(March 30): Apple Inc’s European subsidiary was fined £390,000 by the UK for breaching Russian sanctions.
The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation found that in 2022 Apple Distribution International Ltd paid £635,618 to Russian streaming platform Okko LLC. Republic of Ireland-based ADI voluntarily disclosed the payments that were made via UK banks to the government agency.
At the time both payments were executed in June and July 2022, Okko was subject to UK sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
OFSI said that Apple had relied on corporate affiliates to implement payment processes, sanctions screening and due diligence measures. Apple said in response to the fine that it takes “sanctions compliance extremely seriously".
“After identifying two payments to a developer that days earlier had become affiliated with a sanctioned entity, we promptly and proactively reported our finding to the UK government,” it added.
OFSI said that companies are ultimately responsible for “ensuring compliance with financial sanctions". Third-party compliance firms are “often invaluable in supporting firms, particularly those with large and complex customer bases", OFSI said in its statement.
See also: Ukraine running out of cash to pay for war as aid falters
On March 20, OFSI fined the law firm Herbert Smith Freehills £465,000 over Russian sanctions breaches. Their Moscow office made six payments worth £3.9 million to banks under UK asset freeze orders, the agency said.
“Whilst there is no suggestion that Apple sought to circumvent sanctions, it is apparent that they were slow to update their payment systems and failed to spot several red flags surrounding the payments,” said Neil Dooley, a lawyer at Quillon Law not involved in the case.
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