German prosecutors search UBS branches in Russian oligarch money laundering investigation

Record ID: 1696656

  • Title: German prosecutors search UBS branches in Russian oligarch money laundering investigation
  • Date: 8th November 2022
  • Summary: FRANKFURT, GERMANY (NOVEMBER 8, 2022) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF SWISS BANK UBS WHICH WERE BEING SEARCHED AS PART OF AN INVESTIGATION INTO ALLEGED MONEY LAUNDERING BY A RUSSIAN OLIGARCH
  • Embargoed: 22nd November 2022 12:16
  • Keywords: Russian invasion Russian oligarch Ukraine war Usmanov raids sanctions
  • Location: FRANKFURT, ROTTACH-EGERN, BREMERHAVEN + HAMBURG, GERMANY / ISTANBUL, TURKEY
  • City: FRANKFURT, ROTTACH-EGERN, BREMERHAVEN + HAMBURG, GERMANY / ISTANBUL, TURKEY
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Europe
  • Reuters ID: LVA001780308112022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: German officials have searched a large bank in Frankfurt and Munich in an investigation into suspected money-laundering by a Russian oligarch, a spokesperson for the prosecutors said on Tuesday.
    Swiss bank UBS confirmed that its branches were the subject of the searches and that it was cooperating with authorities.
    The prosecutors' spokesperson did not name the bank and declined to name the oligarch, adding that individuals of the bank were not under investigation.
    German weekly Der Spiegel, which first reported the search, said the case involved Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov.
    An Usmanov spokesperson categorically rejected the allegations, describing them as unfounded, false and defamatory.
    The prosecutors' spokesperson said the oligarch in question was also the subject of searches at a motor yacht in northern Germany.
    In March, Forbes had reported that the multi-million luxury yacht the Dilbar, owned by the Usmanov family had been undergoing a refit in the Hamburg shipyards of Blohm + Voss and that the German government had frozen the asset.
    In September German police raided a lakeside villa registered to the Russian-Uzbek oligarch Usmanov in the southern state of Bavaria as part of investigations into suspected money-laundering, sources familiar with the matter said.
    Over 250 officers searched an apparently abandoned villa in the upmarket holiday town of Rottach-Egern on the shores of the Tegernsee.
    Usmanov, active across a broad range of business sectors, was added to the Western sanctions list in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
    He has a net worth of $14.6 billion, according to Forbes.
    (Production: Timm Reichert, Tanya Wood)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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