The minister will be able to freeze cryptocurrencies without a court ruling. These are people from the sanctions list

On November 6, the Sejm passed the Act on restrictive measures. There were 240 MPs in favor, 202 against and one abstained.

The Minister of Internal Affairs will be able to freeze funds of persons and companies from the national sanctions list, including crypto-assets. The decision will take effect the day after it is published online, without prior court approval.

A person entered on the list may appeal against the decision to the administrative court, but the funds are frozen until the final judgment is issued.

The act applies only to persons and companies from the list. Now it will be dealt with by the Senate, then by the president.

The Sejm passed the Act on Restrictive Measures, which also covers crypto-assets of persons and companies from the sanctions list. Freezing funds will not require a prior court judgment. 240 MPs voted for the act, 202 were against and one abstained, reports the Local Government Portal. The regulations are still awaiting the Senate and the president’s decision.

What does the Act on Restrictive Measures change?

The government adopted the project on August 4, and it was prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Act collects in one act the rules for applying sanctions that were previously scattered across several acts. It covers all EU sanctions regimes, of which there are currently over 40, so changing the EU lists will not require an amendment to the Polish act, according to the government’s announcement.

The national list is maintained by the Minister of Interior. A person or company may be entered on it ex officio or at the request of 15 institutions, including the Polish Financial Supervision Authority, the President of the National Bank of Poland, the General Inspector of Financial Information and the head of the Internal Security Agency, pursuant to Art. 8 of the adopted act.

The list will include a person or company that supports a country subject to EU sanctions or serious violations of human rights, is directly associated with such persons, or initiates or finances the manipulation of information that poses a threat to state security. This last base is new. The Act explicitly excludes journalistic, journalistic and publishing activities, unless they constitute conscious participation in such a campaign.

Freezing before the court deals with it

You will learn about the minister’s decision from the ministry’s Public Information Bulletin. It becomes enforceable the day after publication. The Act does not provide for an application for reconsideration of the case by the minister, but a person from the list may request that the entry be changed or deleted, providing a justification.

You may appeal against the decision to the provincial administrative court. However, the Act stipulates that the contested decision remains in force until the judgment becomes final, and excludes Art. 152 § 1 of the law on proceedings before administrative courts.

The Act explicitly includes crypto-assets within the meaning of the EU MiCA regulation as financial resources. A freeze means a prohibition of all movements, transfers, alterations and transactions in these funds. In exceptional cases, the Minister of Economy may establish a management board that will sell the frozen assets. Condition: the sale must be necessary for the company operating in Poland to maintain jobs or public services.

Who is affected and who is not

The freeze applies only to the assets of persons and companies entered on the list. The act does not apply to an ordinary bitcoin holder until he or she is listed. Responsibilities fall on institutions that hold other people’s funds. A stock exchange or a bank that does not freeze the funds of a person on the list or makes them available will be exposed to criminal liability.

The penalty for making funds available to a person from the list or not freezing them is from 6 months to 8 years in prison, and in the case of property of significant value – from 1 to 10 years (Article 63). The penalty for concealing assets that are to be frozen is the same, from 6 months to 8 years (Article 67).

What’s next with the bill?

The bill was submitted to the Senate on November 9. The Senate has 30 days to adopt it without changes, amend it or reject it, and the lack of a resolution within this time means the adoption of the act in the Sejm version (Article 121 of the Constitution). Amendments or rejection send the bill back to the Sejm. Then it will go to President Karol Nawrocki, who vetoed a separate act on the crypto-asset market three times. That dispute was about licensing and market supervision, not sanctions. The Act will enter into force 30 days after its publication in the Journal of Laws.

What does this mean to you

If you are not on the sanctions list, the bill does not change how you hold and use cryptocurrencies. However, it changes the obligations of stock exchanges: any stock exchange that stores client funds in Poland will have to freeze the assets of persons listed by the minister from one day to the next. Who holds the keys to your coins and how an exchange wallet differs from your own explains the guide on which cryptocurrency wallet to choose.