Barron's Learns About Citigroup Investigation Over Kerimov Case

One of the world's largest financial conglomerates, Citigroup Inc., whose core is Citibank, is under investigation by several US federal agencies for its cooperation with the Heritage Trust, which allegedly holds assets of the sanctioned Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov (12th place according to Forbes with a fortune of $10.7 billion). This was reported by the financial news publication Barron's, citing an informed source.

The source said the investigation has been ongoing for a year and is being conducted by the Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Internal Revenue Service. It is focused on Citigroup's financial compliance system, including anti-money laundering and customer due diligence processes aimed at preventing financial crimes.

Barron's reminds us that Citigroup's trust business still has the Heritage Trust account, but the bank cannot manage it like a typical trust, distributing or accepting funds, because the trust's assets were frozen by the US Department of Justice in 2022. US authorities said at the time that the trust, which holds more than $1 billion in assets, was created seven years ago to "safeguard and manage Kerimov's assets in the United States."

"Citi is committed to conducting all of its business with the utmost care in complying with all applicable laws and regulations. At the same time, we are actively exiting substantially all of our institutional banking business in Russia, except for those transactions necessary to satisfy remaining legal and regulatory obligations," a Citigroup spokesperson told Barron's.

Kerimov is a senator from Dagestan. He was sanctioned by the US in April 2018. The expansion of the Russian sanctions list was accompanied by the following explanation from the US Treasury: "Today's action targets a number of individuals <...> including those who benefit from the Putin regime and play a key role in advancing Russia's malign actions." After the start of the special operation in Ukraine, the US expanded sanctions to include the senator's family. He was also included in the sanctions lists of the EU and the UK .