HM Revenue and Customs has issued a press release relating to yesterday’s conviction of David Greenhalgh and Christos Farmakis on multiple counts (nine and ten respectively) of unlawful exports of military hardware in breach of UK sanctions and arms embargos under the Export Control Order 2008.
Mr Farmakis was tried in absentia with HMRC stating that he is thought to currently be in Greece and that HMRC is “working with international partners to bring him to the UK to face justice”.
Sentencing is due to take place in July, with the judge reported as saying that Mr Greenhalgh should expect a lengthy custodial sentence.
The unlicensed sales and exports were to Sudan, South Sudan and Libya between 2009 and 2016 and were largely of ex-Soviet equipment including “ex-Soviet jets, surface-to-air missile systems, anti-tank missiles, thousands of assault rifles and other controlled goods”.
The transactions were conducted through Mr Greenhalgh’s companies and involved circuitous transport routes as well as faked end-user certificates.
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