Dutch freeze €392 million in Russian assets

Dutch financial institutions have frozen a total of 392 million euros in assets belonging to 188 sanctioned Russian clients, Minister Sigrid Kaag of Finance said in a letter to parliament. The amount is much higher than the 6 million euros in frozen assets she reported last week and the 200 million euros the Dutch central bank DNB reported.

According to Kaag, this week's amount is so much higher because the DNB alerted financial institutions to the correct application of sanctions and reporting the figures. "This led to a catch-up last week and will also lead to additional reports this week," she said. Another sanction package also took effect on March 15.

The amount includes assets frozen by banks (145 million euros), trust offices (243 million), pension funds (379,886 euros), and investment firms (4 million). Businesses with sanctioned owners, or sanctioned people exercising control over them, are also obliged to freeze these people's assets. But the businesses are not obliged to report the amounts to the government, so those figures are not included.

Not freezing the assets of a sanctioned person is an economic crime, Kaag stressed. "The Public Prosecution Service can then decide to investigate and prosecute."