Russia plunders frozen accounts of US bank JP Morgan Chase: $439.5 million seized | War Ukraine and Russia

JPMorgan Chase’s Russian account was frozen after VTB was placed on the sanctions list following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. JPMorgan tried last week to prevent the seizure of the money by filing a lawsuit against VTB in New York, but to no avail.

The $439.5 million is all the money that was in all accounts of JPMorgan Chase in Russia, including accounts in the names of subsidiaries. According to the court, no securities and property of JPMorgan funds, nor the domain name jpmorgan.ru, were seized.

JPMorgan Chase has declined to comment on the Russian court’s ruling for the time being. VTB also did not immediately comment. The Russian bank did not do that in the past either.

Yesterday, Russia issued a sharp warning to Europe about the seizure of Russian property frozen abroad. It threatened a “tough response” if the approximately 281 billion euros were used to support Ukraine.