Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

Media report: Swiss banks housed funds from Putin confidants

Julius Bär bank
Julius Bär is accused of maintaining business links with a Russian close to Putin until 2021. Keystone

According to research by the Tages Anzeiger, Swiss banks have maintained business relationships with high-ranking Russian officials and Putin confidants despite sanctions and money laundering allegations. The focus of the reporting is Bank Julius Bär.

+ Impact of Russian sanctions on Swiss banks

According to the report, Julius Bär has, among others, Leonid Reiman as a customer until 2021. Reiman served Russian President Vladimir Putin in various capacities until 2010. According to an internationally recognized court, Reiman is said to have enriched himself from Russian state assets in the 2000s.

The court found money laundering on a large scale, the report continued. Despite the money laundering allegations and the closeness to the regime, the Julius Bär bankers conducted further business with Reiman. The figures come from a new data leak from the Zurich financial centre.

Bank Julius Bär is not commenting on the allegations. “We generally do not comment on perceived or actual customer relationships,” writes a spokeswoman for the bank upon request.

More


This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Daily news

Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox.

Daily

The SBC Privacy Policy provides additional information on how your data is processed.


Popular Stories

Most Discussed

News

No Swiss bank in phase with environmental objectives

More

Swiss banks failing environment, says WWF

This content was published on None of the 15 major Swiss retail banks is meeting international climate and biodiversity targets, according to a ranking by WWF Switzerland.

Read more: Swiss banks failing environment, says WWF
UNRWA provides emergency assistance to just over one million Palestine refugees, or about 75 per cent of all Palestine refugees in Gaza, who lack the financial means to cover their basic food.

More

Lazzarini: no alternative to UNRWA in Gaza

This content was published on The only alternative to the UN Palestinian agency’s work in Gaza is to allow Israel to run services there, Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General, told reporters in Geneva on Monday.

Read more: Lazzarini: no alternative to UNRWA in Gaza

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR