A Swiss court convicted four bankers who helped Putinʼs friend Sergei Roldugin (the countryʼs government calls him "Putinʼs wallet") transfer millions of francs through Swiss banks for negligence in financial transactions.
Reuters writes about it.
Three Russians and one Swiss helped the cellist Roldugin, who is also the godfather of Putinʼs eldest daughter Maria, deposit about 30 million francs in Swiss bank accounts between 2014 and 2016. For this, they were sentenced to a seven-month suspended sentence.
In Switzerland, banks must decline or terminate business relationships if there are doubts about the true owner of money, and bankers have ignored this obligation.
Putinʼs friend Serhiy Roldugin has come under Western sanctions after the full-scale invasion of Russia.
- Switzerlandʼs neutrality is one of the main principles of the countryʼs foreign policy, which states that Switzerland has no right to participate in armed or political conflicts between other states. However, after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Switzerland joined the EU sanctions.
- At the same time, the Swiss government refused to confiscate frozen Russian assets. A special task force concluded that this would violate the countryʼs Constitution.