NEW YORK: The Treasury Department ordered the nation’s banking industry to start disclosing its holdings of Russian assets on Tuesday, with the goal of eventually seizing those billions of dollars in assets and selling them to aid the devastated Ukrainian economy.
The disclosure is required under a new law passed by Congress earlier this year known as the REPO Act, which gives the US government the authority to seize Russian state assets held by US banks, with the goal of eventually selling them and giving those funds to Ukraine. While the vast bulk of Russian assets are held in Europe, it is estimated that the US banking system holds as much as $6 billion in Russian assets in trust.
Banks will need to report Russian assets on their books no later than Aug. 2 to the Office of Foreign Assets Control. If a bank discovers any new Russian assets on their books after the deadline, those assets need to be reported within 10 days, the Treasury Department said.
Russia’s war in Ukraine, which began in February 2022, has killed tens of thousands but has also caused significant devastation to Ukraine’s economy and infrastructure. The World Bank estimated in February that Ukraine will need $486 billion for recovery and reconstruction, a figure that has only risen as the war has continued.
The US, Canada, France, Germany Italy, the UK and Japan — commonly known as the G7 — froze roughly $300 billion worth of Russian assets at the start of the war. These assets included hard currency, as well as gold and investments in publicly and privately-held companies. But there has been little conversation until this year about what to do with those frozen assets, until the idea of forfeiture and liquidation was included in the REPO Act.
US banks to begin reporting Russian assets for eventual forfeiture under new law
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US banks to begin reporting Russian assets for eventual forfeiture under new law
- If a bank discovers any new Russian assets on their books after the deadline, those assets need to be reported within 10 days, the Treasury Department said
British serial killer ‘Suffolk Strangler’ pleads guilty to 1999 murder
- Steve Wright, who is already serving a life sentence with no prospect of parole for killing the women in 2006, appeared at London’s Old Bailey court
LONDON: A British serial killer dubbed the “Suffolk Strangler” by the media after he killed five young women two decades ago pleaded guilty on Monday to another murder from 27 years ago.
Steve Wright, who is already serving a life sentence with no prospect of parole for killing the women in 2006, appeared at London’s Old Bailey court and admitted kidnapping and murdering 17-year-old Victoria Hall in 1999.
Wright, 67, also pleaded guilty to the attempted kidnap of a 22-year-old woman the day before Hall’s murder. He will be sentenced on Friday.
“Justice has finally been achieved for Victoria Hall after 26 years,” Samantha Woolley from the Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement.
Wright was convicted in 2008 of the murder of five women who worked as prostitutes in the town of Ipswich, northeast of London in Suffolk. Wright left two of the bodies in a crucifix position with arms outstretched.
He was give a whole-life order, meaning he could never be released from prison, for what the sentencing judge described as “a targeted campaign of murder.”
Wright had consistently denied the allegations even though his DNA was found on three of the victims and bloodstains from two of them were found on his jacket at his home. His victims’ bodies were found in the space of just 10 days around Ipswich.
