Carole Ferry, edited by Manon Fossat 11:12 a.m., March 04, 2022
In retaliation for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire has launched hostilities against Russian oligarchs.
A "task force" has been set up, made up of Tracfin, the Public Finance Department and Customs, in order to identify their assets and thus be able to freeze them.
In an attempt to curb the Russian war machine after the invasion in Ukraine, Bercy decided to set up a "task force" to punish the oligarchs.
More than 510 Russian personalities, mainly businessmen, are in the sights of Brussels.
In France, a cell has just been set up to identify their assets.
The Ministry of the Economy, Tracfin, the General Directorate of Public Finances and Customs are indeed working hand in hand.
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This is real painstaking work.
It is indeed necessary to take these hundreds of names one by one, to check for each one if there is a homonym, if the date of birth corresponds and once the sorting carried out, to check if they have bank accounts in France.
If so, then the account is frozen and it is no longer possible to withdraw money.
The entourage scrutinized
It is also necessary to check whether the oligarchs have real estate.
The Finance Branch has the list and when an asset is identified, it is also frozen.
The name of the owner is then sent to a notary's file and the house or apartment can no longer be sold.
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Finally, tax returns, when there are any, also make it possible to find other assets.
But some cases are more complicated.
When the name corresponds to another date of birth, for example, the property may have been transferred to family members who are then added to the list of persona non grata.
All the entourage is then screened.
This "task force" is just beginning.
For now, Bercy has no estimate of the amount of assets that could be targeted.