In a brief statement released on Monday, the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced that it had opened a criminal investigation in relation to potential money laundering in the UK by those related to recent events in the Ukraine. As part of this, the SFO secured a freezing order under the Proceeds of Crime Act for approximately $23 million of assets located in the UK, which are believed to be directly or indirectly owned by Russian and Ukrainian individuals or entities involved in the crisis in the Ukraine. For confidentiality reasons, the SFO declined to provide further information.
This announcement coincides with the Ukraine Forum on Asset Recovery (UFAR), a two-day international meeting being held in London on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 April, which will focus on assisting the Ukrainian government with the reclamation of stolen assets. UFAR will be hosted by UK Home Secretary Theresa May, US Attorney General Eric Holder, and Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov. The Home Office has confirmed that prosecutors, and representatives from a number of financial and regulatory institutions, will also be in attendance. The principal matters on the agenda are the arranging of international asset tracing systems, and devising methods for detecting assets concealed within complex corporate structures. For more information on UFAR, please click here.
In February, Arseny Yatseniuk, Ukraine’s new prime minister, claimed that approximately $70 billion of Ukrainian public assets had been hidden offshore by members of the ousted Viktor Yanukovich government. In March, British officials received a list of individuals suspected to be involved in these thefts, and confirmed that they intended to send investigators to Kiev to secure further evidence. In mid-April, the US State Department announced that a number of FBI agents, financial analysts and legal officials had been sent to Kiev for similar purposes. Several other countries have offered to assist Ukraine in recovering its assets, including Austria, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland.
