For more than a decade, the illegal trade in Burmese teak has stood as a stark example of how environmental crime, corruption and conflict intersect within global markets. Recent enforcement actions in Europe and the US mark an important shift – authorities are increasingly recognising that importing timber linked to military-controlled supply chains is not […]
EIA has welcomed the guilty pleas entered by UK luxury yacht manufacturer Sunseeker International Ltd and its US subsidiary Sunseeker USA Sales for violations of the US Lacey Act linked to the use of illegally sourced teak from Myanmar. The case marks one of the most significant US enforcement actions involving Myanmar teak since the […]
LONDON: The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has welcomed the guilty pleas entered by UK luxury yacht manufacturer Sunseeker International Ltd and its US subsidiary Sunseeker USA Sales for violations of the US Lacey Act linked to the use of illegally sourced teak from Myanmar. The case marks one of the most significant US enforcement […]
US federal prosecutors have charged UK-based luxury yacht firm Sunseeker International Ltd and its US subsidiary Sunseeker USA Sales with environmental crimes tied to the use of illegally harvested teak from Myanmar. EIA first exposed Sunseeker’s illegitimate use of Burmese teak in 2018 after our investigations found that teak which had been traded in breach […]
A new ruling by the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) may partially undo earlier criminal convictions for importing teak from Myanmar in defiance of a previous EU sanctions regime. In April 2021, Hamburg Regional Court’s convicted WOB Timber and Stefan Bührich for imports of Myanmar teak contrary to the previous EU sanctions regime implemented against […]
On the third anniversary of the Myanmar military seizing power, the country has effectively seen a return to the violence, plunder and human rights abuses of the former dictatorship in pursuit of control and hard currency