Swiss Bankers Charged With Overlooking Millions Tied to Putin’s Friend

Prosecutors say a cellist with links to Vladimir Putin was allowed to move millions of Swiss francs into a bank with little oversight.

Four bankers went on trial in Zurich on Wednesday charged with helping to cover up the movement of tens of millions of Swiss francs through accounts opened in the name of a Russian musician with close links to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

The case focuses on two bank accounts in the name of Sergei P. Roldugin, a concert cellist and director of a Moscow musical academy who is known as an old friend of Mr. Putin’s and as a godfather to the president’s eldest daughter. The accounts were opened in the Swiss unit of Gazprombank, a prominent lender in Russia.

The trial raises wider questions about the role of Swiss banks as the destination of choice for billions of dollars of deposits linked to Russian officials, oligarchs and ultimately to Mr. Putin, especially in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

Swiss prosecutors say the defendants — Gazprombank’s chief executive and three other employees at the bank — were criminally negligent in failing to perform robust due diligence to determine the real beneficiary of the assets flowing through the accounts. The bankers, three Russians and a Swiss, deny the charge.