Austria Freezes a Quarter of a Billion Euros of Russian Oligarchs

• 22.05.2022, 22:47

A special team has been set up to identify Russian assets in Austria.

The Austrian authorities have already identified Russian assets worth more than €250 million in local financial institutions. The Office of Chancellor Karl Nehammer has announced the sanctions success of the official Vienna.

This was reported by RBC-Ukraine with reference to ORF.

A special interagency group boasted of the first results in tracing the assets of businessmen close to the Russian authorities. The joint efforts of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the National Bank, the Financial Market Authority and several ministries revealed 97 bank accounts of sub-sanctioned Russians with 254 million euros.

"This amount is double the figures announced by Germany in March," the government said in a statement.

Austrian investigators have also identified at least five attempts to hide assets. They are now working on a number of suspicious cases in which sub-sanctioned assets were attempted to transfer to newly created companies or alchemists. At the end of May, Austrian authorities will deliberately introduce a new reporting system.

"These measures are hitting the oligarchs at their weak points - their money. Austria will make every effort to impose sanctions against warmongers and supporters of Putin without exception," said Chancellor Nehammer.