Curaçao freezes $43 million from sanctioned Russians

The Curaçao government has frozen more than $ 43 million in assets of Russians that are on the European sanctions list. This was reported by the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Wopke Hoekstra in response to written questions from MPs Attje Kuiken (PvdA) and Don Ceder (CU).  

It is not known whether it concerns Russians who are active in the online gambling industry via Curaçao. Media in the Netherlands revealed last week that hundreds of Russians (with an often-dubious background) were laundering billions of criminal money on the basis of a Curaçao 'sublicense' and a letterbox company.  

With regard to Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten (the CAS), neither the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, nor other Dutch ministries have legal powers with which to gain insight into the nature and size of the assets of Russian oligarchs. That is why there has been collegial contact with the various stakeholders at the CAS islands.  

The authorities of the CAS islands are continuously implementing the sanctions imposed by the European Union. To date, these efforts in Curaçao have uncovered financial assets of five sanctioned Russian individuals worth more than $43 million in total. In line with the applicable sanctions, these assets have been frozen by the authorities of Curaçao.

Source: RTLNieuws, CurasaoChronicle