In the trial of a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s dubious accounts, the verdict will be handed down on March 30. The judge announced this after a one-day trial at the district court in Zurich.
The prosecutors explained why they consider the cellist and conductor Sergei Roldugin to be a straw man. The accounts with millions in assets at Gazprombank Schweiz AG, based in Zurich, only belonged to him on paper.
Putin: 100,000 euros income per year
Who was the actual beneficial owner of the assets is not the subject of the proceedings. However, the indictment explicitly states that the Russian President, with an official income of only around 100,000 euros a year, has large assets that are managed by people close to him.
The four accused, including the former head of the bank, rejected the charge of lack of diligence in financial transactions and demanded acquittals. It’s four men. Three were born in Moscow and one in Zurich.
These are accounts that Gazprombank kept from 2014 to 2016. It is not plausible that Roldugin held shares in the company that brought him 30 million francs in dividends, the prosecutor said. Among other things, these had flowed into the accounts. The money also quickly flowed out again via offshore accounts. The bank should have been suspicious.
Banks in Switzerland are obliged to carry out checks if they suspect inconsistencies. According to defenders, Roldugin’s identity was verified. Prosecutors have not presented any solid evidence that the property belongs to anyone else.
Rodulgin is godfather of Putin’s daughter
Rodulgin is known to be a close friend of Putin and his daughter’s godfather. The US Treasury Department put him on a sanctions list a year ago in connection with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The ministry said at the time that he was part of a system that managed the offshore assets of the Russian president.
The investigations in Zurich got underway in 2016 after a network of journalists uncovered dubious financial transactions by politicians and celebrities worldwide. Dubbed the “Panama Papers,” they revealed that a law firm in Panama had set up more than 200,000 shell companies in which wealthy people were said to have hidden assets.
The public prosecutor demanded seven months’ imprisonment on probation for the four accused.
