Moscow, October 3, 2024 – The Europe Today: The Moscow Region arbitration court has ordered the freezing of funds belonging to two major US banks, JP Morgan Chase and The Bank of New York Mellon, amounting to nearly 93.5 billion rubles ($1 billion). The decision is part of an ongoing legal battle initiated by Russia’s Prosecutor General last month, stemming from the liquidation of the International Reserve Bank (MR Bank), a former subsidiary of Russia’s Sberbank, by Ukrainian authorities in 2022.
At the time of its liquidation, MR Bank held $372 million across the two US banks, with $250 million at The Bank of New York and $121.1 million at JP Morgan. The funds were rendered inaccessible to Sberbank and its main shareholder, the Russian government, due to actions taken by Ukraine and financial restrictions imposed by the United States.
The Prosecutor General has requested the court to freeze all the funds held by the two US banks in Citibank Russia, seeking $372 million in damages for Sberbank. The frozen assets are currently held in “Type S” accounts, which were created by Moscow as a countermeasure to Western sanctions, restricting the transfer of funds by entities from countries deemed “unfriendly” to Russia.
While The Bank of New York Mellon holds $66 million in these restricted accounts, JP Morgan’s accounts reportedly contain $919 million, according to Russian media, bringing the total frozen assets to approximately $985 million.
This legal action is part of a broader set of cases addressing financial disputes linked to the fallout from the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
