The number of European companies involuntarily participated in business operations with countries or organizations affected by countries or organizationsSanctions are growing.
The increase has been registered since 2022 with the beginning of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
This is that the report of the Kleptores on the transcription, the research center of the Milan Catholic University, presented on Thursday in the Europol – the EU Cooperation Agency, based in the Hague – to representatives of the EU member states of 27 member states.
The study is connected by the European Union and focuses mainly on the sanctions introduced by the EU against Russia and the Kremlin related to the oligarchs since 2014 – the year of the annexation of Crimea – and especially in 2022, when the war between Russia and Ukraine began.
The report illustrates as dense networks of intermediate companies, often fictional and represented by facade people, which also act in jurisdictions that do not correspond to sanctions, have turned into sanctions into dry gunpowder.
At risk
Unconscious European companies often fall into these schemes, especially in SMEs that do not have the necessary tools for recognizing potential risk partners.
Giovanni Nikoolazzo, a researcher in the transcription and the co -author of the report, explains to Euronews: “The measures were introduced very quickly, and large economic operators managed to create adaptation systems. Small and medium -sized enterprises, on the contrary, continue to experience difficulties with assessing the risk of authorizing their shareholders. ”
Obtaining information about the companies with which it negotiates spends time and money. In the absence of automated systems, we are talking about conducting true transnational research using professional companies (lawyers and accountants) with exorbitant fees.
Nikolatszo adds: “In addition to identifying the effective beneficiary of the company, it is necessary to restore the entire supply chain to end users. Those who do not have access to the corresponding tools or databases are based on the simple self -control of the supplier or client, which are only not enough. ”
For experts and researchers, self -esteem is too easy working time compared to the speed and complexity of world trade and financial exchanges.
The most open sectors of this type of incident are: electronic components, mechanical engineering, aeronautics and, of course, the so -called civilian and military technologies.
European institutions began the process of creating warning organisms in the service of companies.
So, announced I hinder the viewingIN It is intended mainly to help the SME to conduct proper prudence against who they work.
Nevertheless, the business problem will be only part of the problem.
Anonymous companies and participation
According to the Kleptotrace investigation, in fact, their own structures of many European companies may belong to organizations in accordance with sanctions.
During the hostilities, thousands of companies in the EU, Ukraine and other European countries belonged to at least 342 unique and collective people of the Russian Federation, in accordance with sanctions since 2022.
Also, according to the report on transcribing, in the first months of 2022, almost 10,000 companies belonged to authorized people. And these are only official numbers.
However, the responsibility for the application of sanctions remains at the level of national jurisdictions, which are sometimes insufficient.
Stephen Pichchinino, the highly functional department of the financial services of Malta, states that in the case of war, such as the current, “a state that is seriously committed to applying sanctions, should investigate the activities of large conglomerates in its national territory. Be especially careful if he has resources as valuable metals. Or authorized entities. “
The Research Center of the Catholic University proceeds to statistical update.
Although the final figures are not yet available, investigators conclude that the number of companies related to authorized Russian organizations – directly or indirectly – may not sufficiently reduce the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Global finances and local corruption
A dense network of the global financial market offers secure channels for those who want to avoid sanctions. Often these are the same methods that are used by organized crimes for operations to bleach capital, as Europol showed in its four -year report “A serious analysis of threats of organized crime 2025” (SOCTA), published in March last year.
Experience and contacts with banks previously accumulated by corrupt political sectors are crucial in sanctions:
“If, for example, I am a corrupt politician from a European country, and I want to complete a deal for the construction of energy infrastructure in an authorized country, I am concluding an agreement and get payments through (but not related) the country on the terminal account in my country, because I know that my bank does not carry out the necessary investigations,” Picocynino explains. He adds that, according to their experience, the intermediate banks are located “in famous countries such as the Caribbean” and are financial organizations that are already in contact with ”banks that are not applied like this, these procedures “Meet your client“And they also have disabled transactions control systems.”
According to transcription, evasion from industry sanctions are most often for the purpose of competent national authorities, which is 80% of the total evasion of evasion. Sector sanctions are measures against the industrial or integer sector. Companies involved in themselves are often intermediate companies, paper companies that exist formally, but do not have real economic activity, with a fictional headquarters and poorly significant assets.
Nikolatsso explains: “These are often enterprises that have no economic justification for the acquisition of such assets. A thorough audit will reveal suspicious addresses, connections with other similar companies and the lack of real indicators of operations. ”
According to the Kleptotrace report, on average there are three business steps and five judicial steps between the seller and the true buyer, that is, the countries of the convenience used to hide the transaction.
Payment methods are typical for organized crime: banking transactions through offshore accounts and exchange of luxury items, such as large jewelry, real estate and actions. Although the role of cryptocurrencies is currently still limited, from a statistical point of view.
In the past, Europol emphasized how difficult it is to limit economic exchanges in the context of high interdependence between states, private companies and transnational criminal networks.