At the invitation of Europol, the ARMA delegation took part in a meeting of the Europol Oscar Working Group at EuropolHeadquarters in The Hague (Netherlands).
Valentyn Shevchuk, Head of the Department for Finding andTracing of Assets of Sanctioned and Other Entities that Pose Realand or Potential Threats to the National Interest of ARMA, in hiswelcoming speech, briefed the international partners on the mainfunctions of the agency, achievements and goals, developmentdynamics and trends in the field of asset recovery, tracing andmanagement.
These positive changes and reforms of the National Agency havetaken place as a result of an independent, open competition for theposition of the Head of ARMA and since the appointment of OlenaDuma as the Head of ARMA. In the last six months alone, theRegister of Seized Assets was opened, an open procedure forselecting asset managers was launched, and the provision oftemporary housing for the military and internally displaced personswas initiated at the expense of seized real estate of the sanatoriumand resort type. The work of the Agency for tracing andmanagement of assets of sanctioned persons and persons involved inthe military aggression of the russian federation against Ukraine wasalso highlighted.
The Agency's representative, Anna Makarenko, presented tointernational partners a set of tools used by ARMA to identify andtrace assets, cited successful cases of international cooperation andemphasized the need for interaction and information exchange withEuropol and other competent foreign jurisdictions. The presentationwas actively discussed by the participants of the meeting, inparticular, Europol representatives expressed support for ARMA'sinitiatives to trace the assets of sanctioned persons and theirassociates in the territory of the countries participating in theoperation. Eurojust also expressed its readiness to assist in obtaininginformation from foreign jurisdictions that have ineffectively orincompletely provided information on assets at ARMA's request.
The participants of the event exchanged experience of successfulcases in the field of asset identification and tracing and agreed onfruitful cooperation.
For reference: Operation Oscar is an operation launched on April11, 2022 by Europol in cooperation with EU Member States, Eurojust and Frontex to support EU Member States' financialinvestigations into criminal assets belonging to individuals andentities sanctioned in connection with the russian invasion ofUkraine. Operation Oscar also aims to support criminalinvestigations by Member States into the circumvention of EU tradeand economic sanctions.
