Swiss prosecutors accuse 4 bankers of facilitating transfers from Russia

A concert cellist linked to the Russian president moved millions through Swiss bank accounts without any proper checks, prosecutors will allege on March 8, Report informs referring to Reuters.

Four bankers are accused of helping Sergey Roldugin, a close friend of the Russian president according to the indictment, deposit millions of Swiss francs in Switzerland.

They are due to appear at Zurich District Court on March 8 accused of lacking diligence in financial transactions.

Prosecutors allege they failed to do enough to determine the identity of the beneficial owner of the funds, according to the indictment seen by Reuters.

The bankers - three Russians who worked in Zurich and one Swiss - will deny the allegations against them, one of their lawyers said. They cannot be named under Swiss reporting restrictions.

The bankers in the case did not carry out sufficient checks to see if Roldugin was the true owner of the assets in question, the indictment said.

"At the time of the opening of the account it was reported in various articles.... that Sergey Roldugin was a close friend of the Russian President Vladimir Putin and godfather of his daughter," the indictment said.

Other red flags were ignored, and the defendants did not attempt to clarify the plausibility of Roldugin being the real owner of the assets, or the money's origin, the indictment said.

In the bank's documents, only Roldugin's professional activity as a musician was listed, making his ownership and involvement "in no way plausible", the court documents said.

In Switzerland, banks are obliged to reject or terminate business relationships if there are doubts about the identity of the contracting party.

Both accounts were closed in September 2016.