Long known as a place where war criminals and kleptocrats hide their loot, Switzerland is one of the leading collaborators of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and his close associates.. Having plundered Russia, Putin and his oligarchs are using Swiss banking secrecy laws to hide and protect the proceeds of their crimes,” the Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the Helsinki Commission, said in a statement, swissinfo said.. ch.

Swiss Anti-Corruption Expert Mark Peet Testifies This Powerful US Government Commission. He said that Swiss lawyers can indeed help Russian oligarchs hide traces of their funds without violating the laws of their country..

At the hearing of the Commission on Thursday, May 5, Mark Piet himself, Miranda Patrucic, a journalist for the Center for Corruption and Organized Crime Research (OCCRP), and Bill Browder, a financier and investor who accuses Swiss prosecutors of the failure of the investigation into the money laundering case in.

Mark Piet told the Commission that lawyers are exploiting Swiss legal loopholes to thwart efforts to trace Russian assets. Here is what he said verbatim:.

“We know that Switzerland is a small country. At the same time, it is home to a significant financial industry, being probably the world's largest commodity trading center.. It has a long tradition of banking secrecy. In short, this is one of the largest offshore harbors in the world.. I am especially interested in the role of organizers and assistants - often these are lawyers hiding behind the principle of attorney-client privilege.. There is nothing wrong with them acting as ordinary lawyers protecting the interests of their clients.. On the other hand, it is no less obvious that lawyers who invest their clients' money are no longer acting as lawyers, but as financial operators"

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According to Pete, leaks of confidential information have shown that there is a whole intermediary sector in Switzerland, that is, these are people who, without touching money directly, are involved in the creation of money laundering structures (front companies, offshore accounts, etc.).. They are not subject to Swiss anti-money laundering legislation.. And yet, in fact, they help to hide funds, for example, Russian oligarchs, which all these leaks have shown.. For example, the Russian cellist [Sergey] Roldugin, a school friend of Putin, suddenly got a quarter of the Rossiya bank and a quarter of a Russian tank manufacturer at his disposal - and the people who help him access and hide these assets form a law firm in.

Such structures prevent banks and authorities from identifying the true beneficial owners of assets. That is, they represent a real danger to the successful functioning of the sanctions regime imposed against Russia.. In Switzerland, in March 2021, the parliament, under pressure from industry lobbyists, refused to formally subordinate these intermediaries to legislation governing anti-money laundering and legalization of criminal assets. Of course, the Swiss authorities will intervene if there is clear evidence of sanctions violations and money laundering - but, as Bill Browder's example shockingly showed, law enforcement agencies can be incompetent and sometimes biased..

The US must play its part without waiting for Switzerland to make new efforts to regulate the activities of such collaborators.. Obviously, the US Department of Justice could intervene where and when these accomplices-intermediaries violate sanctions. You could put these intermediaries whose names are known on the sanctions list or ban these lawyers from issuing them entry visas to the United States. Overall, I think there is merit in Bill's proposal to re-examine the US-Swiss law enforcement relationship, especially if the new Swiss federal prosecutor still doesn't understand the message the Magnitsky case sends to the world."

Immediately after Russia invaded Ukraine, Switzerland decided not to impose sanctions on its part, as this could “violate the status of neutrality”. But then the Swiss government was forced to turn its course completely 180 degrees as a result of powerful domestic and international pressure.. Currently, Bern is mirroring all European Union sanctions against Russian individuals and legal entities.. To date, the Swiss authorities have frozen assets worth 7.5 billion Swiss francs ($7.7 billion) in the country..

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The Swiss media are already reporting that public accusations by the Helsinki Commission have caused outright confusion in the Swiss government.. The Luzerner Zeitung reported that Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis objected to these statements during a telephone conversation with his American counterpart, Anthony Blinken..

What is behind such harsh criticism from the Commission? As the Swiss TV channel SRF points out, at present, if Switzerland is mentioned in Washington, then in a positive way, they say, even neutral Switzerland imposes sanctions against Russia. But don't forget that J.. Biden, in his inaugural speech, mentioned Switzerland specifically as an offshore haven for those who want to evade taxes..

Bill Browder said speaking before the commission that the positions of those who do not want to take any measures against Switzerland for the time being are still strong in the US government, given that it has frozen billions of dollars of Russian assets. Bill Browder said, however, that he would try to convince the US government that those billions were just the beginning..

What threatens Switzerland? According to an SRF correspondent in the United States, it is still too early to talk about it.. Such accusations on the part of the commission and those who spoke on it, in a harsh and very aggressive way, push the issue of Russian assets in Switzerland into public discourse, but will this “call” be heard by the government or the US Congress? It's not clear yet. But if the US authorities find out about some violations, then the situation for Switzerland can quickly become very unpleasant.. So far, of course, all these statements will not attract much attention in Washington, but the opposite is also possible, after all, the hunt for the assets of Russian oligarchs is one of the priorities in Washington policy.