Next week, four officials of the Swiss branch of Gazprombank will appear in court on charges of suspicious accounts of Russian cellist Sergei Roldugin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, AFP reports.

The four men, three Russian nationals and one Swiss national, are accused of failing to fulfill their verification obligations despite “objective” doubts that should have been raised about the accounts, according to an indictment seen by AFP on Thursday.

The trial is scheduled to begin in Zurich on March 8. The indictment called for seven months in prison for four defendants, including the managing director of the bank’s Swiss branch.

They are accused of opening and managing two accounts between 2014 and 2016 for a Russian cellist and conductor, through which several million euros were transferred, specifically to receive dividends from a major Russian media advertising agency and Eastern Europe, without bothering to check whether he was the legal beneficiary of these funds.

However, it was not “plausible” that Roldugin would have such assets “with his income as a cellist and conductor”, the indictment said, providing a long list of signs that should have raised suspicions.

“The case revolves around assets worth around 50 million francs,” the Tribune de Genève said, questioning whether the musician was a “front person” for the Russian president and his entourage.

The Panama Papers, an investigation published in 2016 by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), of which Tamedia, publisher of the Tribune de Genève, is part, revealed the existence of these accounts.

Finma, the Swiss market watchdog, then opened proceedings and imposed severe sanctions on Gazprombank Switzerland, accusing it of failing to verify business relationships and transactions with private clients.

He is not a businessman…

Gazprombank Switzerland was an Alpine subsidiary of Gazprombank, the financial arm of Russian gas giant Gazprom. Its activities were mainly focused on international trade finance products and services.

After the invasion of Ukraine, it was banned from the Swiss banking sector and announced to cease operations in Switzerland in October 2022.

Among the evidence that would justify increased scrutiny, the indictment mentions large sums declared in the bank by the musician, who nevertheless said in an interview with the New York Times that he is not a “businessman” and that he “does not have” a million “.

While Swiss banks are required to check the assets of so-called “political figures”, Gazprombank Suisse should also have known that he was close to Vladimir Putin, as the musician was the godfather of one of his daughters, according to media reports. .

The accounts were opened through Bank Rossiya, which at the time was already under US sanctions due to its ties to the “Russian political establishment,” the indictment added, which should also have prompted further investigation.

The indictment mentions the Russian president by name: “It is common knowledge that Russian President Putin officially has an income of only about 100,000 Swiss francs and that he is not rich, but in fact he has enormous assets managed by people close to him. “.

As the Tribune de Genève writes, the outcome of the trial is “difficult to predict” because “the prosecutor’s office must prove that Serhiy Roldugin was a cover-up.” (photo: Dreamstime)