Bankers on trial in Zurich accused of aiding man known as ‘Putin’s wallet’

theguardian.com:

Four bankers will stand trial in Zurich next week accused of helping a man known as “Vladimir Putin’s wallet” to deposit millions of Swiss francs in Switzerland.

The four men, who worked at Gazprombank, will appear at Zurich district court on 8 March accused of lacking diligence in financial transactions.

The defendants are accused of having “failed to exercise due diligence to ascertain the identity of the beneficial owner” of the funds, according to the indictment seen by Reuters.

Swiss media said the amount involved in the case was about 50m Swiss francs (£44m).

The men, who were senior executives at the bank, which is currently shuttering its Swiss operations, cannot be identified under Swiss reporting restrictions. Their lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.

A spokesperson for Gazprombank said he could not comment on an ongoing trial and referred to the presumption of innocence of the defendants.

Two accounts were opened at Gazprombank in 2014, according to the indictment, with the beneficial owner identified as Sergei Roldugin, a close confidant and friend of the Russian president.

Roldugin’s role as a “wallet” for Putin was revealed in 2016 by the Panama Papers, an investigation published by the Guardian in collaboration with other media, including the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in Washington and the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

The bankers did not carry out any checks to see if Roldugin, a cellist and conductor, was the beneficial owner of the assets, the indictment said.

“At the time of the opening of the account it was reported … that Sergei Roldugin was a close friend of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and godfather of his daughter,” it added.

The defendants made no