It has been reported today that the UK’s National Crime Agency is investigating possible sanctions breaches by six companies and individuals associated with Petr Aven who is a designated person under the UK’s sanctions.
The authorities have obtained Account Freezing Orders over two accounts allegedly holding £1.5 million and these orders are being challenged by Mr Aven.
OFSI has published its Annual Report for 2021-2022, top include the period up to the end of August 2022.
The report makes interesting reading on licencing and on the plans to grow OFSI’s head count to more than 100 staff.
The report notes that OFSI received 147 reports of suspected sanctions breaches, with a “significant” increase since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
It has been reported that the National Crime Agency has confirmed the arrests of 10 individuals suspected of helping designated persons evade sanctions.
The arrests are said to include lawyers, solicitors and other regulated professionals.
The same reports have noted the use of the art market as an avenue being used to evade asset freezes.
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has fined Ghana International Bank Plc for sanctions compliance failures, including a lack of periodic screening, only screening after onboarding had been completed, and an insufficiently detailed or practical sanctions policy.
The bank was fined £5,829,900 after a 30% reduction for cooperation and early settlement.
HMRC has announced that British national Alexander George has been ordered to pay £700,000 in a confiscation order issued by the Southwark Crown Court. The funds are the proceeds of crime related to his conviction for exporting parts for jet fighters to Iran.
For more on his conviction back in 2018 see our earlier post.
OFSI has today announced a civil penalty of £15,000 against Tracerco Limited for a breach of the EU’s Syrian sanctions.
OFSI’s Penalty Notice is available here.
The breaches related to airline tickets valued at £2,956.43 purchased for a Tracerco employee through a travel agency. The airline in question, however, was Syrian Arab Airlines which is designated under the EU’s sanctions.
OFSI, therefore, concluded that purchasing the tickets amounted to making funds available to a designated person. OFSI also commented, in relation to the requirement that it showed Tracerco either knew or had reasonable grounds to suspect that the transactions would breach the regulations, that operating in the region was sufficient to satisfy this requirement.
It has been reported that the authorities in Jersey have conducted raids as part of an investigation relating to Roman Abramovich.
As part of the investigation it is also being reported that £7 billion in assets have been frozen.
The UK’s HM Revenue and Customs has today announced the imposition of 10 compound penalties in relation to failures to comply with the UK’s export control regulations for dual-use and military goods. The fines were imposed between March and November 2021.
HMRC’s Notice to Exporters can be found here.
In line with HMRC’s standard practice the compound penalties are anonymised and of low value, with little information made available. The information provided is supplied below.
Continue reading “UK’s HMRC imposes 10 fines for export control violations”
OFSI has today issued a second penalty for breach of the EU’s Russian sanctions, again using its civil enforcement powers.
The penalty notice is available here.
The penalty, of £36,393.45, was imposed on Clear Junction Limited. The transactions in this case are the same as those relating to TransferGo, although OFSI makes clear that it was Clear Junction which reported the transactions. It is noteworthy that some of the impugned transactions took place after the first report to OFSI.
OFSI’s notice also makes the point that the breach here was of the EU’s Russian sanctions, and that post-Brexit OFSI will continue to investigate breaches of the EU’s regulations that may have taken place before Brexit.
