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Switzerland moved to freeze any assets held by deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and close associates “with immediate effect”.
“The Federal Council wants to ensure that any illicitly acquired assets cannot be transferred out of Switzerland in the current situation,” the government said in a press release.
This is the first fresh asset-freeze announcement since Saturday’s capture of Maduro, though Bern has not said whether any assets actually exist or in what amount.
Switzerland has had sanctions in force against Venezuela since 2018, and the US, Canada and EU imposed sanctions and an embargo on dealing with Caracas in 2017.
Under the Federal Act on the Freezing and the Restitution of Illicit Assets Held by Foreign Politically Exposed Persons (FIAA) the Swiss government “decided, as a precautionary measure, to freeze any assets held in Switzerland by Mr. Maduro and other persons associated with him,” the statement continued.
The asset freeze does not affect any members of the current Venezuelan government.
The Swiss government also said that “should future legal proceedings reveal that the funds were illicitly acquired, Switzerland will endeavour to ensure that they benefit the Venezuelan people.”
On 3 January, Maduro was arrested by US forces in Caracas and flown to the United States due to charges of narco-trafficking and his alleged collaboration with drug traffickers and criminal groups in both Venezuela and Colombia.
Switzerland’s private banking industry has repeatedly surfaced in major leaks and watchdog reports as a place where politically exposed people and other high-risk clients have parked their wealth, ostensibly drawn by the country’s political stability, a large wealth-management sector and historically strong bank and corporate secrecy that can make ownership harder to trace.