Court in Finland Sentences Entrepreneur to 3 Years and 8 Months for Circumventing EU Sanctions and Supplying Trucks to Russia
The South Karelia Court (Finland) on July 1 sentenced the owner of the company Idän liikenteenvälitys IL from Lappeenranta, finding him guilty of gross violation of the European Union sanctions regime.
The entrepreneur was sentenced to 3 years and 8 months imprisonment for organizing a scheme to supply heavy trucks to Russia circumventing sanctions, reports Yle.
In addition to the prison term, the court ordered the company to pay about 600,000 euros of illegally obtained profit and confiscated assets worth about 6 million euros.
According to the investigation, in 2022–2023 the company exported 164 trucks and trailers from Finland to Russia. Formally, the final recipients were companies from Turkey and Kazakhstan, but in fact the equipment ended up in Russia, and the operations were not transit shipments.
The court noted that similar verdicts for violating the sanctions regime have not been previously issued in Finland, and the imposed punishment is close to the maximum possible.
The accused did not admit guilt and claimed he was unaware of the final route of the equipment, believing the buyers to be companies from Kazakhstan. At the same time, the court established his key role in organizing the supplies, without which the scheme could not have been implemented.
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