The businessman was sanctioned.
The Swiss Federal Court has issued a verdict on the claim of Russian businessman Viktor Vekselberg. The head of the Renova group of companies protested the decision of the Swiss bank PostFinance, which closed his accounts.
The reason for closing the accounts was that the oligarch was under US sanctions.
According to RBC, Vekselberg opened several accounts in PostFinance in the fall of 2018. One account was in euros, the other in Swiss francs. But by this time, the billionaire had already been under American sanctions for several months.
After a while, the bank decided to close the accounts, citing “inconsistency of the bank’s strategy with the profile of [the client].”
In 2019, Vekselberg challenged this decision in the Bern court. But then he was denied the claim, but the Russian appealed against it.
The federal court ruled that the bank had no right to close the accounts. PostFinance is now obliged to service the accounts of the founder of the group.
Viktor Vekselberg was also awarded compensation of 9,000 Swiss francs. He will be paid the court costs of the plaintiff for 8000 francs. The total amount will be about $ 18,000.
Recall that Viktor Vekselberg found himself under US sanctions in the spring of 2018. Then America compiled a blacklist of businessmen and officials “close” to Vladimir Putin, accused of interfering in the American presidential election.
Sanctions hit Vekselberg hard – more than 1.5 billion dollars were frozen.
Viktor Vekselberg’s fortune reaches $ 9 billion, and he ranks 20th in the list of the richest Russian businessmen.
As Topnews wrote earlier, in February 2021, Vekselberg complained that he was not allowed to withdraw money from American accounts for charity.
He also wanted to spend money on fighting the pandemic.