The Austrian Raiffeisen Bank International has served companies associated with the Rotenberg oligarchs for more than 10 years. This was reported in the material of the German edition of Der Standart. We are talking, in particular, about the Hervet company, which was registered in Cyprus and had relations with the bank from 2002 to 2016, that is, after the annexation of Crimea. Hervet had a securities account and clearing accounts for stock trading. The largest transaction was over €120 million.
Behind Hervet are two other Cypriot mailbox companies with almost the same name: Zoulian Limited and Zoulian Management Limited. From the Paradise Papers leak, journalists were able to find out that Zoulian Limited is closely related to the fictitious Cypriot company Damstone Limited. According to the Paradise Papers, the owner and beneficiary is Boris Rotenberg, Arkady's younger brother.
In 2014, the British Times reported that Boris Rotenberg bought a property in the fashionable London area of Knightsbridge. The official buyer was a shell company in Cyprus, which in turn is owned by Zoulian.
“Thus, the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank International was or is in business relations with the companies of the Rotenberg brothers, who are one of the most influential Russian oligarchs and Putin’s closest confidants,” the authors of the investigation write.
The Austrian authorities have already noted that Raiffeisen was not serious about preventing money laundering in the so-called offshore zones. For this, the bank paid over €3 million in fines.
Arkady and Boris Rotenberg have been under US sanctions since 2014. At the same time, the EU imposed sanctions against Arkady Rotenberg, and against Boris in the spring of 2022. Raiffeisen Bank is still operating in Russia.
