By KYIV. Sept 14 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The National Commission for Securities and Stock Market of Ukraine has developed and submitted to the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy a bill on solving the problem of blocked assets of clients of the sanctioned broker Freedom Finance Ukraine, the commission’s press service said on Wednesday.
“To resolve the difficult situation concerning the clients of Freedom Finance Ukraine LLC and their blocked funds, the National Securities and Stock Market Commission has prepared a bill amending three laws of Ukraine – on sanctions, on the depository system and on capital markets – and has already sent it to MPs for consideration,” the commission said.
This decision was developed by the commission in cooperation with the National Bank (NBU), the National Depository of Ukraine, the Settlement Center and the Interdepartmental Working Group on Implementation of the State Sanctions Policy under the Cabinet of Ministers.
The commission said that the bill deals with changes to the law on sanctions regarding the ability to regulate actions with the assets of clients of a sanctioned professional participant in the capital markets. The changes also determine the possibility for a commercial bank in which an account of a sanctioned person is opened to transfer funds of its clients to institutions through which the return of such funds will occur (National Depository, NBU and Settlement Center).
“It is important that the bill does not change the procedure for applying sanctions to a legal entity and does not affect public policy. It concerns only issues of client assets and establishes a clear list of actions and deadlines for their implementation for each of the involved participants in this process,” the Commission said.
At the same time, during the meeting of the Interdepartmental Working Group, a protocol order was adopted to check all clients of Freedom Finance Ukraine regarding their involvement in sanctioned persons.
“A professional approach is important in working through this situation, because assets should not return to clients associated with citizens of the Russian Federation, the Republic of Belarus, sanctioned citizens of other countries, including Ukraine. Additionally, it was recommended to send the bill for assessment to the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP), which was done at the beginning of this week,” the press service said.
As reported, on October 19, by President Decree No. 726/2022, the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine adopted on the same day on sanctions against 1,374 legal entities, among which was Freedom Finance Ukraine LLC, was put into effect.
Two days after that, the company said that the sanctions were wrong, and because of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Freedom Holding Corp. sold Russian Investment Company Freedom Finance LLC and FFIN Bank LLC and left the Russian business (the announcement was made on October 19), and the Ukrainian company never had a business relationship with them.
Head of the Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Danylo Hetmantsev in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine, said that after the company came under sanctions, 2,500 investors who invested their funds in war bonds had them blocked for about 10 months, and the National Securities and Stock Market Commission was slow to make a decision.
