A court in Zurich convicted four managers of Swiss Gazprombank (a subsidiary of Russia's Gazprombank; now closed) for allowing cellist Sergei Roldugin to funnel millions of francs through accounts in that country . Bank employees were accused of "lack of discretion in financial transactions."
According to the prosecutor's office, they did not show due attention when opening the accounts of International Media Overseas SA and Med Media Network Ltd, although the managers knew that the beneficial owner of both was Sergei Roldugin. Millions of Swiss francs from Russia were pumped through these firms. The sole purpose of the companies, according to the indictment (available to The Insider) , was to redirect these funds to Roldugin – to offshore companies, of which he was the beneficiary.
According to the Zurich prosecutor's office, the bankers should have known who they were dealing with. Meanwhile, in the folder on Roldugin, the investigation found only a printout from the Mariinsky Theater website and the musician's autobiography. That is, the bankers knew that the cellist is not engaged in any business (as he himself admitted in his interviews), but at the same time manages multimillion-dollar income. The prosecutor's office argues that "if the indication of [Roldugin's] professional activity is taken as true, then these … financial flows could in no way be reliably perceived as Roldugin's personal funds."
According to prosecutor Jan Hoffmann, the bankers should have had a question about the sources of Roldugin's income, but they did not ask him. The bankers also, according to the prosecutor’s office, should have answered positively the question: is Roldugin a “politically significant person” (politically exposed person), since by the time the account was opened it was known from press reports that Roldugin was a close friend of President Putin and even godfather father of his daughter.
The indictment states in particular: “It is well known that President Putin officially has an income of about 100,000 francs and is not rich, but in fact he manages huge funds that are administered by persons standing next to him.” Already on this basis, the managers should have requested a comprehensive explanation from Roldugin regarding the origin of the funds.
The court agreed with the accusation and awarded the managers fines of 540,000, 48,000, 63,000 and 90,000 francs. The fines were awarded with a two-year deferred execution. This means that if managers do not commit other violations during this period, they will not have to pay a fine.
