[imagesource: Flickr]

It is no secret that Russian President Vladimir Putin has secret wealth.

The president regularly “declares” his assets to the people, stating that his finances are a matter of public record and that he is not wealthy.

But behind the scenes, there is reason to believe that he pumps hundreds of millions of Swiss francs through his crony Oligarch friends and into accounts in Switzerland.

It was revealed in 2016 by the Panama Papers, an investigation published by the Guardian in collaboration with other media, that Sergei Roldugin, a close friend of Putin was being used as “Putin’s wallet”.

Now, four Swiss bankers have appeared in a Swiss court charged with helping to hide Putin’s massive fortunes alongside Roldugin.

The four senior bankers at the Swiss branch of Russia’s Gazprombank, are accused of helping Roldugin move Putin’s millions through Swiss bank accounts without the proper due diligence checks, reported The Guardian:

Roldugin, a godfather to Putin’s eldest daughter, Maria, reportedly placed $50m in Swiss accounts between 2014 and 2016 with no credible explanation as to where the money had come from. He also allegedly planned to pump more than $10m a year into Swiss accounts via a complex web of shell companies.

The bankers – three Russians and one Swiss national who cannot be identified under Swiss reporting restrictions – didn’t do enough to track the identity of the true beneficial owner of the funds:

Roldugin was the officially named owner of two accounts opened at Gazprombank Switzerland in 2014. However, there was no evidence to prove the source of Roldugin’s funds.

…The indictment says: “It is well known that … Putin officially only has an income of 100,000 Swiss francs and is not wealthy, but in fact has enormous assets which are managed by persons close to him … The declared assets were in general in no way plausible as Roldugin’s own assets.”

A cellist and conductor, Roldugin, has publicly stated that he was not a businessman and certainly not a millionaire.

Putin has also stated that his good friend earned some money from a minority stake in a Russian company, while the Kremlin also deny the accusations that Roldugin is involved in hiding Putin’s true load.

All this, and then CNN released an exposé, revealing “never-before-seen” shots of Putin’s sumptuous home and reputed girlfriend, the gymnast Alina Kabaeva.

Watch from the 6:20 mark for the full story, while the images of Putin’s gold-plated home come in around the 9:10 mark:

Yeah, Putin has big money alright.

[source:guardian&cnn]