Overview

• On July 8, the Landgericht Marburg sentenced the 56-year-old dealer to five years in prison for exporting 71 luxury cars valued at over €5 million to Russia.
• He masked the true destination of the vehicles by falsifying export declarations to appear as legitimate third-country shipments.
• Zollfahndungsamt Essen and the Staatsanwaltschaft Frankfurt led the probe, which began with September 2023 raids in Lohra that yielded three high-end cars and almost €130,000 in cash.
• The court ordered the confiscation of assets equal to the smuggled vehicles’ value, amounting to around €5 million.
• The verdict is not yet final, leaving open the possibility of an appeal.