Dutch construction equipment supplier Dieseko has agreed to pay €1.78m to settle a case brought by the Netherlands Public Prosecution Service (NPPS) for selling machinery and technical assistance to Russian companies building the Kerch Strait bridge to Crimea.
The company said it had agreed to the prosecutor’s proposal that it pay a fine of €180,000 and a further €1,600,000 to cover its profit from the work.
It sold pile-driving machines to companies working on the bridge between 2015 and 2016 in violation of EU trade sanctions brought against Russia following its annexation of Crimea in 2014.
The NPPS said it considered the settlement “appropriate and effective”.
It said: “Dieseko acknowledged the facts and has not previously been convicted of criminal offences. Remediation measures and compliance measures to prevent (re)committing of offences have also been taken by Dieseko.”
Raymonde Wagemaker, Dieseko’s chief executive, commented: “At Dieseko, we provide our machines and technical support to customers worldwide in a truthful manner in accordance with applicable laws and regulations and with sharp moral awareness.
“Unfortunately, this was not the case in the past in relation to this project. We regret this situation and strongly disapprove of it. We offer our sincere apologies in this respect.”
The company said it had instituted a number of measures to improve its compliance with legal requirements, including policies on sanctions and export control, whistleblowing and the closer monitoring of its compliance with national, European and international regulations.
The investigation was undertaken after newspaper De Gelderlander published an article in September 2017 on the involvement of Dutch companies in the construction of the Crimean Bridge.
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