JHA in Media

You can download this press release as a PDF in English or Russian.

The Swiss Federal Council’s decision of 20 December 2017 to extend for one year its “freeze on the assets” of President Yanukovych and his “entourage”, and the media release published on this occasion referring to the “freezes on … Ukrainian assets (CHF 70 million)”, does not assert that President Yanukovych had or has any assets in Switzerland.

On the contrary, the Swiss Federal Council’s similar decision and announcement made last year, on 9 December 2016, was later clarified by a letter dated 1 March 2017 from the Swiss authorities confirming that:
We draw attention again to our earlier Press Release dated 3 March 2017 dealing with the 2016 Decision and announcement. Nothing has changed.

• there are no bank accounts or other assets in Switzerland held in the name of President Yanukovych that they have frozen (as President Yanukovych himself has always contended); and
• the asset freezes imposed by Switzerland concern other persons (i.e. not President Yanukovych) listed in the Appendix to the Ordinance on the Freezing of Assets in Connection with Ukraine.

The Swiss federal Council still do not clearly state who the “CHF 70 million” referred to in their announcements belongs to, but, that said, the Swiss Federal Council have officially acknowledged that it does not belong to President Yanukovych.

Indeed, the Swiss Federal Council, in its 20 December 2017 announcement, observes that is has not yet even been determined “whether or not the origins of the frozen assets are illicit”.

ENDS

Notes to editors

Joseph Hage Aaronson LLP is a law firm based in London representing President Yanukovych and Mr Oleksandr Viktorovych Yanukovych:

www.jha.com

Enquiries to: Joseph Hage Aaronson LLP, Tel.: +44 (0)20 7851 8888