The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has imposed new sanctions on a Belgian businessman and his companies for the export of electronics in support of the Russian military.
According to OFAC, Hans De Geetere serves as a director of several companies in Belgium, Cyprus and the Netherlands. He is a long-time procurement agent responsible for supplying electronics such as field programmable gate arrays to customers in Russia. An FPGA is a type of integrated circuit used in Russia for weapons manufacturing.
The sanctions include his brother, Tom De Geetere, and the companies Knokke Heist Support Corporation Management in Belgium, Eriner Limited and The Mother Ark in Cyprus, and European Trading Technology in the Netherlands.
De Geetere also attempted to ship electronics products to Russia via transshipment points in China, Hong Kong and Turkey, and he repeatedly conducted business transactions with M and S Trading in Hong Kong.
In addition to sanctions, the Department of Justice has served two indictments against De Geetere over his role in the illegal export of military-grade technology from the United States to China and Russia. He has also been added to the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security Entity List.
“The United States and our allies remain focused on disrupting any attempts by Russia or its trusted agents to gain access to the critical inputs and technologies necessary to support Moscow’s defense industry and facilitate its brutal war in Ukraine,” said Brian Nelson, undersecretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.
