Company boss likely to face charges

The Finnish Customs has almost completed its investigations into an illegal consignment of dual-use products seized at the Helsinki Airport in 2017, which will be assigned to the Prosecutor’s Office of Itä-Uusimaa for consideration of charges this summer.

A dual-use product is a device that can be used for civil and military purposes.

The Finnish Customs in its investigations conducted in cooperation with national and international authorities found that a person in charge of a Finnish limited company is suspected of the offence.

Using his position, the CEO of the Finnish company placed the goods under the export procedure, said a Finnish Customs press release.

According to a foreign ministry statement, the shipment sent from Finland to Iraq contained a mass spectrometer classified as a dual-use product.

In December 2017, at Helsinki-Vantaa airport, the Customs inspected the goods consignment placed under export procedure by the Finnish company, with Iraq as the destination country. Based on the consignment documents, the Customs suspected that it contained goods subject to export restrictions and asked for a statement from the foreign ministry.

According to a statement issued by the ministry, the consignment contained, among other things, a mass spectrometer classified as a dual-use product. A dual-use product is a device that can be used for civil and military purposes.

The consignment was brought back by the Customs from the United States to Finland. The company selling the goods in the United States was informed that the country of destination of the goods was Finland.

Exporting dual-use products from the United States to Finland does not require an official licence, but their export from the EU to a territory outside the EU requires a licence either from the authorities in the United States or Finland. In this case, no export licence issued by the United States was presented nor was a licence applied for from Finland.

The Customs began a preliminary investigation into the suspected regulation offence after receiving the statement from the foreign office.