Two years after the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly confirmed was taking the unprecedented step of moving to seize millions of dollars from a licensed Russian oligarch with assets in Canada, the government has not actually started the court process until the take money away, not to mention given to the reconstruction of Ukraine – and it may never happen.
The federal government announced on December 19, 2022, that it had ordered a freeze on US$26 million held in a Canadian bank account by an offshore investment fund, allegedly owned by Roman Abramovich, A high-profile friend of the Russian President was the money. Vladimir Putin.
This was Ottawa's first practice newly enacted powers not only to control certain people and companies, but also to take away their money and sell their assets based on these sanctions alone – something that the main economy of the Another West.
The government promised that the money alleged by Abramovich would go to “the reconstruction of Ukraine and compensation to the victims of the illegal and unjustified aggression of the Putin regime.” The oligarch, at was the Chelsea football team in the English Premier League and has an interest in a steel company with plants in the Prairies, has already been. hit with sanctions with Canada earlier in 2022.
More than two years later, however, the Liberal government has not taken any of the necessary steps, including an appeal to Superior Court, to bring in the US $26 million, which they said it's in an account at Citco Bank Canada.
“We haven't seen anything from that, and it's definitely a mystery. I wish I knew what was going on,” said independent Sen. Donna Dasko, who has a hand in the control file. Russia bonds as the upper chamber's point man on the now-dead Bill S-278, which would have further expanded the government's sanctions powers.
“It took a lot of time,” Dasko said. “And we really need some transparency around this.”
Risk Canada may have to compensate oligarch
Global Affairs Canada would not say why they have not yet taken action to seize the money. In a brief emailed statement last month, they said simply that there is no obligation to do so “within a certain period of time.” He would not provide further details, citing privacy concerns, even though the department had issue a press release about his plans to divest Abramovich's assets.
A US law firm representing Abramovich did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Several lawyers with experience in sanctions and international trade said the government may have bitten off more than it could chew when it announced it would take the millions.
There is a risk because the money, according to Ottawa, is in an account belonging to an offshore investment fund called Manticore Fund (Cayman) Ltd., which cannot be linked directly enough to Abramovich.
“The issue of ownership and control is very difficult,” said Clifford Sosnow of Canada-based international firm Fasken. “There's a layer of thickness they have to work through to do this.”
Then there is a chance that Abramovich could challenge the loss of any assets on the same grounds as the 1991 Canada-Russia investment protection agreementthat Canada would have to compensate him for the “alienation” or “nationalization” of his investments, Sosnow noted.
John Boscariol of the Canadian law firm McCarthy Tétrault said that other countries “are looking to see our success,” which may explain the delay in action.
“I think it seems that the Canadian government has been very careful in the steps it takes, knowing that this is an issue at the forefront,” said Boscariol.
Other countries are using Russian foreign assets to help Ukraine, but in a less direct way. The European Union has, for example profits driven created by the frozen funds of the Central Bank of Russia to Ukraine for the army and for reconstruction, but so far they have not taken the money themselves.
The G7 countries have too name a $50-billion US loan package to Ukraine ($68 billion Cdn), secured against interest earned on frozen assets of the Russian Central Bank. Canada provided $3.7 billion US ($5 billion Cdn) toward that end.
A large cargo plane that is not flying away anytime soon
About $140 million Cdn worth of assets were frozen in Canada under the country's sanctions on Russia, said the RCMP in his latest estimate.
But the Liberal government has promised only one more Russian asset forfeiture: in June 2023, he ordered their capture of an Antonov An-124 transport plane parked at Toronto's Pearson Airport belonging to Russia-based Volga-Dnepr Airlines.
The cargo plane, one of the largest in the world, has now been idle on the tarmac for almost three years, which would bring more than $ 1 million in aircraft parking fees. The Ukrainian government has indicate desire to take ownership of the jetty, but any move would face several obstacles, including that the plane has not flown since 2022 and may no longer be airworthy.
At the same time, the Russian company he owns has filed several disputes with the Canadian government. Like the beginning reported by the Toronto Star last week, it filed a claim in November in Federal Court asking a judge to lift Canadian sanctions on the company, and it also says it has made a $100 settlement claim -million to put in the US under the Canada-Russia investment agreement.
Orest Zakydalsky, a senior policy advisor at the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, said the lack of progress in including these Russian-owned assets has been disappointing.
“We're talking about years when the government says this is a priority and then frankly we don't see much movement on it – or any movement, really,” he said. the press release has been there and not much after that.”
