Four bankers will stand trial in Zurich next week on charges of helping a man known as “Vladimir Putin’s wallet” deposit millions of Swiss francs in Switzerland. Four people working at Gazprombank will appear before the Zurich district court on March 8 on charges of negligence in financial transactions.
According to the indictment, seen by Reuters, the defendants are charged with “not doing due diligence to identify the beneficial owner” of the funds. Swiss media said the amount involved in the case was about 50m euros. Persons who are senior executives of the bank, which is currently shutting down Swiss operations, cannot be publicly identified under the law of the country. A Gazprombank spokesperson said he could not comment on an ongoing trial, referring to the defendants’ presumption of innocence.
According to the initial restructuring of the prosecution, two accounts were opened in Gazprombank in 2014 and it was determined that the beneficial owner was Sergey Roldugin, a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The bankers did not do any checks to see if the man, the cellist and conductor, was the real beneficiary of the assets. “When opening the account, it was reported that Sergey Roldugin is a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the godfather of his daughter,” the indictment said. According to the court document, the defendants made no attempt to clarify not only whether Roldugin was the true beneficial owner of the assets, but also where the money came from. According to court records, only Roldugin’s professional activity as a musician was listed in the bank records, making his ownership and involvement “in no way reasonable”.
In Switzerland, banks are obliged to refuse or terminate business relations if there are initial doubts about the identity of the contracting party. Both accounts were closed in September 2016. Roldugin became the target of US sanctions after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and was also sanctioned by Switzerland, whose government calls him “Putin’s wallet” on its blocked list. The prosecutor is seeking a suspended seven-month prison sentence for each banker.
Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
