Officials in Germany on Tuesday were searching Munich and Frankfurt offices of Swiss banking giant UBS AG
UBS,
UBSG,
over possible ties to a Russian oligarch, Bloomberg and Reuters both reported, with the latter citing a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office. UBS confirmed to both media outlets the searches of those branches and that it was cooperating with authorities, but gave no further details. Der Spiegel first reported the office searches, which it said was connected to Alisher Usmanov and more than 2 million euros ($2 million) worth of transactions between 2018 and 2020. A spokesman for Usmanov denied to Bloomberg and Reuters any links between the oligarch and money laundering, saying they were unfounded, false and defamatory. Usmanov, a major stakeholder in iron ore and steel giant Metalloinvest, was hit with sanctions from the U.S., U.K. and Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year. MarketWatch reached out to UBS for comment.
