Where an individual or entity suspects that a breach of the sanctions has or will occur it must report this to An Garda Síochána. You can also bring this to the attention of the European Commission anonymously via the EU Sanctions Whistleblower Tool.
All EU citizens (both natural and legal persons) are required to comply with EU sanctions. This means that if you live in Ireland or are a firm based in Ireland, you are prohibited from carrying out certain activities or behaving in a certain way in respect of a person/entity that is subject to a financial sanction.
It is a criminal offence to breach a financial sanction.
If you are in possession or control of funds or economic resources of a person/entity that is subject to a financial sanction you are legally obliged to:
- Freeze the funds or economic resources1
- Not deal with or release the funds or economic resources to the sanctioned person, unless there is an available exemption and you have obtained the required authorisation from the Central Bank of Ireland
- Report the freezing of the funds or economic resources to the Central Bank using the Sanctions Return Form.
1. An asset freeze is the most common form of financial sanction. Where a financial sanction is an asset freeze, it is prohibited: deal with the funds or economic resources, belonging to or owned, held or controlled by a person/entity that is subject to the financial sanction asset freeze; make funds or economic resources available, directly or indirectly to, or for the benefit of the person/entity that is subject to the financial sanction asset freeze.