GENEVA — 4 bankers have been convicted of failing to conduct due diligence on Swiss accounts that have been opened within the identify of a musician with shut ties to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and used to make deposits value tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars}.
The bankers, who led the Swiss unit of the Russian lender Gazprombank, helped to maneuver thousands and thousands of Swiss francs via two accounts opened for the musician, Sergei P. Roldugin, a live performance cellist nicknamed “Putin’s pockets,” from 2014 to 2016. The bankers denied the costs.
A court docket in Zurich on Thursday handed the 4 bankers, together with three Russian and one Swiss citizen, suspended seven-month jail sentences with two years’ probation. They can’t be recognized for authorized causes. The decide additionally imposed fines amounting to 540,000 Swiss francs, about $590,000, for one of many bankers, the chief govt of Gazprombank’s Swiss subsidiary, and lesser monetary penalties for his colleagues.
Mr. Roldugin is a longstanding buddy of Mr. Putin and godfather to his eldest daughter. The accounts opened in his identify indicated he had belongings of at the very least $50 million and obtained earnings of over $8 million a 12 months, the indictment mentioned.
“The declared belongings and the declared asset flows have been typically under no circumstances believable as Roldugin’s personal belongings” prosecutors mentioned of their indictment of the 4 bankers.
Swiss banks are required to terminate accounts when they’re unsure concerning the true identification of the useful proprietor. On this occasion, the bankers have been conscious of Mr. Roldugin’s connections however carried out solely probably the most cursory of background checks.
Gazprombank introduced in October that it was pulling out of Switzerland and is within the technique of closing down there. However the case has put a highlight on the nation’s position as a favourite vacation spot for billions of {dollars} of deposits by Russian state and enterprise pursuits at a time when the conflict in Ukraine is testing the boundaries of conventional Swiss neutrality.
The case was additionally seen as a check of Switzerland’s willingness to punish bankers for wrongdoing, nevertheless it has attracted criticism over what has been perceived because the leniency of the penalties imposed. Invoice Browder, a British-based financier and campaigner in opposition to corruption in Russia, known as the sentences “absurd” and mentioned they have been proof that “Switzerland desires to be seen to be doing one thing however doesn’t wish to be robust.”
Swiss prosecutors famous that Mr. Roldugin mentioned in an interview with The New York Instances in 2014 that he was not a businessman and didn’t have “thousands and thousands.” Additionally they noticed that, formally, Mr. Putin shouldn’t be rich “however in actual fact has huge belongings managed by individuals near him.”
