Belgium earns €625 million from frozen Russian assets

The Belgian authorities have reported “windfall” €625 million in income, which was received due to the taxation of interest on the placement of frozen Russian assets, the Belgian publication Le Soir reported. The Belgian Ministry of Finance is the regulator of the large international depositary Euroclear.

Le Soir recalled that Euroclear is investing funds received from bonds and coupon payments. According to the Belgian Treasury, in 2022 the depository received €821 million in interest. These incomes are taxed.

In total, Belgium has frozen €250 billion of Russian assets and leads Europe in this indicator. “We have so far frozen €191.9 billion in transactions and €58.7 billion in assets,” Treasury Administration General Manager Alexandre de Geest told Le Soir. “RIA News”).

Of the €58.7 billion of frozen assets, a third is cash, and another two-thirds are securities (stocks, bonds and derivatives). There are no significant tangible assets (real estate, yachts) in the list.

Alexander de Guest notes that some Russian entrepreneurs transfer assets to loved ones in order to get out of sanctions. “Catching” such beneficiaries (by applying to the European Commission), Mr. de Guest compares with a game of “cat and mouse.”

About the opportunity transmission frozen Russian assets in favor of Ukraine, Mr. de Guest does not speak unequivocally and notes that “the Belgian Constitution and European treaties protect property.”

March 30 Broker BCS informedthat the accounts of Russians in the Euroclear depository, the cash balances of which exceed €100,000, will be blocked in full. Before that, on February 17, the Belgian Ministry of Finance began refuse Russians (private investors) to unlock assets on Euroclear.

In this regard, Kommersant FM’s interlocutors noted that Euroclear’s earnings on frozen Russian assets could, in theory, be considered illegal.

Read more about this in the material “Kommersant FM” “Euroclear Scrolled Assets”.

Grigory Leiba