Eurean Public Prosecutor’s Office ready to tackle Russian sanctions evaders

“The Eurean Public Prosecutor’s Office, erational for just over a year now, is well-equipped to take on sanctions busting as the bloc pushes ahead with plans to make it a criminal offense under EU law and give her office the power to prosecute it as soon as possible,” said Eurean Union’s chief prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi, Bloomberg reports.

“We’re certainly ready, we can do it. One of the possible crimes connected to the breach of sanctions is smuggling and we can already investigate that. So we could start as early as today if we had the legal instruments,” Kovesi added.

To date, the EU has frozen about €18.9 billion of assets belonging to sanctioned Russian individuals and entities since Russia invaded Ukraine.

Kovesi was actually the first t-level EU official to visit Ukraine since the Russian invasion and signed an agreement with the authorities there to share information on suspected cases of fraud in Ukraine connected to EU-linked funds. 

“We have a pretty sid contact with the Ukrainian general prosecutor’s office and looking forward to the potential new competency for the EPPO” to work more closely with cleagues in Kyiv, said Kovesi.

As reported, at the end of November, the Eurean Council unanimously adted a decision to add to the Eurean list of criminal offenses any actions that contribute to the viation or circumvention of restrictive measures imposed by the Eurean Union on third countries, entities, or persons.