Raids of UBS premises in Frankfurt and Munich in connection with Russian billionaire Usmanov


BERLIN/ZURICH (Reuters) – The premises of Swiss bank UBS in Frankfurt and Munich, Germany, have been raided as part of an investigation into suspected money laundering targeting Russian oligarch Alicher Usmanov , a spokesman for the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday.

The total amount of alleged money laundering is in the order of several million euros, the spokesman said, adding that the searches took place in banking establishments where accounts linked to Alisher Usmanov are domiciled.

A spokesman for the Russian businessman dismissed the “baseless” and “libelous” allegations.

“He respects the laws and conscientiously pays his taxes in Russia,” he said, without specifying whether the research was linked to Alicher Usmanov, reputedly close to the Kremlin.

UBS confirmed searches, initially reported by the weekly Der Spiegel, and said it was cooperating with the authorities.

“The subject of the investigation for suspicion of money laundering is a businessman from the Russian Federation,” said the spokesman for the Frankfurt prosecutor’s office.

“The investigations are not directed against the banking institution concerned or its employees. The searches are taking place within the framework of the same preliminary proceedings in which searches have already been carried out at the domicile of the defendant in the district of Miesbach (in Bavaria- Editor’s note) and on his yacht”, he continued.

The German police announced at the end of September the search of a yacht immobilized in the north of Germany as part of an investigation for money laundering.

Officers from the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office and the Federal Criminal Police, as well as the Munich public prosecutor’s office, also carried out searches at two properties in Miesbach.

The suspected person allegedly organized several transactions between 2017 and 2022 in order to hide their true origin, German authorities said.

Alisher Usmanov, who is present in various sectors of activity and whose fortune amounts to 14.6 billion dollars according to Forbes, is the subject of two separate investigations into his finances in Germany.

(Report Tom Sims, Marta Orosz, Noele Illien, John Revill and Alexander Marrow, French version Sophie Louet and Laetitia Volga, edited by Bertrand Boucey)



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