february 2022 par in ukraine. more has returned to european soil. the reaction is immediate. less than 24 hours after the invasion. sanctions are imposed on russia. if i'm famous, going to see on the whole against announcing new sanctions today, a get some of the russians will be as business feelings to say for the honda, this should be the hotel and that they could function. now the world is targeting the billionaires extravagant the ox, to an unprecedented level of sanctions are leveled at economic heavy weight. russia is the aggressor to chose this war and now he is comfortable for the consequences. result. 14, please don't the gas eligible. we will see the size of it, but i see dark show on the beach and nibble was old name was really was for the face one by one billionaires close to bruton are being tracked down there, yachts and jets confiscated and their money frozen. but for the plan to work, the money must be completely frozen the slightest crack that it could all collapse the do you want to be the country? the is, is that that can be used to circumvent those. the sanctions is switzerland this crack. this loophole is the alpine nation doing enough to freeze russian assets. criticism has been growing louder since the start of the war to soc show. it's only when they adopted the sanctions. they took it easy into the minimum just enough to avoid criticism. the tgm level that occlusal there have always been black sheep and dishonest people who have forged papers or issued fall certificates. all of these are high. so lated cases in hill southwest, they got it. are the sanctions really being ignored in switzerland or are the nations falls? we investigated and thanks to an unprecedented data leak, were able to find out more about the billions managed on behalf of russians in switzerland. the in the beginning, the sanctions meant seizures, yachts squares of millions were stranded in harbours. what could this end? the war, the lawyer and the asset manager, d. g bumpkin says the measures up shortly symbolic the new york type easy pacific fault. the yacht is something very often patient is dollars such a huge environmental. the destructive machine captures people's imagination when that goal for skills to everyone. things great. we've confiscated a boat to buy, but it's the start of a nightmare caught them to keep a ship is in port with a crew of 30 that must be maintained by the state that sees that thought process. that's called critical people have to make a difference. you have to target the assets, the finance behind the war. but freezing russian billions is much more complicated than confiscating a few yachts. the only god's love affair with switzerland is well known and it didn't start yesterday. 2 examples. victor victor, that with estimated assets of $7000000000.00 us dollars, he's one of the main shareholders of the early con group and it has avoided sanctions. the 2nd is getting audi tim jenco, who is co founder of the guns or oil company. his villa, unlike geneva, was confiscated by the swiss before the sentence, switzerland had been very attractive to russians. the mazda cease the image of switzerland. everything is fabulous, little exceptional, on every level. a very beautiful country, hospitable especially to those who have money, stability and neutrality. what more could be a wish for? it says that when the ussr collapsed, switzerland was an excellent place to open accounts for the oligarchy. under steve, this is very quickly up, and i began to use switzerland as a hub for their business. these are especially financial business photos. i fell in the beginning. they were happily welcoming the laws were different to the banks for less. we know if you on the trusted the switch, so the bulk of the more of a gone don't. and if they wanted to copy the video, westerners could p very so that's why they wanted to buy beautiful villers airplanes. y'all is an art collection visual to emulate western billionaires company the hooks. the help of the tim chico family has been in geneva since the early 2 thousands, a stroke of luck for this with the united teacher kennedy to change who is a son of a member of the army. he has a villa and calling you to come to a very exclusive community in the canton of geneva. you know, again, he is also generous of a neva foundation cvp, classical music festivals and debbie bronte at the addition, a leave off and baltimore foundation that was excessive develop. they've got that doesn't that they also support the hockey club is all stuff that you'll see at excel. the. these are the ones on tangle families, main activities in geneva, into questionnaire. but that all ended with the start of the war cannot attempt jenko has left switzerland and his accounts have been frozen as have those of about a 100 other oligarchs. not all of them are close to prudence, but on february 24th, the day of the russian invasions their fate changed. you have a clue what about 3 dozen people had gathered in the kremlin? we will let them hear preteen basically told them what he had said on television a few hours earlier because of a problem. they were speechless, very surprising. but i'm certainly not pleasantly is still kind of funky. is it because they were completely dumbfounded to some were shocked. a, when vladimir putin called the meeting on the 24th. it's in your youth full well, but they would all be affected by western sanctions. these a body song song looking back we cannot say that put in gave them a poisoned gift to go through so cuz it won't poison me. over the months the list of sanctions has grown longer and longer. who ends up on it and why? that's not decided in switzerland, but in brussels. we meet belgian dangers. once the e u commissioner for justice and the rule of law. he had been pursuing russian assets since the beginning of the war with one goal. so most of all that included the set top insightful will give you, we want to stop the financing of the war. we must, not only to very quickly but also ship very hard. i think since, you know, for like you have to hit those who are directly involved in financing the war, that's the, all the guard booth and the whole range of entities. but above all, the russian economy and the russian military centers and looks at these sanctions are not the only ones i'm concerned with and the, the freezing of all, the gar extends organizations asset us last 6 the but also sanctions targeting specific sectors associated with exports. and import them all the russian products, see the shape, look of the function. normally they aimed to hit the economy and the activities of the russian