A Russian court just froze $372 million owned by banking giants JPMorgan Chase and BNY Mellon – cash that the banks were holding in their Russian branches.
The move came from the Moscow Region Arbitration Court, reports Reuters, and follows the Ukrainian central bank’s decision to revoke the license of MR Bank, a subsidiary of Russia’s Sberbank.
Russia accuses Ukraine and the two American banks of unlawfully taking MR Bank’s property, and Russia’s deputy prosecutor asked the court to freeze the US banks’ assets “in defence of the interests of the Russian Federation.”
Prosecutors are seeking full recognition of $121 million held by JPMorgan and $251 million held by BNY as Sberbank’s property.
The court’s move comes after Biden administration froze over $300 billion of Russian central bank reserves and imposed sanctions on major Russian financial institutions, including Sberbank and VTB, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The banks involved have declined to publicly comment on the matter.
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