Herbert Smith Freehills Fined £465,000 for Russian Sanctions Breaches

The UK law firm was penalized for payments made to sanctioned Russian banks during the closure of its Moscow office in 2022.

Herbert Smith Freehills' Moscow office made six payments totaling £3.9 million to sanctioned Russian banks Sovcombank, Sberbank, and Alfa-Bank in May 2022.
The breaches occurred during the final week of the firm's hasty withdrawal from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) imposed a fine of £465,000, reduced from £930,000 due to the firm's voluntary self-reporting and cooperation.
The payments, attributed to human error and inadequate due diligence, included redundancy settlements and operational expenses.
This marks the first enforcement action by OFSI against a law firm for sanctions violations since the Ukraine invasion sanctions were introduced.