BELGIAN TREASURY ONCE AGAIN REVOKES ITS DENIAL TO UNBLOCK ASSETS APPEALED BY L&P ATTORNEYS TO THE BELGIAN COUNCIL OF STATE

On 01/02/2024, one more L&P client received from the Federal Public Service Finance of Belgium an official notice on revocation of denial to grant authorization to “unfreeze” assets currently blocked in the account with the Euroclear Bank.  Once again, the Belgian Treasury has decided to withdraw its denial after it was appealed by the L&P attorneys to the superior state authority of Belgium – the Council of State.

“It is not the first case, when the Belgian Treasury withdraws its refusal to unlock assets and decides to re-examine the arguments set out in our initial application.  Curiously enough, in this particular instance, unlike the previous ones, the Treasury does not specify the reasons for reconsideration of its earlier decision,” – says attorney Anton Minakov. Alexander Linnikov, founder of L&P and leader of the International Trade, Finance, and Sanctions practice group supports his associate and elaborates: “This new, third in our experience, case of withdrawal by the Belgian Treasury of a prior denial to unblock assets of a Russian investor inspires cautious optimism. Of course, we do not exclude that the Treasury simply intends to correct factual errors and vices in its motivation that we pointed out in our appeals to the Council of State, so that they wouldn’t be exposed by the superior state authority in the course of an in-depth review. At the same time, in the light of probable exclusion of the UAE from the FATF’s so-called “grey list” announced by the international media this week, the possibility of transfer of assets from the Euroclear Bank to the accounts of our clients with financial institutions of the UAE becomes very real.  We believe that this may help the Treasury to take positive decision after the “second round” of review of our clients’ applications”.