In the course of the investigation into suspected money laundering against the Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov, the investigating authorities have now searched the offices of a bank in Germany for the first time. On Tuesday morning, a few dozen officers from the Federal Criminal Police Office arrived at the locations of the major Swiss bank UBS in Frankfurt and Munich and searched for documents on the business relationship.
“We confirm that public prosecutors are currently searching the premises of the UBS Europe SE branches in Frankfurt and Munich,” said a spokeswoman for the bank on request. “We are cooperating fully with the authorities and ask for your understanding that we are currently unable to comment further on the matter.”
The Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is in charge of the investigation, confirmed searches in both cities to the FAZ. The spokesman stressed that there were no investigations against the bank or its employees. It’s just about securing evidence of a business relationship. Other banks are currently not affected.
Several works of art already secured
In the same investigation, the authorities had searched a villa and other properties owned by Usmanow on Lake Tegernsee and one of his luxury yachts in the port of Bremen a few weeks ago. In addition to documents, several valuables and works of art, such as a painting by Marc Chagall, are said to have been found and secured.
Usmanov is considered a close confidante of Vladimir Putin and was therefore put on the sanctions lists of the European Union after the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. Among other things, according to EU statements, he is said to have spread anti-Ukrainian propaganda via his newspaper “Kommersant” before the war. The ship in Bremen, which is said to be one of the most expensive yachts in the world with a value of 500 million euros, was then fixed and may no longer be sold, rented or charged, according to the investigating authorities.
According to earlier investigators, Usmanov is suspected of having initiated several transactions between 2017 and 2022 in order to conceal the origin of funds. There is a suspicion that the transferred funds came from criminal offenses, in particular from tax evasion crimes. According to earlier information, the volume of money smuggling is said to be in the tens of millions. Should the suspicion be confirmed and should the relevant documents be found during the searches, this could also have unpleasant consequences for UBS. There are extensive requirements for banks to check the origin of their customer funds.
