Britain has fined the British unit of Sabre Corp. more than £1 million ($1.3 million) for violating anti-Russian sanctions.
Points of attention
- Britain fines Sabre Corp.'s British unit over £1 million for violating anti-Russian sanctions, marking the largest fine since sanctions against Russia were imposed over the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
- Sabre, a British subsidiary of Air France, provided sanctioned Russian carrier Ural Airlines access to its Global Distribution System, leading to sanctions evasion according to the Office for Financial Sanctions Enforcement.
Britain imposes record fine for violating sanctions against Russia
This is the largest fine ever imposed on a British company since sanctions were imposed against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Sabre, a British subsidiary of airline ticketing services provider Air France, provided Russian carrier Ural Airlines access to its Global Distribution System (GDS) for seven months. The Russian carrier was sanctioned in 2022, the Office for Financial Sanctions Enforcement (OFSI) said in a statement.
After payments to its UK bank account were blocked due to sanctions, the company sought alternative ways to receive payments from the Russian airline. OFSI noted that Sabre had asked Ural Airlines to send a test payment to a bank account outside the UK with the intention of making payments in this way in the future, and that such actions constituted sanctions evasion.
The company voluntarily reported this incident and fully cooperated with the regulator. We take our legal and ethical obligations seriously.
This action “underlines the UK’s increasingly tough enforcement of the sanctions regime against Russia in support of Ukraine and teaches the industry a clear lesson on compliance,” the OFSI said.
Last month, the British government imposed sanctions on cryptocurrency company HTX, alleging it was part of the “infrastructure” used by Russia to circumvent sanctions and helped transfer $1.5 billion to Russia. The UK has imposed sanctions on more than 3,000 people, businesses and vessels under its sanctions regime against Russia.
