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Uzbek-Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov has filed a lawsuit against UBS, accusing the bank of triggering an investigation by German authorities against him after sending a series of “unsubstantiated reports” about his transactions, his lawyers said on Monday.
The tycoon’s lawyers described the reports as “absurd and unsubstantiated, if not knowingly false” and said that UBS submitted them between 2018 and 2022 to Germany’s Financial Intelligence Unit, the agency in charge of anti-money laundering.
“UBS violated the confidentiality of client data, spread misleading allegations about the client, and grossly violated the general personality right,” lawyers for Usmanov said in a statement, adding that the billionaire had filed a lawsuit against the bank in Frankfurt on June 7.
Usmanov was one of the Russian businessmen to be hit by western sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine, with the EU describing him as one of president Vladimir Putin’s “favourite oligarchs”.
UBS declined to comment on the lawsuit. The Frankfurt court also declined to comment.
The businessman scored a rare legal victory last year after a court in Frankfurt ruled that a series of searches of his property in Germany were unlawful. The searches were carried out by German law enforcement as part of a money-laundering investigation into Usmanov.
Usmanov has previously categorically rejected any allegations of money laundering or tax evasion.
With additional reporting by Owen Walker in London
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