Status: 11/08/2022 1:57 p.m
German locations of the major bank UBS have been searched. The raids are apparently linked to investigations into Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov on suspicion of money laundering.
The investigations into the Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov on suspicion of money laundering are apparently expanding. Today investigators searched two locations of the major Swiss bank UBS in Germany.
“We confirm that public prosecutors are currently conducting searches on the premises of the UBS Europe SE branches in Frankfurt and Munich,” said a spokeswoman for the money house. “We are cooperating fully with the authorities and ask for your understanding that we are currently unable to comment further on the matter”. “Spiegel Online” had previously reported on the raids.
The Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that they were investigating suspected money laundering in relation to a Russian oligarch. There are no investigations against the bank itself or against employees of the money house. The search serves to secure evidence. According to “Spiegel”, the oligarch is Alischer Usmanov. At the end of September, Usmanow’s villa on Tegernsee and later a luxury yacht detained near Bremen had already been searched.
“Origin of funds obscured”
Usmanov, who comes from Kazakhstan, is considered a confidant of the Russian head of state Vladimir Putin. His current whereabouts are unclear. According to media reports, he fled to Uzbekistan after the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine. Before that he lived at Tegernsee for a long time.
According to earlier investigators, Usmanov is suspected of having initiated several transactions between 2017 and 2022 in order to conceal the origin of funds. He is said to have used his complex network of companies, mainly in so-called offshore countries. There is a suspicion that the transferred funds came from criminal offenses, in particular from tax evasion crimes. The volume is probably in the tens of millions. The Frankfurt investigators began their proceedings after the publication of the so-called Panama Papers.
Violation of EU sanctions?
The Munich II public prosecutor is investigating Usmanow on initial suspicion of violating the Foreign Trade Act. Even after being included on the European Union’s sanctions list on February 28, the oligarch is said to have had his property in Upper Bavaria guarded by a security company. By paying for these security services, he acted contrary to the ban on disposing of frozen funds.