Isle of Man Treasury publicises Russia sanctions update designating 30 persons and specifying 70 vessels

The Isle of Man Treasury issued a notice publicising an update to the UK Sanctions List under the Russia sanctions regime as it applies in the Isle of Man, adding 30 designated persons and specifying 70 ships. The additions trigger asset freeze and trust services sanctions for the designated persons and shipping sanctions for the specified vessels. The regime is given effect in the Isle of Man through the Sanctions (Implementation of UK Sanctions) Regulations 2024, applying the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, and covers financial, trade, aircraft, shipping and immigration sanctions. Shipping sanctions include prohibitions on port entry into the Island, restrictions on movements of specified ships, and restrictions on registering specified ships on the Ship Register; the notice also directs firms to use the UK Sanctions List to review vessel details and reasons for specification. For compliance, the Treasury instructs relevant institutions to freeze assets immediately where a sanctions-list match is identified and they hold or deal with the person’s funds or economic resources, to check for false positives, and not to deal with or make assets available without a legal exemption or licence. Frozen assets, suspected breaches and blocked attempted transactions must be reported to the Financial Intelligence Unit, and sanctions screening should include assessing ownership or control of corporate entities; duplicate reporting is not required where an institution has already reported frozen holdings for the designated person.