BGP Litigation lawyers have succeeded in having Belgium’s Ministry of Finance issue the first ever licence for unfreezing the assets of a Russian citizen. After protracted liaisons with the regulator, the client received a licence to transfer their assets from an NSD account to their designated unsanctioned depository. The client has a foreign permanent residence permit and an account in a foreign bank.

BGP Litigation lawyers engaged to work on the project lawyers qualified in Belgian law and experienced in collaborating with the Belgian Ministry of Finance on sanctions matters, as well as lawyers qualified to represent the client in an EU court.

Partners Tatiana Neveeva and Alexander Panov, Senior Associate Marat Samarsky, assisted by Junior Associates Darya Kuraksa and Evgeny Gasparyan of the BGP Litigation Compliance and Sanctions Law Practice handled the project.

“The case involving issue by the Belgian Finance Ministry of a licence to transfer frozen funds from a National Settlement Depository (NSD) account to an unsanctioned foreign bank demonstrates that positive decisions are possible in relation to Russian persons and, in general, gives hope to many applicants still waiting for an answer”, commented Advocate and BGP Litigation Partner Tatiana Neveeva.

“It is noteworthy that this was an individual application that allowed the Belgian regulator to differentiate the possibility of unfreezing for each holder”, noted BGP Litigation Partner Alexander Panov.