Lithuania’s Financial Crime Investigation Service has frozen the assets of the local operator of the Russian discount retail chain Mere after the European Union imposed sanctions on the indirect owner of the business.
The agency said it froze funds belonging to Valiante, the Lithuanian operator of Mere, along with two other companies linked to Russian businessman Sergey Shnayder: warehousing company Next Logistics and food trading firm Litproduktai.
All three companies were added this week to the Financial Crime Investigation Service’s list of sanctioned entities.
According to the agency, Shnayder indirectly owns 79% of Valiante and 74.87% of both Litproduktai and Next Logistics. Under EU sanctions rules, the companies’ funds must be frozen because more than half of their shares are controlled by a sanctioned individual.
Shnayder was added to the European Union’s 21st package of sanctions on July 23, with the measures extending to operators of the Mere retail chain in Lithuania and several other countries. As a result, the affected companies were required to immediately halt operations in compliance with EU sanctions.
