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Bank of Scotland fined $219,000 in UK for violating anti-Russian sanctions

Lloyds Banking Group reported the violation in March 2023, which resulted in a 50% reduction in the fine

LONDON, January 26. /TASS/. The UK authorities fined Bank of Scotland 160,000 pounds sterling ($218,600) for financial transactions with an individual subject to sanctions imposed on Russia, the UK's Office of Financial Sanctions Enforcement (OFSI) said in a statement.

The individual in question was not named, but it was stated that he was blacklisted on December 31, 2020. It was established that on February 6, 2023, he managed to open an account at Halifax Bank, whose parent company is Bank of Scotland (both are part of Lloyds Banking Group, LGB). From February 8 to 24, 2024, the bank processed 24 payments from a sanctioned entity totaling 77,383.39 pounds sterling.

LGB reported the violation in March 2023, which resulted in a 50% reduction in the fine, rather than the 320,000 pounds sterling it was supposed to pay.

According to the Financial Times, the owner of the account for which the bank was fined was Dmitry Ovsyannikov, former governor of Sevastopol (2016-2019) and former deputy head of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade (2015-2016, 2019-2020). Last April, he was found guilty by a London court of evading British sanctions and sentenced to three years and four months in prison. He was sanctioned on December 31, 2020. According to the OFSI, Ovsyannikov was able to open the account because he used his British passport, which spells his name differently than the one on the sanctions list.

The Financial Times recalls that last year, the law firm Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer was fined 465,000 pounds sterling for violating anti-Russian sanctions. The publication stressed that such actions by the OFSI are quite rare—the agency has issued only 17 fines since 2019.

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