicles.
The driver was fined €750 and the car was confiscated.
The Director of the Customs Administration within the Latvian State Revenue Service (VID) has been reported as saying that a total of 7,789 violations of sanctions imposed on Russia and Belarus were detected during 2023.
It is unclear what the Customs Administration did with these detected breaches, and whether those involved were investigated, charged or prosecuted.
We have previously reported that Latvia has, to date, commenced 310 criminal prosecutions and obtained a total of 7 convictions for sanctions offences.
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.
