Swiss banks Credit Suisse and UBS are suspected of bypassing sanctions against Russia - Bloomberg

One Swiss bank has $ 33 billion in one Swiss bank belonging to Russian rich. Meanwhile, all banks of Switzerland have $ 200 billion, of which only 4%are frozen. The US, the EU and a number of partner countries of Ukraine have imposed sanctions on the Russian Federation due to the invasion in February 2022 and a hybrid war in 2014. During this time, the US government has imposed financial restrictions on more than a thousand Russians: they are prohibited from conducting financial affairs.

Meanwhile, the Swiss Bank Credit Suisse continued to assist Russian citizens to conduct transactions abroad. That is why he was under the supervision of the US Ministry of Finance - its leaders received summons and had to explain their actions. In September 2023, US government officials decided to understand the Credit Suisse equipment and UBS financial group, which bought a problem bank in March of the same year. Bloomberg told about the situation.

The publication refers to anonymous sources in the US government, secreted in details of the case. Sources claim that the Ministry of Justice has intensified the investigation against the Credit Suisse Bank and the UBS financial group. Suspicions relate to cooperation with the Russians, which they help to bypass sanctions. Previously, officials simply sent the summons to get some explanations, now the "full -scale investigation" has started, Bloomberg points out.

In the previous stage of the investigation, investigators were interested in the actions of the Swiss bank Credit Suisse. Later, inspectors suspected that the US laws were violated by UBS, which bought this bank six months ago. The investigation into violators of sanctions against the Russian Federation has not yet reached the stage of charges, informed the anonymous source.

Meanwhile, Credit Suisse and UBS executives are asked to explain how they were accounting for clients from Russia who were on the US sanction list. This is not only about the violation, starting in February 2022. It is about the events of eight years ago when the Kremlin performed annexation of Crimea. Credit Suisse is a network of Swiss banks that had branches in 56 countries, including in Russia. In March 2023, the company was acquired by another Swiss financial group - UBS.

Bloomberg indicated that new owners received $ 4 trillion, but also acquired problems that accompanied the bank's activities. In August 2023, the Kremlin arrested the assets of both companies and restricted access to the promotion. Meanwhile, the Credit Suisse investigation is not the first thing in the US. In particular, they are still studying the case of avoiding taxes by clients of the bank - US citizens. The total amount of possible concealment of funds is $ 2. 6 billion.

Until February 2022, the Russian accounts with Credit Suisse kept $ 60 billion, the newspaper reports. In a year thereafter, the amount decreased twice - is $ 33 billion. According to estimates, the Swiss banks are $ 200 billion in the accounts of Swiss banks. assets due to the Russians. At the same time, after the start of the sanction pressure on the Russian Federation, bankers froze only $ 8. 4 billion. - That is only 4%.

It should be noted that the monitoring sites can be traced how the cost of shares of banking groups Credit Suisse and UBS has changed over the last five years. While the UBS was observed by the beginning of 2023, and then the cost of the shares increased suddenly, then it fell. We remind that the investigators found a Swiss raw materials trader who established a massive export from the Russian Federation of leaf copper.