The EU dropped Ferdinand Ilunga Luyoyo from its Democratic Republic of the Congo sanctions regime after he successfully challenged his listing in the EU General Court. In April, the court ruled Luyoyo no longer holds positions that justify his designation as a sanctioned party under the list and said not enough evidence establishes a link between him and the security situation in the DRC (see 2204290026). His request was declined in 2019.
Singapore State Courts fined Chin Yew Wen, a Singaporean national, $2.38 million (in Singapore dollars) for evading Goods and Services Tax, Singapore Customs announced July 5. Should the defendant not pay, he will spend 32 months in prison. The sole director of freight forwarding company GLS Shipping, Chin pleaded guilty to two charges of fraudulently evading GST, two similar charges and four other charges of falsification of documents after Singapore Customs found discrepancies between the importer's Cargo Clearance Permits and GLS's permits. Customs said Chin gave the agency fraudulent values of the goods when making declarations for the permits, reflecting lower values than the value of the goods and pocketing the difference in the GST paid. The evaded GST amounted to $433,484.49.
The EU appointed one new judge, reappointed four and filled two vacancies, the European Council announced June 29.
The EU General Court on June 27 dismissed an application from sanctioned Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov for interim measures, according to an unofficial translation. The court ruled his application didn't show urgency or serious irreparable harm because Usmanov only discussed his damages that stemmed from the financial viability of three subsidiaries of USM Holding. Usmanov has a 49% share of the subsidiaries and thus does not control them, the court pointed out. As such, the applicant failed to show a direct causal link between the subsidiaries' finances and his placement, made in February, on the EU's Russian sanctions list.
Teo Song Cheong, a Singaporean national, was sentenced by the State Courts to pay a $7,000 fine for failing to keep the bills of lading for exported goods in 2021, Singapore Customs announced June 28. Teo is the director of freight forwarding company Maple-Gold Pte. and local transportation service firm Akarui Pte. He pleaded guilty to one charge of failing to retain trade documents following Singapore Customs' investigations into his companies' Cargo Clearance Permits used for cigarettes shipped to Australia. Checks of the shipments in Australia discovered plastic film rolls instead of the cigarettes.
Alexander Abramov, co-founder of Russian steel company Evraz, filed a case at the Federal Court of Australia challenging his placement on Australia's Russia sanctions list, The Guardian reported this month. Abramov lives in Switzerland, has made an estimated $6 billion from the Russian steel industry and was sanctioned by Australia in April. Counsel for Abramov told The Guardian that the billionaire "doesn’t satisfy the definition of a person who should be on the sanctions list" since he does not have the "requisite influence" on the Russian regime to qualify as a sanctioned individual. Abramov does not have business in Australia, but he does reportedly own property in New Zealand.
The EU General Court in a June 22 judgment rejected the application from businessman George Haswani to annul the European Council's decision maintaining his listing on the Syria sanctions regime, according to an unofficial translation. The court ruled the council gave sufficient precise and consistent evidence to show Haswani is an influential businessman in Syria given his interests in HESCO Engineering and Construction. This allowed the court to rule his listing should be maintained because Haswani failed to rebut the presumption that he is tied to the Syrian regime.
The U.K. Court of Appeal in a June 21 judgment dismissed a case from Build-a-Bear Workshop over the classification of accessories for its stuffed bear imports. Build-a-Bear originally filed the case to avoid the 4.7% duty rate for the accessories, which included clothing and wigs, footwear, plastic and textile hearts and animal accessories, and seek duty-free treatment. In March, the Upper Tribunal Tax and Chancery sided with Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs agency that the accessories should be classified as "other toys" (see 2104010047).
Manfred Low Cheng Jing, a Singaporean national, was sentenced to 15 weeks in prison by the Singapore State Courts for obstructing investigations into alleged violations of the U.N. sanctions regime on North Korea, the Singaporean 24-hour news channel CNA reported. Low worked as a director of oil trading and bunkering company Yuk Tung Energy in 2018 while it was being investigated by the Singapore Police Force over a ship-to-ship transfer of "gasoil" from the MT Yuk Tung ship to the North Korean-flagged ship Rye Song Gang 1. A commercial arrangement was made to have Yuk Tung Energy charter the MT Yuk Tung. Through his position, Low tallied invoices over the company's business dealings and reviewed contracts, explaining them to the company's "key decision-maker," Benito Aloria Yap.
A U.K. court ordered Alexander George, a U.K. citizen and former company boss, to pay over $851,000 relating to export control violations, Revenue & Customs announced. George was convicted in 2018 of violating U.K. export controls by exporting fighter jet parts to Iran and sentenced to two and a half years in prison over the illicit scheme. If the defendant fails to pay the court-ordered penalty on time, he will see another three months in prison, Revenue & Customs said, with the fine still due.