A court in Moscow is seeking to pry a large sum of money from Credit Suisse, leaving the bank caught between the fronts of Russia and the USA.
Moscow's arbitration court also ordered that 10 million euros ($10.21 million) be seized from Credit Suisse after it failed to repay a loan made to a bank under sanctions, thus ruling in favor of the Transcapitalbank (TCB) private bank, according to Reuters. The court ruled that Credit Suisse cannot dispose of the shares of Bank Credit Suisse (Moscow) and Credit Suisse Securities (Moscow), according to a «Reuters» report.
TCB was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department on April 20, which was one day after the loan in question was to be repaid. The US Treasury said that TCB was «at the heart of sanctions evasion» because it indicated it could circumvent Western sanctions on Russian financial institutions.
For its part, TCB asked the court to force Credit Suisse to pay the 10 million-euro loan by saying that if Credit Suisse wound down its Russia operations, it might not be possible to claim the funds in the future, according to Reuters. In addition, the Reuters report indicated that Russian officials have revealed plans to further prohibit foreign banks from unloading their Russian units as a tit-for-tat response to sanctions imposed against Russia's financial sector by the West.
Credit Suisse has one month to appeal the court's ruling and neither Credit Suisse nor TCB responded immediately to a request from Reuters for comment.
