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View over Munich: Confiscation by entry in the land register
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IMAGO/Andreas Haas / imago images / IMAGO/Andreas Haas
The Munich I public prosecutor's office has probably confiscated Russian assets for the first time in Germany on the basis of the sanctions decided by the EU.
Three private apartments belonging to the sanctioned Duma deputy L. and his wife K. were seized.
According to a statement by the investigators, the bank account that received the rent payments was also confiscated.
The Bavarian authorities are investigating the couple because, even after the EU-wide sanctions came into force, they earned income of around 3,500 euros a month from renting out their three properties, as the public prosecutor explained.
According to the current state of knowledge, this is the first case in Germany in which assets were not just »frozen« due to the sanctions, but real estate was actually confiscated.
According to the public prosecutor's office, the Ministry of Finance had noticed L's participation in a real estate community, which had turned on the law enforcement authorities.
The investigators base the seizure on paragraphs 111 b I and 111 j I of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Rents should be deposited with the district court
The EU included L., along with hundreds of other members of the Duma, on its sanctions list in February.
L. had voted for a resolution calling on President Vladimir Putin to recognize the separatist-claimed areas of eastern Ukraine, the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, as independent states.
According to an underlying EU regulation, the persons on the list may not have any funds or economic resources at their disposal, directly or indirectly, nor benefit from them.
A spokeswoman for the public prosecutor said that the confiscation of the apartments became effective as a result of an entry in the land register made on Monday.
The tenants of the apartments are allowed to stay there, they now have to deposit their rents with the Munich district court instead of paying them to the owners.
The investigation group “Ukraine” of the Federal Criminal Police Office supported the preparation and the enforcement of the sanctions.
The investigations were particularly concerned with tracing the assets affected by the sanctions.
In Germany, they face imprisonment
L. is registered with his wife as joint owners of two of the Munich apartments that have now been confiscated.
In the course of the investigation, it turned out that the wife also earned rental income from a third apartment in Munich.
As a wife, she should also be sanctioned according to the EU regulation, which is why the investigators' blow affects all three apartments.
The public prosecutor's office suspects both of them of criminal violations of the Foreign Trade and Payments Act in several cases.
If caught and charged, they face prison terms of three months to five years under Article 18 I of the law.
The investigations against L. and K. are ongoing.
Apr/AFP/Reuters