Manfred Low Cheng Jing, a Singaporean national, was sentenced to 15 weeks in prison by the Singapore State Courts for obstructing investigations into alleged violations of the U.N. sanctions regime on North Korea, the Singaporean 24-hour news channel CNA reported. Low worked as a director of oil trading and bunkering company Yuk Tung Energy in 2018 while it was being investigated by the Singapore Police Force over a ship-to-ship transfer of "gasoil" from the MT Yuk Tung ship to the North Korean-flagged ship Rye Song Gang 1. A commercial arrangement was made to have Yuk Tung Energy charter the MT Yuk Tung. Through his position, Low tallied invoices over the company's business dealings and reviewed contracts, explaining them to the company's "key decision-maker," Benito Aloria Yap.

A U.K. court ordered Alexander George, a U.K. citizen and former company boss, to pay over $851,000 relating to export control violations, Revenue & Customs announced. George was convicted in 2018 of violating U.K. export controls by exporting fighter jet parts to Iran and sentenced to two and a half years in prison over the illicit scheme. If the defendant fails to pay the court-ordered penalty on time, he will see another three months in prison, Revenue & Customs said, with the fine still due.

The Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland, the nation's highest court, ruled in a key tax case to halt cooperation with Russia, according to an unofficial translation. The court said in a June 7 statement that the measure is in line with recent action taken by the Swiss Federal Council and Federal Office of Justice to suspend the mutual assistance procedures for criminal justice with Russia. The case itself stems from a 2018 request from Russian authorities over information on Swiss bank accounts for a case they were pursuing. In 2019, Swiss tax regulators complied with the request, leading to the lawsuit from the involved individual and companies seeking the court to halt such compliance. The Supreme Court ruled on May 31 to halt all cooperation in the case until at least September.

The EU General Court dismissed an application for "interim measures" made by an individual listed under the EU's Russia sanctions regime. The court ruled that the application didn't show a good prima facie case and that there was no urgency or serious irreparable harm in the matter, thus no need was presented to suspend the pending restrictive measures, according to an unofficial translation. The court has ruled in the same way on all interim measures cases on restrictive measures.

The EU General Court in a June 1 judgment dismissed an application from sanctioned individual Yevgeniy Prigozhin to revoke the European Council acts including and maintaining his designation under the Libya sanctions regime. Prigozhin was originally listed due to his standing as a Russian businessman with links to the paramilitary Wagner Group. He filed his case to argue that the council relied on inadmissible evidence to make the sanctions decisions. The court rejected this claim, holding that the evidence, which includes UN reports and press articles, appears sound and reliable and thus contains "some probative value."

Fiji's Supreme Court delayed a U.S. bid to seize a $325 million superyacht allegedly belonging to a sanctioned Russian billionaire, granting the yacht's registered owner, Millemarin Investments, a temporary stay on a previous ruling that would have allowed the U.S. to seize the ship this week, according to documents from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Bloomberg reported June 2.

Russia announced new sanctions against a host of U.S. citizens, including a trade lawyer and several former and current U.S. attorneys, according to an unofficial translation of a May 21 notice. Among those designated were Kevin Wolf, an Akin Gump export control lawyer, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, U.S. Assistant Deputy Attorney General Lawrence Atkinson and other former and current district attorneys.

The EU General Court in a May 18 judgment rejected an application from Syrian businessman Amer Foz to annul the European Council actions listing and then maintaining his listing on the Syria sanctions list. Subjecting Amer Foz to sanctions due to his family business interests and association with his brother, Samer, whose sanctions listing predates Amer's, is "well founded," the court said.

The EU Court of Justice in a May 12 opinion dismissed Evariste Boshab's challenge of the General Court's decision to uphold his placement on the EU's Democratic Republic of the Congo sanctions list, according to an unofficial translation. Boshab had argued at the General Court and then at the ECJ that the European Council infringed on his right to be heard during the proceeding that saw his continued listing. The EU's high court said a formal hearing wasn't needed to guarantee an individual's right to be heard.

Fiji's High Court in a May 3 order gave the U.S. and local authorities permission to seize the Amadea, a $325 million mega-yacht whose ownership is in dispute. The U.S. said sanctioned Russian billionaire Suleyman Kerimov owns the yacht. A lawyer representing the company that the vessel is registered under told Bloomberg the yacht is owned by another businessman not on any sanctions lists. The High Court further gave lawyers representing this second businessman until May 4 to file a stay order, Bloomberg reported. The U.K. and the EU in March sanctioned Kerimov for his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The U.S. sanctioned him in 2018.