Restitution of frozen assets to be enshrined in law
Published: Wednesday, Jun 26th 2024, 11:20
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The Federal Council wants to enshrine the practice of restitution of unlawfully acquired assets of foreign politically exposed persons in law. This should ensure that the assets benefit the victims abroad, the government announced on Wednesday.
In recent years, Switzerland has worked to ensure that the confiscated funds are not returned to the cycle of corruption, the Federal Council announced on Wednesday. For example, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) has negotiated modalities for the restitution of funds from so-called foreign politically exposed persons (PEPs) with foreign states in nine cases. Negotiations are still ongoing in three other cases.
The reimbursement modalities define the programs of public interest that should be financed from the reimbursed funds. They also provide for monitoring to oversee the use of these funds, as was also reported.
However, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Council of States (FAC-S) already stated in April 2019 that Swiss legislation only expressly provides for the negotiation of such modalities if the confiscation was carried out in application of the Federal Act on the Freezing and Restitution of Illicitly Acquired Assets (FIAA).
It is therefore important for Switzerland to create a legal basis for the reimbursement and monitoring of PEP funds, according to the Federal Council. This would also reflect current practice. The FDFA was therefore instructed to submit a proposal for a corresponding amendment to the law.
There have been repeated cases of illicitly acquired PEP assets frozen in Switzerland. Among other things, over CHF 100 million belonging to relatives of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych have been frozen in Switzerland.
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