UK issues largest penalty for financial sanctions breaches since Russia’s 2022 illegal invasion of Ukraine

The United Kingdom has imposed its largest ever penalty for a breach of Russian financial sanctions since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The £1 million fine has been levied against a technology firm – Sabre Global Technologies Limited (SGTL) – that repeatedly breached UK financial sanctions.  

The action by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) – part of HM Treasury – underlines the UK’s increasingly robust enforcement of the Russia sanctions regime in support of Ukraine and sends clear compliance lessons to industry.

The penalty is also the first issued by OFSI for a circumvention offence, and comes as the UK steps up enforcement action on those seeking to evade our sanctions regime. 

SGTL, which provides travel technology services, continued to provide Russian carrier Ural Airlines access to its Global Distribution System service for seven months after it was designated by the UK in May 2022. SGTL was notified of the designation on the day it took effect.

After payments to its UK bank were blocked for sanctions concerns, SGTL explored alternative ways of receiving payments from Ural Airlines.

This included asking Ural Airlines to send a test payment to a non-UK SGTL bank account, intending for future settlements to be routed through this account. This amounted to circumvention of UK sanctions.

Those who seek to evade our sanctions regime and support Putin’s cronies should be in no doubt, we will come after you.