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A former Russian governor has become the first person convicted in the United Kingdom for breaching Russia-related sanctions in a landmark case that also saw his brother convicted for aiding the evasion, the National Crime Agency announced.
Dmitrii Ovsiannikov, 48, who once served as the Kremlin-appointed governor of Sevastopol in occupied Crimea, was found guilty of circumventing sanctions and money laundering after receiving ÂŁ76,000 (over $98,000) from his wife and a luxury vehicle from his brother.
Alexei Owsjanikow, 47, was also convicted of enabling breaches of the U.K.'s Russia sanctions — the first such conviction for facilitating a designated individual.
Ovsiannikov was sanctioned by the European Union following Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. After Brexit, the U.K. maintained the restrictions under its own Russia Regulations 2019.
Despite the sanctions, Ovsiannikov was granted a British passport in January 2023, citing a British father.
"The fact that Ovsiannikov was able to receive a British passport points to the need for “closer coordination between the use of sanctions and immigration regime,” as a “sanctioned individual should absolutely not be receiving a British passport,” senior advisor at the advocacy group Spotlight on Corruption, James Bolton-Jones, told OCCRP.
Ovsiannikov arrived in London a month later, joining his wife and two young children already living in his brother’s home in Clapham.
That same month, Ovsiannikov opened a U.K. bank account, receiving ÂŁ76,000 from his wife. He used part of the funds to place a deposit on a Mercedes-Benz GLC 300 SUV. The bank later froze the account after identifying him as a sanctioned individual.
Ovsiannikov recovered the deposit, after which his brother purchased the vehicle and insured it for him to drive — a move prosecutors said amounted to making economic resources available to a designated person.
In January 2024, Ovsiannikov was arrested and interviewed by the National Crime Agency (NCA). Four months later, Owsjanikow paid more than £40,000 in school fees for Ovsiannikov’s children — another breach of the sanctions.
“These convictions demonstrate not only that designated individuals are on our radar, but so are those who enable breaches of the regulations,” said Graeme Biggar, Director General of the NCA. “This verdict is testament to the work of the NCA’s Combatting Kleptocracy Cell, which has disrupted over 180 threats linked to Putin’s inner circle.”
Stephen Doughty, Sanctions Minister at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, said the case sent a clear message: “Mr. Ovsiannikov thought he could hide from our sanctions. Today’s verdict proves otherwise.”
Julius Capon, lead prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service, said Ovsiannikov “knew he had been on the U.K. sanctions list since 2017 but chose to ignore this.”
Another family member, he added, “deliberately breached the sanctions and showed complete disregard for the law.”
Authorities said they will begin proceedings to recover illicit assets tied to the case under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Ovsiannikov served as governor of Sevastopol from 2016 until his resignation in 2019, after which he became Russia’s deputy minister for industry and trade until 2020. He has remained on the U.K. sanctions list since 2020.
Sentencing for both men will take place at a later date.
Spotlight On Corruption’s Bolton-James lauded the convictions as “a major achievement,” noting that they should push the government to continue supporting the Countering Kleptocracy Cell, which was set up in 2022 to investigate corrupt elites and sanction evaders. The anti-kleptocracy unit “suffered various setbacks in its early cases but appears to now be finding its feet,” he added.
