In Finland, a businessman was sentenced to prison for circumventing sanctions against Russia
The South Karelia District Court in Finland sentenced the owner of Idän Liikenteenvälitys IL Oy to 3 years and 8 months in prison for a gross violation of the EU’s sanctions regime against Russia. This is one of the harshest sentences handed down in such cases in the country.
In addition to the prison sentence, the company was ordered to forfeit approximately 600,000 euros in illegally obtained profits, and the court also ordered the confiscation of assets worth 6 million euros.
The sentence is close to the maximum, as Finnish law provides for up to four years in prison for gross violations of the sanctions regime.
According to the court, there have been no similar precedents in Finnish judicial practice.
The court found that in 2022–2023, the company Idän Liikenteenvälitys Oy exported 164 trucks and trailers to Russia using a scheme to circumvent sanctions.
The documents listed companies from Turkey and Kazakhstan as the buyers and final recipients of the equipment, but in reality, the vehicles ended up in Russia.
It is noted that the scheme was made possible because European Union sanctions did not apply to the transit of goods through Russian territory.
During the court proceedings, the company’s owner stated that he had been the victim of fraud and was unaware of the actual destination of the shipments.
According to him, he was convinced that all the equipment was being supplied to Kazakhstani companies and did not suspect that it might end up in Russia.
However, the court concluded that the entrepreneur played a key role in carrying out the scheme, since without his participation, it would have been impossible to purchase and transport the vehicles from Finland to Russia.
Earlier, a U.S. federal court sentenced Russian citizen Natalia Mazulina to 18 months in prison for participating in a scheme to illegally supply American industrial equipment to Russia in circumvention of sanctions.
As a reminder, at a summit in Brussels on June 18, the European Union decided for the first time to extend sanctions against Russia not for the standard six months, but for a full year. In doing so, the EU is departing from its previous practice of regularly reviewing sanctions every six months.
The EU Council is expected to officially approve the new sanctions package in the coming weeks, according to Deutsche Welle.
