Finnish Customs has uncovered an aggravated regulation offence – electronics purchased from international online stores are suspected of having been exported to Russia via intermediate storage
Finnish Customs is investigating a criminal case where a company operating in eastern Finland is suspected of having exported sanctioned electronics to Russia on several occasions. The goods arrived in Finland as air freight, after which they were attempted to be exported via the company’s intermediate storage in eastern Finland by road to Russia in 2022. The value of the sanctioned goods has been around 700 000 euros.
The EU has imposed extensive sanctions against Russia, and Finnish Customs protects society by controlling sanctioned products. Customs has started more than 800 investigations of regulation offences related to violation of sanctions. Around 90 of these cases are being investigated as suspected aggravated regulation offences.
“Most Finnish companies operate in an exemplary manner, but the cases investigated by Customs show that there are also, unfortunately, exceptions. Every company engaged in international trade is, for its part, responsible for compliance with the sanctions and for ensuring that the sanctions have the appropriate effect, but if necessary, we can also assess the matter through our criminal investigation, says Hannu Sinkkonen, Director of Enforcement.
Systematic activity – more than one hundred goods controls concerning exports by the company
The preliminary investigation by Finnish Customs shows that a customs warehouse company operating in eastern Finland had delivered a considerable quantity of sanctioned products to Russia in March–December 2022. The goods had arrived as air freight at Helsinki Airport, and they had been transported from there to the company’s warehouse in Virolahti. The company had attempted to export the goods from its warehouse to Russia by road via Vaalimaa.
“We have performed more than one hundred goods controls concerning exports by the suspected company. These exports have contained electronics subject to the sanctions against Russia, such as drones, processors, smartphones, computers and echo sounders, and their export value has been around 700 000 euros”, says Sanna Kuparinen, investigator in charge.
The criminal case is being investigated as an aggravated regulation offence. The preliminary investigation has revealed that the goods were purchased mainly from American online stores, and the consignee in Russia was the Russian postal service. Seven persons have been questioned as suspects in the preliminary investigation. The suspects had managerial and forwarding tasks in the company engaged in international forwarding. Finnish Customs has cooperated with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs to establish which goods were subject to sanctions.