This was announced following a joint meeting of the Parliamentary Finance Committee and the Parliamentary Justice Committee on Tuesday afternoon.
The sum includes both assets held in bank accounts and securities. The sum of €2.5 billion also does not include sanctions imposed on Russia following the annexation of Crimea in 2014. For comparison: As a result of sanctions against Iran, €1.8 billion have been frozen in Luxembourg since 2011. The sanctions imposed on Libya led to €3 billion of assets being frozen since 2006. In addition to freezing assets, the Luxembourgish authorities also state that they have identified 86 Luxembourg-based companies in the commercial register that have a link to eleven persons on the sanctions lists.
The authorities have also received no applications requesting exemptions because off the sanctions.
Minister of Finance Yuriko Backes stated on Tuesday that Luxembourg is “fully assuming its responsibilities”. Backes added that no violations have been determined. Financial Institutions reported 53 instances of assets being frozen. In 106 cases, applications requesting for clarification were submitted.
At the beginning of last week, the Ministry of Finance announced in a first statement that it had received 100 reports of assets being frozen. On the same day, the Commission for the Supervision of the Financial Sector (CSSF) announced the start of targeted checks.
MP Sven Clement from the Pirate Party thinks that Luxembourg is indeed assuming its responsibilities regarding financial sanctions. However, according to Clement, there is still a lack of transparency regarding “other goods”, specifically when it comes to the question of who owns certain planes, boats, paintings stored at the ‘Freeport’, or real estate.
MP Laurent Mosar from the Christian Social People’s Party (CSV) stated that he remains very sceptical. He also specifically mentions the shipping register but also expressed his concern regarding the export of double-use products, which can also be used for military purposes. Finally, Mosar is also concerned about “all of the companies and funds that do not fall under the authority of the CSSF”. The MP stated that there are a lot of actors involved “who are all passing the buck between each other”. It is “not easy to get complete answers” but Mosar vowed that his party will pursue the issue further because the implementation of sanctions “concerns the reputation of the financial centre and the entire country”. Mosar added that he considers it “bewildering” that “only” €2.5 billion were frozen in the case of Russia compared to €3 billion in the case of Libya.
No assets have been seized so far in Luxembourg. However, upon enquiry by news website reporter.lu, the Directorate of Civil Aviation stated that it is in the middle of revoking the authorisation of a private jet owned by Russian businessman Alisher Usmanov, and “reviewing” the ownership status of several other jets.
