Head of the ESBU International Cooperation Division Mr. Anatoliy Aleksandrov during his participation in the "2022 AFCOS Conference", met with Mr. Werner Van Noppen the representative of the Treasury of the Ministry of Finance of the Kingdom of Belgium, responsible for the sanctions policy control and blocking of russian assets, sanctioned legal entities and individuals.

The parties agreed on the development of an algorithm for cooperation in conducting of joint investigations in this area, identifying, blocking and transferring to Ukraine the assets of the russian federation and the republic of belarus, within the competence of the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine. It should be noted that the Treasury of the Ministry of Finance of Belgium blocked hundreds of billions of euros belonging to companies, individuals and state structures from russia.

The ESBU representative also met with the management of the Public Finance Administration of the Kingdom of Belgium – Mr. Nils Onderbeke (the representative of the anti-fraud unit of the Public Finance Administration), Mr. Jean-Francois Vandermeulen (Head of the Special Tax Inspection of the Public Finance Administration) and Mrs. Annelisa Levens (adviser to the president of the Public Finance Administration of Belgium on issues of international cooperation).

The parties agreed on the exchange of operational information between the ESBU and the Special Tax Inspectorate, within the framework of tax investigations on fraud in accordance with the responsibilities of the ESBU. Additionally, the ESBU International Cooperation Division has already sent the list of basic goals to the Belgian colleagues in accordance with the development strategy of the ESBU.

The Administration of Public Finance expressed its will to participate as a development partner in the implementation of projects in areas related to HR, prevention of corruption, automation of analytical processes, corporate culture development, and the methodology of tax crime investigations. A Memorandum of cooperation is scheduled to be signed soon.

It is also planned to conduct online negotiations between the Director of the ESBU with special inspectors for tax investigations and a representative of the Treasury of the Ministry of Finance of the Kingdom of Belgium on issues of joint actions regarding the implementation of sanctions.

International meetings and further bilateral cooperation with European institutions, relevant law enforcement agencies of EU countries, within the responsibilities of the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine, will contribute to the establishment of a dialogue and the development of joint coordination of actions, discussion of the latest ideas and new practices against crimes in the economic sphere.