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Alisher Usmanov has filed a lawsuit against UBS, accusing the bank of starting a German investigation into the Uzbek-Russian billionaire by submitting “unsubstantiated reports” about his transactions.
The tycoon’s lawyers said on Monday that the Swiss bank had submitted “absurd and unsubstantiated, if not knowingly false” reports to Germany’s Financial Intelligence Agency, the agency responsible for combating money laundering, between 2018 and 2022.
“UBS has violated the confidentiality of customer data, spread misleading allegations about the customer and grossly violated the general right of personality,” they wrote in a statement, saying the billionaire had filed a lawsuit against the bank in Frankfurt on June 7.
Under German law, banks are required to file suspicious activity reports if they spot possible warning signs that could indicate money laundering. Lenders generally do not receive feedback on the quality of such reports and several lenders have been fined for submitting them late.
Usmanov was one of dozens of Russian businessmen hit by Western sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine, with the EU describing him as having “particularly close ties” to President Vladimir Putin, something the billionaire denies.
The Frankfurt District Court confirmed to the Financial Times that a lawsuit had been filed against UBS, but said the payment to the court, required under German law, had not yet been received.
Usmanov is suing UBS for damages, although no figure has yet been given on the amount claimed, his lawyer told the FT.
UBS declined to comment.
Usmanov won a legal victory last year when a court in Frankfurt ruled that searches of his property in Germany were unlawful. The searches were carried out by German police as part of a money laundering investigation into the billionaire.
The tycoon has previously categorically rejected any allegations of money laundering or tax evasion.
In their statement on Monday, Usmanov’s Munich-based lawyers described the raids as “theatrical” and claimed that media reports about them were then used to justify the imposition of sanctions by the EU, leading to financial losses and reputational damage.
“The [Frankfurt prosecutors] and the Council of the EU have made numerous erroneous decisions for which UBS is partly responsible, in particular due to the use of its suspicious transaction reports as a tool for criminal prosecution and EU sanctions policy,” said Peter Gauweiler, representing Usmanov. , the statement said.
“In light of this, and taking into account the damage to Mr. Usmanov’s reputation and the value of the global assets affected, the consequences for UBS could be “tsunami-like” in nature,” he added .
Usmanov, 70, is one of the richest people in the world, with an estimated fortune of nearly $19 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index for 2024. He began amassing his wealth while serving as a senior director at Russia’s state-owned gas group in the 1990s Gazprom, before building a business empire with stakes in some of the country’s largest mining, industrial and telecom companies.
A former top shareholder of Apple, Facebook and Twitter, he also controls the prominent Russian business newspaper Kommersant and is linked to the largest superyacht ever built, the $600 million trust-owned Dilbar.
This yacht and other properties linked to the billionaire were searched by German authorities in 2022, but a court in Frankfurt subsequently revoked all search warrants, with judges criticizing investigators’ reliance on a video investigation of Usmanov by Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny to justify their investigation. Frankfurt prosecutors’ criminal investigation into alleged money laundering is still ongoing, the law enforcement authority told the FT.
Scores of Russian oligarchs and businessmen have filed lawsuits in the EU in an attempt to overturn sanctions imposed on them by the bloc after its massive invasion of Ukraine. A handful have been successful.
The FT reported in 2022 that Uzbekistan was lobbying the EU to lift sanctions on the tycoon, including an asset freeze and a travel ban. The European Court of Justice rejected Usmanov’s appeal against his inclusion on the EU sanctions list in February.
Additional reporting by Owen Walker in London