Dutch court jails Russian man for sanctions evasion
The Dutch court service has announced that the court in Rotterdam has, 31 October, ‘sentenced a man from Russia to 18 months in prison and the company he headed to a fine of 200,000 euros [after it was] established that they have violated sanctions applicable to trade with Russia.’
It said thatthe suspect ‘was guilty for a period of more than seven months of setting up and implementing a construction in violation of (European) sanctions legislation to export dual-use electronic goods and goods that could contribute to military reinforcement. to companies based in Russia,’ and that ‘these companies were active or closely linked to the Russian arms industry and defense companies.’
It explained that the man, (whom the court press release has not named, but is named by Dutch newspapers as ‘Dmitri K.’), ‘ordered sanctioned goods from suppliers/producers, in some cases with “End User Statement forms” with a fictitious company in Ukraine as the end user.’
Upon receipt of the goods, it said, ‘[T]he suspect (sic) checked them for accuracy and completeness and, after coordination with employees of Russian companies, created false commercial invoices for the export declarations, which listed a company in the Maldives as a customer. The sanctioned goods were collected from his home and the fake invoices were used to export them via the Maldives, with Russia as the real final destination.’
The court said that by his actions, the man ‘consciously and deliberately circumvented the restrictions imposed by the European Union and thus undermined international and national legislation [and has thus] seriously damaged the intended purpose of the sanctions, which is to cut off critical technology for Russia that could contribute to the technological improvement of Russia’s defense and security sector.’
And, it said, ‘with the falsely drawn up invoices, the suspect has seriously betrayed the trust that must be placed in such documents within society and – in particular – within international trade.’