military industry at its hearts. the goal is to exert pressure to end the war to disrupt my struggle for it. i guess i'd the for neutral switzerland. it wasn't easy to accept his sanctions imposed by brussels. according to d, j rind, us 4 days of uncertainty and secret negotiations were needed to prevent switzerland from becoming the weak link in europe. as soon as the lo locate is completely normal for an independent states, yet not to simply copy your opinion. the sanction building is that he's the biggest risk of that the implementation would be severely delayed. smith, fortunately that didn't happen. you know, despite everything switzerland imposed the sanctions quickly, also you've got to concede that the 2nd challenge was to prevent many players such as lawyers, notaries, and banks. so from helping circumvent sanction involved by, you know, having a legal text to a nice piece of paper is not enough. this, if you, but you have to make sure the paper is effective. you fulfill itself. is it the kid is, is it the, the criticism is diplomatic, but reasonable sanctions have been circumvented since the outbreak of the war, the february 2022, a swiss asset manager was stopped before he could fly off in a private jet with 500000 bureaus in cash for a russian client. in april 2023, a swiss company imported $44000000.00 of russian gold by a due by a loophole in the sentence. the are these isolated cases. we took a closer look with the help of 2 colleagues more familiar with the financial world . we started with the data leak spotted on the dot net. in february 2023 russian hackers receiving sizes of highly sensitive e mails and bank documents online. this data didn't originate in a bank, but rather a company that manages billions and it's based in the heart of the it's name fina port, the official sponsor of the open tennis tournament, the to see all these chances without limits enough for it is a mix of both traditional suspect, the technology i saved as an instrument to open the door to many bags, to solutions for the customer. we have access to markets on both private and public that very few companies in this world. what has it also offers its services directly in russia, what we would suggest of what they call them by to who needs seen about ships the a better rate than those anyway, russian clients and a company that works with all the major banks in switzerland, this data is very interesting, but the flood of information is too much for us. we travel to germany to meet to experts on data leaks, the journalists, credit equal by maya and bustin over my work in munich and road. if you would surprise winning books on the panama papers, the a dozen employees will help them analyze the mountain of feet and port data over the coming months. they will be assisted by journalists from france to many and switzerland. we haven't had enough to not talk before and that's actually what makes it so interesting for us because it seems like you know, part as a much smaller company. then the many well known companies and 4 feet apart. it seems like they are a little bit like flying another radar and not under as much watch as the big players in switzerland. so it seems like they might be dealing with customers that the big guys, the big task do not want to touch anymore because they are under too much surveillance. the leak is $1.00 terabyte of data is the lot of may of and then documents and banking data. so even if the heck a cool is a really bad and aggressive and it looks like that, right? and still, if there's information that the public needs to know you're going to publish the 1st step, matching the names of sanctioned individuals with feet and ports client list. but no matches are found. the rules are being followed. no assets from all the guards subject to sanctions are managed by does rick based company but we do discover russian money directly linked to the financing of the war. the data includes family members of one man, alexander, point them a rank of 10, a state own company called most moto cannot, which specializes in wastewater treatment. the senior official is a close friend of the deputy mayor of moscow. people close to him have been awarded numerous lucrative public contracts worth more than 150000000 years. the value of the contracts are way too high. and this could explain why the family is so wealthy . the daughter and the girlfriends. i both have the largest accounts that you know for the research team in munich on or just how that point them. a rank of finally was able to sneak their money now managed by seen to port back to europe. it's complicated, but more than 46000000 was in the family switched accounts at the end of 2022 no sanctions were imposed on corner rankles daughter and mistress but the origin of the money raises questions the that so the red sign arrived we have millions of yes, dollars and you have someone who's working estate company. yeah. money and leaving russia. and that guy, dark thing is they don't company. and he filled out his before program. they didn't see the problem or that is on it to test drive the other way. the problem is that alexander point or rank goes company is not only active in the waste water sector. must photo cannot, is also active and occupied ukrainian territories. we found the company offering its employees financial incentives to fight in ukraine on v contact a social media network. hundreds of men and equipment had been sent to the front. according to this video, published by the company, the fina point declined. our requests for interviews. we were told in writing that new discoveries often lead to investigations against customers, but there are more surprises. back in switzerland, our team of journalists discovered an e mail sent just a week after the attack on ukraine to russian customers wanted to store 40 gold bars worth a total of $5600000.00 in a safe deposit box at san fran center. as seen back into the rec, feet of ports managers considered this transaction to be clumsy and alerted the authorities. the, the customer could be accused of attempting to circumvent sentence. they wrote, nevertheless, feed a port improves the transaction and the bars were transferred. when asked the bank said the customers have your opinion, residents permits and are not subject to sanctions. we cannot refuse this type of transaction. as the goal belongs to 3rd parties, the we are bound by confidentiality and a breach would have criminal consequences. the no current or former customers are selected by the sanctions is switzerland helping track down russian billions. for scott miller, the american, and