Financial Times author Sam Jones looked at how hundreds of billions belonging to Russian sanctioned oligarchs are slipping through Swiss law.
There is a beaten joke among Swiss bankers that hints on the corruption and corruption of the country with which they are currently dealing. Its current version as of April 2022 reads: “Where is the capital of Russia?”, Quotes FT author Sam Jones Swissinfo.ch.
Three months after the start of Vladimir Putin's brutal aggressive war against Ukraine, all attempts to find traces of Russian treasures in Switzerland have so far failed. Although neutral Switzerland, perhaps larger than any other country in the world, has been considered a real treasure trove of Putin's kleptocracy in recent years.
But even after Bern mirrored all sanctions > implemented by the US and the EU against Russian oligarchs (and this list now includes about 900 people worldwide) in Switzerland currently frozen Russian assets of only $ 8 billion or 7.7 billion Swiss francs.
By comparison, the island of Jersey (where is it?) has frozen $ 7 billion in assets related to Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich alone. What does this tell the Swiss government? Probably, the fact that the implementation of such a large-scale set of sanctions is a work that has a beginning, but no and can not end.
“Effective control of such assets is a task of the highest degree of complexity,” said Erwin Bollinger, a senior member of the Swiss Secretariat of State for Economic Affairs (SECO, Ministry of Economy), responsible for sanctions, at a briefing in March 2022. He added later, however, that the total amount of such assets is likely to grow. Banks are now working hard to try to track the assets and condition of their customers.
To put the low official figure of seized sanctions into the general context, the Swiss Banking Association (Schweizerische Bankiervereinigung SBVg) recently estimated that Swiss banks have about 150-200 billion Swiss francs in total.
So? Are there still, as they say, big landings ahead of us? It seems that very few Swiss bankers think so and expect it. Of course, the largest international banking houses are in a hurry to get back into shape as soon as possible and apply sanctions to their work in their strictest interpretation. They say, and here they are right, that we should not turn a blind eye to Russian clients' money now, and then risk confronting the US financial and tax authorities.
In February and March 2022, a special working group of UBS literally twice a day held conference calls, exchanging information on the progress of sanctions against their client base. More secretive private banks fear Washington's anger to a much lesser extent. But they also say they froze everything they could.
The problem, as one Zhenivka banker said during a recent private party, is twofold. First, assets are often kept unrecorded directly in the names of sanctioned customers. And when money is kept by family members, there are legal difficulties associated with this fact. Secondly, this banker said after the eighth prosecco, money is very rarely physically stored in Switzerland itself.
In Zurich, another banker explained that “for years we have been advising our clients not to use Swiss trusts, but not for political reasons, but simply because other trusts are easier to use. And that's why the money is “there, there are exotic offshores.”
The Russian oligarchy, especially those at risk, took eight years to prepare a “Plan B” after the invasion of Crimea. High-paid Swiss lawyers and bankers in the service of Russia's wealthy people, who have long loved Geneva and Zurich as their financial settlement centers, have been sitting idly by helping them transfer “hard work” to relatives and transfer these assets. into the hands of incomprehensible trusts or even far beyond the country.
When Putin began to concentrate his troops on Ukraine's borders, it accelerated markedly. In early February, the world, still somewhat skeptical of US intelligence claims that Putin was about to attack his neighbor, could see that it was not a fuss or a fake, simply by using intelligence such as documents. shaft that went through the hands of Geneva notaries.
Read also: US intelligence deliberately merged in the media Putin's plan to invade Ukraine – experts
And where did this shaft go? “Everything went to Dubai”! – joked my interlocutor, a female banker, opening a third bottle of wine. Swiss banks, of course, have a lot of such intelligence. But they remain silent like fish on ice. They do not matter to law enforcement because of the extremely strict banking secrecy laws that still exist and operate in Switzerland as a matter of national pride.
Unless there is clear evidence or suspicion of a possible criminal actions, Swiss bankers will protect the banking secrecy of their customers at almost any cost and to the last.
Well, what about the assets that remain in the possession of Swiss banks and which are evidently related directly to those who are subject to sanctions? In fact, it is a trifle that rumbles in the pockets of oligarchs. At best, this is the budget, which, of course, should be enough for the season in Gstaad, shopping at the Piaget boutique or detox at the Clinique La Prairie clinic. , became a three-bedroom apartment with a golf course owned by Peter Avenue . But oligarchic Eldorado is reluctant to do so.
However, lines of disagreement over the war have emerged among Russia's economic elite. And the oligarchs, who became especially rich before Vladimir Putin came to power, began to speak cautiously against, – writes the Washington Post. Most of them focus on their own troubles. Western sanctions have lowered the Iron Curtain on the Russian economy, freezing tens of billions of dollars in Russia's wealth at the same time.
In one day, they destroyed everything we had built for years. This is a catastrophe, “said an unnamed Russian businessman who was among the richest Russians invited to meet with Putin on the day of the invasion.
