A Russian government institute has developed a complex program for evaluating the level of corruption, which its authors say is superior to the widely advertised, but very subjective Transparency International index. The new method will be presented by the Institute of Law and Comparative Jurisprudence at the Eurasian Anti-Corruption Forum this week, the Izvestia daily […]

Herbert Smiths Corporate Crime and Investigations team have published an e-bulletin summarising recent developments in the EU’s sanctions imposed against Russia. It includes points of interest arising from the recent judgment in Rosneft’s judicial review application, which concerned certain aspects of the UK’s implementation of the sanctions. The High Court has referred a number of […]

The following provides an overview of (a) yesterday’s addition of new names to the list of persons and entities subject to the asset freeze and travel ban; (b) clarification on the grandfathering of pre-existing contracts in relation to restricted tourism activities in Crimea and Sevastopol; and (c) some points of interest arising from the recent […]

EU Sanctions Update: EU Extends Sanctions against Syria And Amends Sanctions Against Libya And Somalia; Further Developments Relating To Ukraine/Russia This ebulletin summarises recent developments in various international sanctions regimes  At EU level these are relatively limited: The EU has announced additional sanctions in respect of the situation in Syria, extending the designated persons list […]

Independent newspaper Exclusive: Criminals and corrupt officials from around the globe take advantage of Britain’s lax corporate rules – An investigation by The Independent and the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, an NGO, has identified dozens of firms in a global web spreading from Birmingham to Belize. The scam appears to have gone on […]

The Independent is passing details of the transactions to the banks. Mr Sarco said: “We hope our colleagues [at Britain’s National Crime Agency] will uncover what activity took place in the UK, but our main difficulty is that the relevant authorities in the Russian Federation are being less co-operative.” He said he had contacted the […]

The EU has enacted new legislation expanding its existing sanctions against Russia. Herbert smith have published a briefing providing an overview of the new measures, namely: an expansion of the restrictions on dealing in transferable securities issued by listed Russian banks; the application of these restrictions to listed Russian companies in the military and oil […]

Call it the Laundromat. It’s a complex system for laundering more than $20 billion in Russian money stolen from the government by corrupt politicians or earned through organized crime activity. It was designed to not only move money from Russian shell companies into EU banks through Latvia, it had the added feature of getting corrupt […]