Sanctions Evasion

Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman and other oligarchs are exploiting European investment treaties to sue Ukraine for hundreds of millions, and in some cases billions, of dollars, according to a new investigation by Follow the Money.

A Russian “shadow fleet” tanker sanctioned by the UK, EU and U.S. continued transporting oil in late 2025, underscoring what an investigation by Follow the Money describes as the limited impact Western measures have had on the cash flow Moscow earns from crude exports.

Major U.S. chipmakers Intel, Advanced Micro Devices and Texas Instruments, along with a Warren Buffett–owned electronics distributor, are facing a series of lawsuits accusing them of failing to prevent their semiconductors from ending up in Russian missiles and drones used to attack civilians in Ukraine.

Standard Chartered has settled a £1.5-billion investor lawsuit in London that alleged the bank downplayed the scale of its Iran sanctions breaches and misled shareholders about its compliance controls, the Financial Times said. 

Fugitive former Wirecard executive Jan Marsalek has been linked to a sprawling, multibillion-dollar money laundering network that British investigators say connects street-level drug dealers in the UK to sanctioned Russian oligarchs and the Kremlin’s security services, the Financial Times reported.

An intricate network of Russian, North Korean, and Gulf-based companies has been quietly helping funnel hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil to North Korea in apparent violation of U.N. sanctions, according to a new investigation by OCCRP and its affiliates.

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether Iranian oil tycoon Hossein Shamkhani violated sanctions while using a global network of banks, according to Bloomberg.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned eight individuals and two entities allegedly tied to laundering illicit proceeds from DPRK cybercrime and overseas IT work. 

Blacklisted charities affiliated with Hezbollah have been directing supporters to send money through Lebanon’s booming digital payments sector, routing contributions to wallets held by private individuals rather than official charity accounts, the Financial Times reported.

A New Zealand–based marine insurer played a pivotal role in keeping a fleet of tankers carrying Iranian and Russian oil moving to Asian markets despite Western sanctions, according to a Reuters investigation that has prompted scrutiny from authorities in Wellington.