Four bankers were convicted in Zurich of helping a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin channel millions through Swiss accounts.

The banking executives were found guilty on Thursday by a court in Zurich for helping a Russian concert cellist, nicknamed «Putin's Wallet» by the Swiss government, move millions of Swiss francs through Swiss bank accounts between 2014, and 2016, according to a report in «The Guardian».

Sergei Roldugin, who is godfather to Putin's eldest daughter, was used as a strawman in the transactions where the four bankers, three Russians and a Swiss, set up two accounts in his name at the Gazprombank's Zurich branch. About 30 million Swiss francs were involved in the case, according to the public prosecutor Jan Hoffmann. These were deposited into the accounts without proper due diligence.

Due to Swiss restrictions on naming people in court cases, the four defendants were not named. They were found guilty and given suspended fines amounting to hundreds of thousands of francs, according to the report. 

Insufficient Due Diligence

Prosecutors argued the bankers did not do sufficient due diligence to determine the actual owner of the funds, saying it was unlikely Roldugin was the true owner. Swiss law requires banks to terminate business arrangements if the identity of the principals cannot be properly determined.

Roldugin was placed on Switzlerand's list of sanctioned Russians following its invasion of Ukraine. According to a «New York Times» (behind paywall) story, Roldugin acknowledged that he is not a businessman and said in a 2014 interview that «I don’t have millions.» Yet the accounts opened with Gazprombank credited him of holding assets of over $50 million and receiving over $8 million a year, the indictment said.

A Kremlin Favorite

The defense argued in a pre-trial briefing that Roldugin was not just some cellist and conductor, but a Kremlin favorite with access to special financing possibilities that allowed him to accumulate substantial wealth.

It further argued that while such favoritism may be frowned upon in Switzerland, it was not relevant to the case.

Either way, the music is over for the bankers.