An Amsterdam-based company has been fined for violating sanctions imposed against Russia.
The Amsterdam company and its director have entered into a settlement agreement as part of a deal to settle out-of-court suspicions about violating the Sanctions Act.
The company has agreed to pay a fine of 195,000 euros because of payments made in the form of dividends that went to a Russian beneficiary. According to the Netherlands Public Prosecutions Service, the director of the company will also have to pay 20,000 euro fine.
The Netherlands Public Prosecutions Service say that the company and director violated the law on sanctions that were imposed between 2014 and 2022 – after Russia took control of Crimea but before the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Amsterdam-based company paid about 18 million euros in dividends to one of its two shareholders at the end of 2021. This shareholder was a Russian company, whose beneficiary, according to the Netherlands Public Prosecutions Service, was a sanctioned person.
In addition, the Netherlands Public Prosecutions Service believes that the company did not freeze the shares of its Russian shareholder in accordance with the Law on Sanctions. The Netherlands Public Prosecutions Service notes that the ownership structure of the company has recently changed, but it is believed that the co-owner from Russia still retains control of the company.