bassett, or inbound, the answer is clearly no. he's a former banker and was the 1st to denounce switzerland's, lax attitude. years ago, i imagine that we'd probably have a lot of work to do together to continue to identify the trusts and companies and, and other entities that have been established to hide the beneficial ownership. interest of some of these assets, words are followed by dates of april 2023. a short letter signed by all g 7. investors and the european union was sent to the federal council. a diplomatic slap in the face. we also have concerns that law enforcement officials are blocked from investigating a lucid financial structures produced by attorneys serving us financial intermediaries. we call on the switch government to take further steps. we share a concern that these loopholes could harm switzerland's reputation. for the state secretary on for economic affairs, then announce the opening of 30 criminal proceedings for possible circumvention of sanctions in switzerland for its director helen would lead a toyota, a former ambassador. the accusations were on justified le for them. and they took the form wasn't the best. we had to read in the newspapers that we would receive a diplomatic letter. we found it difficult to understand lunar golf home. you all, we are given certain explanations and told that switzerland must do better, don't come from us. but people forget that we are dealing with individuals who have a norm is resources at their disposal in normal, diverse too. or they all turned over go this through just as we check a private jet that could possibly lead the links to a person on the sanctions list also. so we are immediately contacted by a law firm who goes upon and on about why this is not the case. a beautiful double go, a keep reset, the jet belongs to company x, y much go so and not to mr or mrs. why is it bom? assume all did really is almost detected work thoughts of him or still drop by a customer through the the phone or witnesses here. the pressure increased in july 2023. when a us senate committee took up the issue, the focus of the hearing, switzerland, alleged failings, security. we have seen the russian economy surviving better than we thought it was . in part of that has been, i'm wondering, of dirty money and switched to global conflict between the testimony is built around or got the ball rolling router a british national use to invest in russia, but is now an activist the switzer allowing the russians to have access to the money to kill ukrainians, and we should do something to shut that down. and if the swiss aren't willing to do it voluntarily, then we should put pressure on them. they weren't going to give the nazi gold backs to the jewish people until congress got involved in congress has power here and us with respect that and sometimes when people don't behave themselves, we need to give them an incentive to behave themselves. and that's why i think we're all here and that's where you can play around with all of these accusations justified. let's look at the figures. switzerland has frozen about 7500000000 francs and 17 villas. not bad, compared to the 9000000000 frozen by the usa and the 24000000000 frozen body you. however, given the total amount of russian assets deposited in switzerland, which is estimated at $150000000000.00, the caesars are laughable. this figure is what a spark controversy and attracted the eye or of the americans. where did the estimate come from? and one was more russian money frozen. to understand you have to go to zurich. we met with the swiss bankers association, an umbrella organization representing more than 260 member backs. the association was the 1st to calculate the value of russian deposits. he met swanson filed so i'll take in march 2022. the state secretary at for economic affairs of seco norman had not yet collected any data from these. and when we made an estimate of the, of our estimate of 150000000000 was based on all across the border assets of russian clients that are booked with swift bank. i'm comfortable with the size doesn't. all of these are all russian clients with a russian passport for other nationalities, food or like another passport, or several passports, like regardless of whether they live in switzerland or russia on the slide. so thing that responsible in the fact going good can set go on the other hand, use different data. the thought seemed news, it only includes the russian citizens with the corresponding russians has poured. 10 does not include corresponding assets and the cost of the account. it contains books, we included this and estimate, it's $150000000000.00. so for these little bit seems to be the that's the big difference in that. so we'll get a bus that goes to a simple difference in calculation. but when it comes to freezing assets, the organization said it's hard to do more to balkan out the, the song so with the banks are strictly complying with the sanctions and will continue to do so. i think the sanctions aren't over yet and are largely being continued right. okay. and what if you don't, then the corresponding sanctions that banks have been implemented accordingly, the implement, the liberal kick you all, most of the associated with the bankers who quoted this figure calculated all the russian assets for the lakers sold or to me then of 20 you have to bear in mind that not all russians are criminals, visual and not all russians are on the list for the actual series is honest. people also have money in switzerland, the store, and that might be where the misunderstanding comes from. it went off with type of foster. people have talked about sums of 100000000000. it'd be 150000000000 people fed next. even if we do excellent work, we will never reach those numbers. he said, hey, you know, this will ensure some are disappointed and think that we haven't done our job for know to come by itself. but i also find that a little frustrated with the com. that's all followed of the frustrating but for some, just the tip of the iceberg. switch politician by the cheese. tony knows the situation. well. he's a lawyer and member of the legal affairs committee and is angered by the lack of controls due to please on. i am not at all saying that the people who work are the state secretary and for economic affairs are incompetent to sit. buttons does not fit, they do their job very well. but the secretary, it lacks a whole range of skills that are not part of their jobs. are the best ones that it's a neighboring countries in the usa have now set a task forces and some spit to bring together 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