BMW employees smuggled more than 100 cars into Russia

The carmaker said the cars were shipped to Russia through its Hannover branch and that the perpetrators no longer belong to the company

When Russia launched an offensive against Ukraine in early 2022, governments around the world responded with an unprecedented wave of sanctions. The measures include banning carmakers such as BMW from selling cars to Russia. Apparently some bad actors at the automakers are doing it anyway. BMW has now confirmed that the personnel involved have been fired.

Gray market imports happen all the time. This is where third parties come in. In this case, that person would have the right to buy the BMW and be willing to sell it to a related party in Russia. It was illegal for BMW itself to sell the car to the Russians.

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However, according to reports in Germany, this is what is alleged to have happened. In fact, according to the German version of Business Insider, some BMW employees had successfully shipped more than 100 cars through the Hannover factory across the border and into Russia before the automaker learned of the news. On Sunday, BMW admitted that it had discovered “vehicle export irregularities” related to the entire situation.

“Furthermore, the BMW Group has decided to terminate the employees most responsible for this,” the company said in a statement. Apparently, the brand took several measures to prevent such sales, but employees found ways to get around them. It’s unclear whether BMW will face any legal trouble as a result.

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The market has changed since the EU banned sales of high-end cars to Russia in March 2022. Gray market imports have become a bigger business. Interestingly, BMW says it’s even working to prevent these sales from happening. As you can imagine this is a difficult task.

Since the war began, we have seen countless examples of individuals trying to bring high-end cars into Russia. In fact, despite multiple failed attempts to bring the Cybertruck to Russia, the Russians seem to really want the Cybertruck. Clearly, geopolitical complexities have not stopped demand for premium cars.

So while BMW has sorted out this PR disaster, don’t expect gray market sales to slow down anytime soon. After all, if there’s one thing humans love more than rules, it’s figuring out how to break them—preferably in a car with heated leather seats and a zero-to-sixty time that makes you forget the world is on fire .