| Credit Suisse Group and UBS are among the banks under scrutiny in a US Justice Department probe into whether financial professionals helped Russian oligarchs evade sanctions, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Justice Department inquiries are focused on identifying which bank employees dealt with sanctioned clients and how those clients were vetted over the past several years, according to one of the people. Those bankers and advisers may then be subject to further investigation to determine if they broke any laws.Before Moscow’s war on Ukraine resulted in expanded sanctions, Credit Suisse was well-known for catering to wealthy Russians.
The Justice Department last year launched its KleptoCapture task force to enforce sanctions on wealthy Russians who are political allies of President Vladimir Putin. The US government has since seized a number of yachts, private planes and luxury properties. A number of individuals have also been charged with helping oligarchs hide assets – British businessman Graham Bonham-Carter was arrested in October on charges that he illegally transferred $US1 million to maintain US properties for sanctioned billionaire Oleg Deripaska. A former senior FBI agent was also charged with helping Mr Deripaska violate sanctions in January.
Who’s surprised that this was coming?