HSBC HSBC Holdings PLC

By Byron Tau 

WASHINGTON -- Two senior Senate Democrats have asked a number of large banks to turn over information about accounts and assets controlled by a group of Russian elites who have been designated by the U.S. Treasury Department for possible sanctions.

In a letter to eight banks, Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D, N.H.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D, R.I.) asked the financial entities for details about accounts, assets or services the institutions were providing to any of the 96 Russian oligarchs identified by the Treasury Department in January as having ties to the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The letter was sent last week but reviewed by The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. The two Democrats said they had received acknowledgment of their letter from three banks, which are reviewing it.

Three of the banks -- Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. -- are U.S.-based. The other five -- Barclays PLC, Deutsche Bank AG, UBS Group AG, HSBC Holdings PLC ADR and Credit Suisse Group AG -- are headquartered abroad but in many cases have a significant presence in the U.S.

A spokesman for JPMorgan said the bank had received the letter and is reviewing it. Deutsche Bank declined to comment. The other banks didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday night.

The oligarchs in question were named in a report compiled by the Trump administration in January. That list included 114 Russian political figures and 96 oligarchs with ties to the Putin government, who were defined in the report as individuals with an estimated net worth of $1 billion or more.

The list was mandated by Congress as part of a sanctions law overwhelmingly passed by Congress last year in retaliation for what intelligence agencies said was a Russian-backed campaign of meddling during the last U.S. presidential election. Russia has denied interfering in the election.

The oligarchs list was intended as a guidepost to inform possible U.S. sanctions, though inclusion on the list didn't necessarily mean that the individual would be ultimately sanctioned by the U.S. However, the report is likely to complicate financial and business relationships for those listed.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration sanctioned three-dozen Russian individuals and entities who were included on the oligarchs list in response to election meddling.

In their letter, the two Senate Democrats said they were seeking additional information about how the U.S. and international financial systems might be exploited by individuals on the sanction list and said that banks should use the list to identify possible money-laundering activities.

The oligarchs list "should guide banks and help to detect and deter the exploitation of our financial system by Russian oligarchs and senior political figures, some of whom may have engaged in acts of corruption and the privatization of state-owned assets in a way which unjustly benefited state officials or their family members," Ms. Shaheen and Mr. Whitehouse wrote.

"Given their wealth and relationship to the Russian state, many oligarchs in Russia either wield or are susceptible to considerable political influence. These individuals often have global financial dealings, including in the U.S., through luxury real estate, personal property, or other interests and may utilize the U.S. financial system to conduct some of their activities," the two Democrats wrote.

The letter is a voluntary request for information and the banks are under no obligation to answer or turn over the information. But, according to people familiar with the matter, the two senators are prepared to ask the Government Accountability Office, a watchdog organization controlled by Congress that has investigative powers, to conduct a probe if the request is refused.

Mr. Putin said in January the creation and publication of the list was "an unfriendly act," but that Russia didn't intend to "pick a fight."

--Ian Talley contributed to this article.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 24, 2018 23:20 ET (03:20 GMT)

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