Employees of Gazprombank Schweiz were sentenced to suspended sentences for negligently checking the accounts of musician Sergei Roldugin, Putin’s friend and godfather.
The High Court of Zurich upheld the decision of a lower court that found four employees of the Swiss subsidiary of Gazprombank guilty of helping the Russian cellist Sergei Roldugin, the source of money that the bankers did not properly check the management of two of his bank accounts. Sergei Roldugin is called “Putin’s wallet,” writes Reuters.
All four were reportedly sentenced to fines ranging from 48 thousand to 540 thousand Swiss francs (converted from 50 thousand to 563 thousand euros), as well as to two years of suspended imprisonment with a probationary period, but the defense appealed this sentence.
The parties can challenge the verdict in Switzerland’s highest court – the Federal Court.
We are talking about two accounts worth about 50 million Swiss francs (52 million euros) opened in the name of Roldugin. In Switzerland, banks are required to refuse or terminate a business relationship if there is doubt about the identity of the counterparty, as was the case in this case.
“There is no doubt,” as the Zurich court established, only Roldugin himself could not be the real beneficiary of this money, and the musician’s defense insisted on the contrary.
“Sergei Roldugin is not only a cellist and conductor, but a Kremlin favorite who seems to have access to special funding opportunities that allow him to amass great wealth,” his lawyer said.
The actual ownership of the millions in the accounts is not considered in this process.
The media repeatedly wrote that Roldugin could be “Putin’s wallet.” In 2016, the cellist found himself at the center of a scandal over the leaking of documents from Mossack Fonseca’s Panamanian offshore companies. The multibillion-dollar deals were channeled through companies formally owned by a close friend of Putin.
“It is certainly known that the President of Russia Putin has an official income of only 100 thousand Swiss francs, he is not rich, but in reality it turns out that he has large assets controlled by people close to him,” said of the court. allegation, quoted by Reuters.
The Kremlin has rejected any suggestion that Roldugin’s funds are linked to Putin.
Let’s add that Sergei Roldugin is a Russian cellist and businessman from St. Petersburg, a close friend of Russian dictator Putin and the godfather of the president’s eldest daughter. Involved in several money laundering and offshore schemes for the Russian elite. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the European Union imposed sanctions against Roldugin.
His name was mentioned in the materials of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, according to which Roldugin owned two offshore companies that carried out dubious deals worth $2 billion.
Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.