Russian Oligarch Sues UBS Over 'Unlawful' Money Laundering Alerts

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Sanctioned Russian-Uzbek multi-billionaire Alisher Usmanov has filed a lawsuit against UBS claiming damages for“breach of contract and tortious misconduct”.

This content was published on June 18, 2024 - 09:42 3 minutes Keystone-SDA

Do you want to read our weekly top stories? Subscribe here .

The reason given by the lawyers for the lawsuit is that the bank's German subsidiary, UBS Europe,“unlawfully” reported Usmanov to the financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). According to the Munich-based lawyers Gauweiler and Rabenau, the bank made more than a dozen so-called suspicious money laundering reports to the authorities,“in some cases completely absurdly on the occasion of regular rent payments or ordinary cash withdrawals”.

More More Meet the oligarchs: Switzerland's awkward guests

This content was published on Mar 25, 2022 The Swiss authorities and media are busy hunting down links between Switzerland and sanctioned Russian oligarchs.

Read more: Meet the oligarchs: Switzerland's awkward guest

According to the lawyers, these reports took place between 2018 and 2022 and“severely damaged Mr Usmanov's reputation”. He has also“suffered considerable financial losses” as a result.

For this reason, the German law firm has filed a lawsuit against the UBS subsidiary in Frankfurt“to establish liability for damages” for Usmanov personally“for fundamental judicial clarification”. However, according to the lawyers, this will not be the end of the matter,“as the extent of the damage that has been caused cannot be overlooked”.

The Russian-Uzbek multi-billionaire Usmanov, whose fortune was recently estimated at $13.6 billion (CHF12.1 billion) by the US business magazine Forbes, is considered a close supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukraine policy.

+ UBS raided in oligarch money laundering probe

The European Union therefore imposed sanctions against him a few days after Russia's military invasion of the neighboring country in February 2022. The decision at the time stated that Usmanov had served as a front man for Putin and solved his business problems.

Protesters have repeatedly demonstrated in front of the oligarch's villa in Rottach-Egern in Upper Bavaria following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The news agency Reuters was the first to report the lawsuit. UBS declined to comment and has not responded to an enquiry from AWP.

Translated from German by DeepL/mga

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look
here , and if you have feedback on this news story please write to
... .

External Content Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again. Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you. Daily news

Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox.

Daily

Email

The SBC Privacy Policy provides additional information on how your data is processed.

I consent to the use of my data for the SWI swissinfo newsletter.

Deeply Read More Science Switzerland says it can't afford to take part in Copernicus programme Read more: Switzerland says it can't afford to take part in Copernicus programm More Workplace Switzerland How Switzerland plans to tackle its labour shortage Read more: How Switzerland plans to tackle its labour shortag More Culture Switzerland wins Eurovision Song Contest 2024 Read more: Switzerland wins Eurovision Song Contest 202 More Workplace Switzerland Owning a home is becoming increasingly difficult in Switzerland Read more: Owning a home is becoming increasingly difficult in Switzerlan More Life & Aging Swiss village of Lauterbrunnen mulls Venice-style tourist entry charge Read more: Swiss village of Lauterbrunnen mulls Venice-style tourist entry charge Most Discussed

MENAFN18062024000210011054ID1108344226

Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.