- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Neil Hodge2024-08-28T16:03:00
Sanctions imposed against Russia following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine are being undermined by the U.K.’s poor track record of enforcement, according to a report by campaign group Spotlight on Corruption.
The report, titled “All bark and no bite?: Taking stock of the U.K.’s enforcement of sanctions,” said that up until publication on July 24, there had been no fines for breaches of financial sanctions imposed since 2022; no convictions for sanctions evasion since 2012; and no assets permanently seized through civil or criminal action related to sanctions violations–despite the U.K. government having appropriate legal powers.
The report pointed out at the time that the HM Treasury’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) has only “named and shamed” one firm, a nonmonetary penalty against Wise Payments in August 2023, and is yet to issue a single fine for post-invasion breaches of Russian financial sanctions in spite of reporting 172 live investigations by the end of March 2023.
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