A male who resides in Toronto and runs a Hong Kong-based business that exports microelectronic parts is dealing with charges for allegedly breaching Canadas sanctions versus Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine.Anton Trofimov, 43, was arrested by the RCMP on May 5 and charged with one count of exporting a restricted great to Russia and one count of exporting a great to Russia for the function of manufacturing weapons, according to documents filed in the Ontario Court of Justice.The charges fall under the federal Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations introduced in 2014 that were amended to add more penalizing sanctions at the start of the major invasion in 2022.
I do believe its something thats a very long time coming, said John Boscariol, an attorney at McCarthy Ttrault in Toronto who concentrates on global trade and recommends business on economic sanctions and export controls.He says it is the first case prosecuted under the Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations that he knows of.Trofimov likewise faces a charge under the Criminal Code of possessing the profits of property obtained by crime.
The charges relate to an event or incidents that are declared to have occurred in between July 17, 2022 and Dec.
8, 2022.
CBC News got in touch with Trofimovs legal representative for a reaction but did not immediately hear back.Trofimov is a Russian national who has home addresses in Toronto and Hong Kong and is the director of Asia Pacific Links Ltd., a Hong Kong-based business that has been approved by the United States and the U.K., according to Open Sanctions, a database that tracks international trade violators.It says the company is the biggest supplier of microelectronic parts to Russian business considering that the start of the war which components Asia Pacific Links Ltd.
exports are utilized to make Orlan-10 drones, a primary weapon the Russian military usages for reconnaissance to dedicate airstrikes in Ukraine.We were pleased to see that the RCMP had taken this issue seriously and had actually obviously found adequate proof to require the charges, stated Ihor Michalchyshyn, executive director of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress in Ottawa.We have believed for several years that there is more of this happening than is known or than has been investigated.In January 2023, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) wrote a letter to the federal ministers of foreign affairs and public safety flagging amedia reportabout Trofimov and Asia Pacific Links Ltd., requesting the federal government to look into the matter.The evidence that a resident of Canada is associated with the supply of technology that is being used by Russia to murder Ukrainians is of grievous concern to the UCC and to the Ukrainian Canadian neighborhood, the congress wrote.Trofimov is likewise noted on Open Sanctions as being associated with Hong Kong-based company IPS Pacific Company Limited and 10219452 Canada Inc., both of which are sanctioned by the United States.The charges Trofimov is facing have yet to be tested in court.RCMP Announces ProsecutionEarlier this week, the RCMP announced it would hold a media conference that it stated would provide details on a complex and multijurisdictional examination that led to the very first prosecution for infractions of the Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations in Canada.However, it cancelled the news conference the afternoon before, stating it would reschedule.Thirty minutes later, Global Newsreportedthat Trofimov had actually been charged with breaching Russian sanctions.In an email response to CBC News, a spokesperson verified Trofimov was jailed, but would not say if it was the same case.The representative included that: The RCMP is devoted to being transparent with the public and is intending to provide a press conference at the earliest availability to supply the general public with more details on this important file.Photo: A Russian serviceman prepares a Orlan-10 reconnaissance drone to go for a concealed area in a photo from a video released in 2022.
Russian Defence Ministry Press Service/The Associated Press)Source: CBC