Bankers who helped Putin’s friend move money via Swiss bank accounts lose appeal By Reuters

By John Revill

ZURICH (Reuters) – A Zurich court docket upheld on Tuesday a judgment towards 4 bankers convicted final yr of failing to carry out due diligence in monetary transactions after serving to a buddy of Russian President Vladimir Putin transfer tens of millions of francs via Swiss financial institution accounts.

The 4 former workers of the Swiss unit of Russia’s Gazprombank had requested Zurich’s excessive court docket to overturn a conviction at a decrease court docket final yr.

The three Russians and a Swiss citizen helped Sergey Roldugin, a live performance cellist who has been dubbed “Putin’s pockets” by the Swiss authorities and is godfather to Putin’s eldest daughter, deposit tens of millions of francs in Swiss accounts between 2014 and 2016.

The bankers, who can’t be recognized underneath Swiss reporting restrictions, have been discovered responsible by Zurich’s District Court docket in March 2023 and given suspended fines totalling greater than 450,000 Swiss francs ($504,000).

The prosecution had alleged the lads didn’t do sufficient to find out the id of the true proprietor of the funds and that it was implausible that Roldugin may very well be the true proprietor.

Swiss legislation meant that clarifications have been wanted into how Roldugin’s accounts acquired dividends of 5 to 7 million Swiss francs per yr and the way he acquired a 20% stake in a media firm with a worth of greater than 100 million francs, the court docket heard on Tuesday.

“There was quite a few analysis which might have been undertaken,” senior choose Beat Intestine advised the court docket, including Roldugin was getting used as a ‘strawman’ – or cowl – to cover the true homeowners of the cash.

“The passive acceptance of the declare that Roldugin obtained his wages and loans is just not believable,” Intestine mentioned. “Specifically the assertion that it was acquired by the use of loans indicated a sure strawman financing.”

($1 = 0.8927 Swiss francs)