BELGIUM Law and Practice Contributed by: Valerijus Ostrovskis, Coline Cauvin, Delphine Buyle and Yapa Thepkanjana, ACQUIS
7.3.2 Criminal Penalties As per the breach of other EU sanction prohibitions, circumventing EU sanctions can be a criminal offence, with penalties determined by the national laws of EU member states (including fines and imprisonment). As stated in 2.2.2 Breaching Sanctions , the provi - sions of the Belgian Penal Code are generally appli - cable to these offences, meaning that one may be prosecuted as an accomplice to a sanctions violation for attempts to violate or circumvent sanctions. Funds or assets considered to be illegal proceeds from sanc - tions violations – including circumvention – may be confiscated, notwithstanding any imposed criminal penalties. Sanctions violations carry criminal penalties of more than three and up to five years’ imprisonment, and the court may additionally impose a fine between EUR200 to EUR2 million, potentially increased to the actual value of the funds and economic resources involved. For legal persons, criminal fines may range between EUR15,000 to EUR150 million.
ignated person or entity, unless the contrary can be established on a case-by-case basis. 7.3 Circumvention 7.3.1 Prohibiting Provisions There are no specific provisions in Belgian law relating to circumvention because the EU’s sanctions regu - lations are, as a matter of EU law, directly applica - ble in Belgium. However, violations of EU sanctions – including the provisions prohibiting circumvention of EU sanctions – fall under the criminal penalties for violations of EU restrictive measures imposed by the Law of 13 May 2003 (as consolidated after legislative adjustments in 2019). The EU has provisions prohibiting the circumvention of sanctions, ensuring that entities and individuals do not undermine sanctions’ effectiveness. By way of example, in the EU regulations targeting Russia: • Council Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 prohibits participation in activities to circumvent sanctions (Article 12); and • Council Regulation (EU) No 269/2014 contains a similar prohibition (Article 9). Other general anti-circumvention provisions are pre - sent in many EU regulations, forbidding activities that directly or indirectly bypass sanctions. Compliance with anti-circumventing measures is enforced by EU member states, with penalties for violations.
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