Swiss bankers charged over accounts of Putin friend

GENEVA (AP) — Four former bankers who worked for the now-closed Swiss branch of a Russian bank are on trial for failing to properly review accounts opened in the name of a Russian cellist close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The lawsuit in a Zurich court on Wednesday is based on reports of secret financial flows exposed in the 2016 Panama Papers scandal involving Sergei Roldugin, a Russian cellist and childhood friend of Putin. It took years for prosecutors to untangle the money transfer network and bring the case to court.

The lawsuit sheds light on Panama Papers allegations that a member of Putin’s entourage helped funnel millions of dollars overseas and finance workers turned a blind eye. Putin denied the charges.

Before and after Putin ordered his forces to invade Ukraine, Western nations imposed sanctions on oligarchs and others close to his government, including Roldugin. The US Treasury Department says Roldugin is “part of a system that handles President Putin’s money overseas”.

The former Gazprombank employees – three of whom were born in Russia and one of Swiss descent, who cannot be named under Swiss law – are accused of failing to properly investigate whether Roldugin, who was a client of the bank of 2014 to 2016, was in fact the owner of the assets of these accounts.

All four deny the charges, which include allegations that they violated Swiss anti-money laundering laws. The verdict will be delivered on March 30, according to the Swiss branch of Gazprombank, which is in the process of winding down its operations and is not facing charges.

Documents filed at the opening of the accounts showed anticipated transactions of 11.5 million Swiss francs ($12.2 million). The indictment does not indicate what part of this amount could have reached the bank.

“It is common knowledge that Russian President Putin officially has an income of just over 100,000 Swiss francs and is not rich, but in reality has enormous wealth managed by people close to him,” the indictment reads.

The text adds that Gazprombank kept the accounts despite “abundant” journalistic coverage of Roldugin’s relationship with Putin, including the fact that he is godfather to one of the president’s daughters.

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Associated Press writers David McHugh in Frankfurt and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.