When in June 2022 the decision on sanctions against NSD was published in the official journal of the EU. Depository staff allegedly immediately tried to transfer €720m from JP Morgan to an account at Commerzbank belonging to another MosBirch subsidiary, the National Clearing Corporation, Der Spiegel reported. The bank did not accept the payment order and the funds remained with JP Morgan.
German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann supported the decision of the Prosecutor General’s Office. According to him, funds used to finance illegal aggressive military actions against Ukraine should not remain in German accounts.
“One thing has become clear again today: liberal democracy is not powerless in the fight against tyrants. It defends itself together with those who are attacked and opposes violence with the law,” Buschmann was quoted by Frankfurter Allgemeine.
There is no decision on the trial
A spokesman for the Frankfurt am Main court, where the German Prosecutor General’s Office’s application was filed, that the request to seize some Russian assets was under preliminary consideration. The judicial board for criminal cases should make a decision on the start of the process.
The court spokeswoman specified that the terms within which the parties can submit their applications to the court have not yet expired. In this regard, it is impossible to say when the decision to accept or not to accept the petition for consideration will be made.
Earlier, the Financial Times, citing a document of the European Commission, reported that the G7 countries, the European Union and Australia froze about €260bn of assets of the Central Bank of Russia last year, with €210bn in Europe. According to the newspaper’s sources, the US froze another €4.6bn of assets of the Bank of Russia.
