MORE than £250 million worth of Russian assets in the Island have been frozen in line with UK sanctions and regulations, the External Relations Minister has revealed.
Senator Ian Gorst said that so far £259 million has been frozen and that States Members were expecting a public report updating them on the sanctions next week.
Recently, a special financial taskforce was formed in the Island and placed a number of Jersey firms on a ‘high-risk list’ after they were found to be providing services to sanctioned Kremlin-linked oligarchs and businesses.
Responding to an oral question from Senator Sam Mézec in this week’s States sitting, Senator Gorst said: ‘Since Russia’s illegal and unjustified invasion of Ukraine, we have aligned with international partners in implementing a severe and wide range of package and sanction measures.
‘This has included more than 800 asset-freeze designations of individuals and entities that were automatically and immediately enforced in Jersey as soon as they were made requiring any assets held, owned or controlled directly or indirectly to be frozen.
‘Since the new sanctions package against Russia was introduced, assets with a value of £259,300,000 have been reported to me as having been frozen by firms in compliance with their obligations under the sanctions and Asset Freezing Law Jersey 2019.’
He added that a report would be available to States members at the end of each month detailing the ‘frozen asset amount’ so far.
