The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation fined London-based financial institution Clear Junction more than $49,000 for violating the country's sanctions on those violating the territorial sovereignty of Ukraine. From March to June 2018, Clear Junction conducted 15 transactions with accounts held at the EU-designated Russian National Commercial Bank. Clear Junction then made funds available to an individual designated under the Ukraine sanctions regime, OFSI said. Clear Junction made a voluntary disclosure, dropping the penalty by 26.7%. The financial services firm detailed eight of the transactions, but further investigation revealed nondisclosed payments from Clear Junction. TransferGo initiated the transactions, giving a Russian Bank Identification Code to Clear Junction to enable the transactions, OFSI said. TransferGo was fined in August for its role in the scheme.

The French Court of Cassation requested the European Court of Justice to interpret an element of the EU's sanctions on Iraq. The request comes in a case brought by Dutch air pollution control equipment company Instrubel NV in which a French court found that "preventative attachments" against Montana Management -- a trust fund formerly owned by Saddam Hussein -- were void because Montana hadn't been served. Montana was placed under the EU's Iraq sanctions regime in 2006, an EU Sanctions blog post said. Instead of serving Montana, the Iraqi government was served in the case. The Iraqi government in 2011 took control over the mandate of the Development Fund of Iraq, which the U.N. set up in 2003 to distribute assets seized from the Iraqi regime.

Singapore Customs arrested two Singaporean nationals Jan. 23 following a raid that discovered a total of 500 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes, the customs agency said. Customs officers conducted the operation in an industrial building around Eunos Avenue 3 after keeping watch on a unit in the building "that was suspected to be used for storing duty-unpaid cigarettes." The total amount of Goods and Services tax evaded by the two men totaled $68,320 and $5,100 (in Singapore dollars), respectively. The pair were charged in court on Jan. 25, Singapore Customs said.

Europe's top court, the European Court of Justice, annulled an EU General Court ruling which struck down the European Commission's antidumping duties on imports of certain seamless pipes and tubes of iron (other than cast iron) or steel (other than stainless steel) from China. The Jan. 20 decision from the ECJ said that the General Court was wrong to hold that the commission was required to consider the effects of the dumped imports of every product type at issue sold by the industry for that product. The ECJ further ruled that the General Court erred when it required the commission to examine the extent to which the prices of the 17 product types may have contributed to the fall in the prices of the sampled EU producers. The decision sends the case back to the General Court, where litigation will resume over the fate of the antidumping duties.

Vietnam's Quang Nam Customs Department will prosecute importer H.T.P Import & Export Co. for smuggling 88 tons of refined sugar into the Thang Binh district, the state-run CustomsNews said Jan. 15. A shipment of 200 tons of refined Thai sugar was detected in July in eight containers brought in by H.T.P and registered at Dien Nam-Dien Ngoc Industrial Park Customs Branch, the report said. Following an investigation, the H.T.P director said the company didn't sell 88 of the 200 tons of imported sugar and had borrowed the shipment of 200 tons of sugar to pay debts it owed to the P.H.H Trading Co., CustomsNews said. However, the investigating customs unit found that the amount at which the 88 tons were sold was below its value and thus amounted to smuggling. As a result, the Quang Nam Customs Department director transferred the case to the Quang Nam Provincial Police Investigation Agency for criminal prosecution.

A European Union law holding that entities cannot comply with the requirements in the laws of a third country applies even in the absence of an order to comply with the third country's laws, the European Court of Justice said in a December 2021 judgment. However, an EU company can terminate contracts with a person or entity subject to U.S. sanctions without giving reasons for such termination or without authorization from the European Commission, a summary of the judgment said. But, the European high court said the burden of proof is on the party terminating the contract to show it nixed the contract for a reason other than compliance with the third country laws.

Vietnam will prosecute a case involving goods and currency illegally transported across the Laos-Vietnam border, the state-run CustomsNews reported, according to an unofficial translation. Lao Bao Border Gate Customs Branch authorities inspected a vehicle and found two packages of goods, including $10,000 in cash, and over 1,700 grams of gold and 2,180 grams of silver with a total value of around $132,000. The customs branch transferred the case to Huong Hoa District Police, which will carry out the prosecution.

Vietnam Customs initiated criminal prosecution against a furniture importer for trading banned goods at the Cat Lai Port, the state-run CustomsNews site reported.The 1st zone Sai Gon Seaport Customs Branch started prosecution against Duy Phuong Anh Trading and Forwarding Services Co. for importing used furniture after declaring it new, the report said. The company registered a declaration to bring in 49 items of furniture, but after physical inspection it became clear that the items were used dining tables, display cabinets, clocks, tables and chairs, CustomsNews said. The incorrect declaration violated Vietnamese law for the goods valued at nearly $11,000, the report said. A Duy Phuong Anh spokesperson said that when the company company ordered the goods it didn't know that they were used goods.

The European Union General Court dropped the sanctions listing of former Ukrainian Minister of Revenue and Taxes Oleksandr Viktorovych Klymenko, annulling actions in March maintaining the designation, according to an unofficial translation. The ruling marks the fifth of its kind. The European Council used Ukraine's investigation of Klymenko for the embezzlement of public funds as the basis for the sanctions listing. The General Court, as it has done in the previous four rulings, said that the council hadn't adequately identified that the investigating judge had respected Klymenko's rights of defense or that the proceedings were being carried out in a reasonable time. This decision ends the matter because the Council didn't renew the sanctions listing in September 2021, an action that occurred after Klymenko in April 2021 initiated the latest petition for annulment of his listing.

Aluminum industry trade group European Aluminum, filed two lawsuits with the European Union General Court to challenge the nine-month suspension of the antidumping duties on aluminum flat-rolled products from China, the trade association said in a Dec. 20 press release. The group called the suspension "unjustified" and pointed to the alleged "damaging impact" such a move can have on the European industry. The first case challenges the suspension decision from the European Commission itself, while the second goes after the non-collection of the provisional antidumping duties that were already imposed at the time of the suspension.