Europol and other EU agencies have teamed up with the bloc’s members to facilitate criminal investigations into the assets of individuals and entities sanctioned over Russia’s ongoing military offensive in Ukraine.
“Operation Oscar” will also support probes by EU nations into alleged violations of economic and trade restrictions placed on Moscow, Europol announced on Tuesday.
The “umbrella operation” will last for at least a year and is set to include a number of parallel investigations. In many ways it’s similar to Operation Sentinel, which was carried out during the Covid-19 pandemic to tackle fraud against the EU’s recovery funds.
As part of Operation Oscar, Europol plans to centralize and analyze the data coming from member states “to identify international links, criminal groups and suspects, as well as new criminal trends and patterns.”
The EU law enforcement agency will also support probes into sanctioned assets financially by offering operational coordination, forensics and technical expertise.