Wanted to sell cooling systems
Man has to spend a long time in prison because of business dealings with Russia
December 13, 2023, 3:42 p.m
After the annexation of Crimea in 2014, which violated international law, the EU imposed trade restrictions against Russia. A businessman nevertheless signs a contract with a Russian shipyard. Therefore, a court has now sentenced him to many years in prison.
A businessman is sentenced to six years in prison because he wanted to sell cooling systems to Russia and thereby violated sanctions. According to court information, the Hamburg regional court convicted the man of violating foreign trade law and tax evasion. The court also ordered the confiscation of a good 5.3 million euros in proceeds from the crime.
As a managing director of a company, the convicted man signed a contract with a Russian shipyard at the beginning of 2020. Accordingly, he was supposed to deliver ten chillers and two marine provision cooling systems for a sum of millions. At the time of the deal, Russia had not yet attacked Ukraine, but trade restrictions were already in place after Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in 2014.
The Federal Office of Economics and Export Control therefore refused the export license applied for by the businessman. Although he knew about the embargo, the businessman then ordered the systems from his supplier’s Indian subsidiary.