Russian court orders confiscation of assets of US bank JPMorgan Chase

JPMorgan Chase last week sued VTB in New York to prevent Russia’s state-owned bank from recovering $439.5 million from an account frozen after Moscow conducted a military campaign in Ukraine and VTB was subject to sanctions. .

According to Financial Times, when the US embargoed VTB, JPMorgan had to transfer the above amount to a separate escrow account. According to the embargo, neither VTB nor JPMorgan can touch this money.

In response, VTB sued JPMorgan Chase and its subsidiaries to the Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Region Arbitration Court on April 17, requesting to freeze the corresponding amount of JPMorgan’s funds in Russia as the bank prepares to withdraw assets from Russia and there is a possibility that compensation will not be paid.

On April 22, the court ruled to freeze all assets in JPMorgan Chase’s accounts in Russia, including main accounts and accounts in the name of subsidiaries, according to Reuters.

In the lawsuit filed in New York, JP Morgan Chase said that VTB’s effort to recover money in Russia was a blatant violation of the dispute settlement agreement, which should take place in the US instead of in Russian courts.

JPMorgan Chase said that US law prohibits them from handing over the above 439.5 million USD and said that VTB will seek to seize the overseas assets of the largest US bank if it wins the lawsuit in Russia.

JPMorgan also said Russian courts had issued similar rulings in favor of Russian banks over American or European banks, in at least six other cases.

According to observers, the incident is the latest demonstration that US banks are in an awkward position when they have to comply with the constraints of the Western embargo on Russia and manage the company’s interests in Russia. Russia.