The prosecutor’s office charged four bankers with involvement in the transfer of Mr. Roldugin.
On March 8, four bankers – three Russians who worked in Zurich and one Swiss – are to appear before the district court. They were accused of “lack of discretion in financial transactions.” The indictment states that the bankers did not carry out the necessary checks to establish whether Sergei Roldugin is the true owner of the assets.
“At the time the account was opened, various articles reported … that Sergei Roldugin was a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin and godfather to his daughter,” the indictment says.
The bank documents only list Mr. Roldugin’s professional activities as a cellist, making his ownership of the funds “in no way plausible,” court documents say. In Switzerland, banks are required to reject or terminate business relationships when there is doubt about the identity of a contracting party.
The bankers’ names cannot be given under Swiss law. A lawyer for one of the accused said the bankers would contest the charges against them.
The prosecutor’s indictment alleges that people like Sergei Roldugin are being used as figureheads to hide the true owners of the funds. The media called Sergei Roldugin the owner of two accounts opened with Gazprombank Switzerland GZPRI.MM in 2014, to which millions of Swiss francs flowed from Russia. Both accounts were closed in 2016.