The court confiscated $40,000 from a resident of Yekaterinburg, brought from the UAE.

      In Yekaterinburg, a court confiscated 40 thousand US dollars from a passenger who attempted to bring them in upon arrival from Dubai. Local resident Pavel Vaganov was found guilty of smuggling cash in large amounts, the press service of the Sverdlovsk region courts reported on Thursday.

      As the court established, in August 2022, Vaganov arrived at Koltsovo Airport on a flight from Dubai. The man was fully aware of the customs control procedures but proceeded through the "green" corridor, intended for the movement of goods not subject to mandatory written declaration. At the same time, his leather backpack contained 50 thousand US dollars and 25 UAE dirhams. The total amount in dollar equivalent was 50,006.81 USD. The threshold for mandatory declaration of cash at that time was 10 thousand US dollars.

      Vaganov, violating paragraph 7 of part 1 of article 260 of the Customs Code of the EAEU, did not declare the excess cash he had with him. The banknotes were discovered during customs control on the X-ray machine in the passenger's hand luggage.

      Vaganov's actions were classified under part 1 of article 200.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Smuggling of cash in large amounts"). The amount of illegally transported funds, minus the allowed limit of 10 thousand dollars, amounted to 40,006.81 USD, which in ruble equivalent was 2,482,446 rubles. This amount, according to the note to article 200.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, is considered large.

      At the court session held in December 2025, the defendant did not admit his guilt and insisted that he acted on the instructions of a customs officer. However, the Oktyabrsky District Court of Yekaterinburg found these arguments unconvincing and imposed a fine of 7,447,339 rubles on the defendant (three times the amount of illegally transported funds).

      At the same time, guided by paragraph "a" of part 1 of article 78 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the court released the convicted person from punishment due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution but confiscated 40 thousand US dollars and 25 UAE dirhams for the benefit of the state.

      The sentence was appealed by Vaganov's lawyer in the Sverdlovsk Regional Court, but the appellate panel found no grounds for intervention in the judicial act.

      The funds within the allowed limit of 10 thousand US dollars were returned to Vaganov's disposal.