The Moscow Region arbitration court on Wednesday ordered a freeze of funds belonging to two US banking majors, JP Morgan Chase and The Bank of New York Mellon.
The measure reportedly affects nearly 93.5 billion rubles ($1 billion) held by the institutions and their subsidiaries in the country. The interim measure has been taken under a case filed with the court by Russia’s Prosecutor General late last month.
The filing is the latest in a string of cases revolving around the liquidation of the International Reserve Bank (MR Bank), a subsidiary of Russian major Sberbank, by the Ukrainian authorities in early 2022.
At the time of its liquidation, MR Bank held nearly $372 million at the two US banks, including some $250 million with The Bank of New York and $121.1 million with JP Morgan.
The funds ended up out of reach of Sberbank, and its main shareholder, the Russian government, due to the actions of the Ukrainian authorities and financial restrictions introduced by the USA, the prosecution argued.
The prosecution asked the court to arrest all the funds held by the two US banks at Citibank Russia, and to ultimately award Sberbank $372 million in damages.
The funds have been held in the so-called ‘Type S’ accounts, introduced by Moscow early into the conflict with Ukraine as a countermeasure against Western sanctions.
The main purpose of such heavily restricted accounts was the prevention of the movement of the funds out of the country by entities from select unfriendly nations.
The Bank of New York has been found in possession of ‘only’ around $66 million in its Type S accounts. Given that the lost funds of the MR Bank have been deemed the subject of joint liability, the rest must be seized from JP Morgan, the prosecution argued.
While the total amount of the frozen funds has not been publicly disclosed, Russian media reports suggested JP Morgan’s Type S accounts hold nearly $919 million, bringing the combined total affected by the arrest to some $985 million.
RT. com / ABC Flash Point Embargo News 2024.
Russia! Take not only bank accounts of the west! Take everything what they invested in your nation… factories, mines, oil and gas rigs.buildings, car manufactures…and stop to sell them nuclear fuel, and chromium, titanium, manganese, Cobalt etc…..also stop oil and gas shipments till these EU NATO nation’s supplying your enemy!!
Wholeheartedly agree !!!! You cant play by International Rules when your enemies have abandoned them.
The Americans prepared for an invasions, while its companies stand ready to take over the pieces after NATO completed its invasion. Moscow has under siege for the past months, but the drone attacks did not materialize into what the USA expected.
Now finally we are talking! 111 years late, but hey, late is always better then never! The real ward criminals are those in FED and Corporate Finance! This is the heat of the battlefield! Finally someone retaliates! Who else than Russia!? The entire Galaxy should follow suit! Madam Janet Yellen, This one definitely came out of nowhere, right!? Accountability is here, and its here to stay! Total impunity is the past! The New Just, Sane, and Decent Multi-polar World Order is here, and its here to stay. Colonialism is the past! Long live Russia and the Blue Planet! To hell… Read more »
Great! Do it like the EU. Take the money and pay your bills with it!