JPMorgan Chase CEO and Chairman Jamie Dimon gestures as he speaks through the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee oversight listening to on Wall Street corporations, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 6, 2023.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
A Russian court docket sided with state-run lender VTB Bank in its efforts to recoup $439.5 million from JPMorgan Chase that the American lender froze in U.S. accounts after the Ukraine invasion.
The court docket ordered the seizure of funds in JPMorgan’s Russian accounts and “movable and immovable property” together with the financial institution’s stake in a Russian subsidiary, in response to a court docket order printed Wednesday.
The order got here after VTB filed a go well with final week in a St. Petersburg arbitration court docket, in search of to be made entire for funds frozen within the United States, and asking for aid as a result of JPMorgan has mentioned it plans to exit Russia.
The subsequent listening to within the Russian case is July 17.
JPMorgan declined to remark. VTB did not instantly reply to a request to remark.
The order was the most recent instance of American banks getting caught between the calls for of Western sanctions regimes and abroad pursuits. JPMorgan is the largest U.S. financial institution by belongings and run by veteran CEO Jamie Dimon.
Two years after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Biden administration has mounted an unprecedented set of sanctions, oil worth caps and commerce restrictions designed to weaken Moscow’s navy machine.
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden signed into regulation a sweeping overseas assist invoice that features new powers for U.S. officers to find and seize Russian belongings within the United States. It additionally boosted an ongoing American effort to persuade European allies to launch Russian state belongings to help Ukraine.
In its personal lawsuit towards VTB final week within the Southern District of New York, JPMorgan sought to dam VTB’s effort, noting that U.S. regulation prohibits the financial institution from releasing VTB’s $439.5 million.
This leaves JPMorgan uncovered to a virtually half-billion-dollar loss, for abiding by U.S. sanctions.
The American financial institution, in search of to dam VTB’s effort, mentioned the Russian firm broke its contractual promise to hunt aid in American courts, as an alternative discovering a friendlier venue in Russia.
JPMorgan mentioned that Russian courts have enabled related efforts by Russian lenders towards American or European banks at the very least a half dozen different instances.
JPMorgan mentioned it confronted “certain and irreparable harm” from VTB’s efforts.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/24/jpmorgan-chase-is-caught-in-us-russia-sanctions-war-after-overseas-court-orders-440-million-seized-from-bank.html
