The U.K.'s Westminster Magistrates Court on July 18 amended two account freezing orders (AFO) issued by the National Crime Agency against two companies that were managing the financial and security needs of sanctioned Russian oligarch Petr Aven, the EU Sanctions blog reported. Aven led Russia's largest commercial bank Alfa Bank until March. In June, the U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation granted a basic needs license on behalf of Aven for funds to be paid to and from the accounts under the AFOs. While the court said the AFO and OFSI regimes held different purposes, it found it appropriate to vary the terms of the AFOs to be consistent with the terms of a basic needs license granted by OFSI to Aven, the blog post said.

The European Council appointed Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger of Austria to the EU General Court, the council announced July 20. Three judges -- Ioannis Dimitrakopoulos of Greece, Tihamer Toth of Hungary and Gerhard Hesse of Austria -- were reappointed. Terms for all four begin Sept. 1 and run through Aug. 31, 2028.

The England and Wales High Court adjourned a trial involving Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, only recently releasing the May 6 judgment publicly. Deripaska was sanctioned by many of the world's leading economies in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. As a result, the defendant cannot pay his lawyers for legal representation in the present case, so the legal team is "coming off the record." The lawyers applied to adjourn to avoid an unfair trial. In vacating the case, Justice Sara Cockerill ruled she is "satisfied in this significant hard-fought and complex case a fair trial would not be possible -- however dim a view one takes of Mr Deripaska's past actions." The case involves a long-running dispute over alleged breaches by Deripaska, with Navigator Equities obtaining an arbitral award against the oligarch.

The EU dropped Ferdinand Ilunga Luyoyo from its Democratic Republic of the Congo sanctions regime after he successfully challenged his listing in the EU General Court. In April, the court ruled Luyoyo no longer holds positions that justify his designation as a sanctioned party under the list and said not enough evidence establishes a link between him and the security situation in the DRC (see 2204290026). His request was declined in 2019.

Singapore State Courts fined Chin Yew Wen, a Singaporean national, $2.38 million (in Singapore dollars) for evading Goods and Services Tax, Singapore Customs announced July 5. Should the defendant not pay, he will spend 32 months in prison. The sole director of freight forwarding company GLS Shipping, Chin pleaded guilty to two charges of fraudulently evading GST, two similar charges and four other charges of falsification of documents after Singapore Customs found discrepancies between the importer's Cargo Clearance Permits and GLS's permits. Customs said Chin gave the agency fraudulent values of the goods when making declarations for the permits, reflecting lower values than the value of the goods and pocketing the difference in the GST paid. The evaded GST amounted to $433,484.49.

The EU General Court on June 27 dismissed an application from sanctioned Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov for interim measures, according to an unofficial translation. The court ruled his application didn't show urgency or serious irreparable harm because Usmanov only discussed his damages that stemmed from the financial viability of three subsidiaries of USM Holding. Usmanov has a 49% share of the subsidiaries and thus does not control them, the court pointed out. As such, the applicant failed to show a direct causal link between the subsidiaries' finances and his placement, made in February, on the EU's Russian sanctions list.

The EU appointed one new judge, reappointed four and filled two vacancies, the European Council announced June 29.

Teo Song Cheong, a Singaporean national, was sentenced by the State Courts to pay a $7,000 fine for failing to keep the bills of lading for exported goods in 2021, Singapore Customs announced June 28. Teo is the director of freight forwarding company Maple-Gold Pte. and local transportation service firm Akarui Pte. He pleaded guilty to one charge of failing to retain trade documents following Singapore Customs' investigations into his companies' Cargo Clearance Permits used for cigarettes shipped to Australia. Checks of the shipments in Australia discovered plastic film rolls instead of the cigarettes.

Alexander Abramov, co-founder of Russian steel company Evraz, filed a case at the Federal Court of Australia challenging his placement on Australia's Russia sanctions list, The Guardian reported this month. Abramov lives in Switzerland, has made an estimated $6 billion from the Russian steel industry and was sanctioned by Australia in April. Counsel for Abramov told The Guardian that the billionaire "doesn’t satisfy the definition of a person who should be on the sanctions list" since he does not have the "requisite influence" on the Russian regime to qualify as a sanctioned individual. Abramov does not have business in Australia, but he does reportedly own property in New Zealand.

The EU General Court in a June 22 judgment rejected the application from businessman George Haswani to annul the European Council's decision maintaining his listing on the Syria sanctions regime, according to an unofficial translation. The court ruled the council gave sufficient precise and consistent evidence to show Haswani is an influential businessman in Syria given his interests in HESCO Engineering and Construction. This allowed the court to rule his listing should be maintained because Haswani failed to rebut the presumption that he is tied to the Syrian regime.