2022-12-04T12:45:00+02:00 Politics 2024-09-15T06:10:35+03:00

Ukrainian news

Britain seizes real estate of Russian oligarchs worth USD 2.4 billion – media

Britain seizes real estate of Russian oligarchs worth USD 2.4 billion – media

The elite real estate of Russians, who were put on the British list of sanctions in connection with the war unleashed by Putin in Ukraine, may remain under arrest for many years. And, quite likely, it will lose value, because it is extremely difficult to get permission from the authorities even for basic maintenance.

This is exactly what is happening with the facilities belonging to organizations and individuals associated with the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, against whom sanctions were imposed in 2011, writes the Bloomberg agency, which analyzed the situation with Libyan and Russian real estate in Great Britain.

Russians hoping to have their real estate seized in the near future should look to previous waves of sanctions imposed after events such as the Arab Spring. The takeaway is that "this is going to be a long time," says Jeremy Gray, managing partner of James Andrew International, which oversees several "frozen" houses in London owned by the Libyan Investment Authority: "There is no light at the end of the tunnel. When I spoke with the government about the sanctions back in 2011, they said most of the assets they froze were never unfrozen."

According to Gray, the value of London buildings in the portfolio of the Libyan sovereign wealth fund has decreased over the past decade by more than GBP 200 million (USD 240 million).

The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), a division of the Ministry of Finance, which was overwhelmed with work after the start of the war in Ukraine, deals with the seizure of assets and the review of applications of persons on sanctions lists. OFSI does not maintain its own register of frozen assets, as their identification and accounting are not part of its responsibilities, which must be reported by accountants, lawyers, and notaries working for sanctioned individuals, OFSI said in response to a request from Bloomberg. Therefore, the department does not have all the information, the agency concludes.

To estimate the value of the seized real estate linked to sanctioned Russians, Bloomberg analyzed real estate and corporate ownership data, interviews, and investigations by media and nonprofit organizations contained in registries. To estimate the value, the agency managed to help brokers and real estate sites.

The total value of seized assets, according to Bloomberg, is GBP 2 billion (USD 2.4 billion). Meanwhile, Transparency International found another GBP 700 million (USD 838 million) of oligarch-linked luxury real estate in London and Surrey, which is not subject to restrictions.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, Switzerland has updated information on Russian assets frozen in connection with sanctions against the Russian Federation. The total amount of assets frozen in Switzerland due to Russia's aggression against Ukraine reached CHF 7.5 billion (EUR 7.2 billion) as of November 25. In July, it amounted to CHF 6.7 billion (EUR 6.5 billion).