Moscow court delays $22.5B BoNY lawsuit

A Moscow Arbitration court has postponed a hearing of a $22.5 billion lawsuit by Russia's federal customs service against Bank of New York Mellon Corp.

A Moscow Arbitration court has postponed a hearing of a $22.5 billion lawsuit by Russia’s federal customs service against Bank of New York Mellon Corp.
The hearing was postponed to July 10 after the bank submitted new documents in its defense, said Maxim Smal, an attorney representing Russia’s Federal Customs Service, according to a statement.
The Bank of New York completed an $17.6 billion merger with Pittsburgh-based Mellon Financial Corp. earlier this week (InvestmentNews, July 2) .
On May 17, the Federal Customs Service for the Russian Federation filed a lawsuit with the Moscow Arbitration Court against the Bank of New York.
The lawsuit stems from a 2005 Department of Justice investigation that ended with a non-prosecution agreement, leading the bank to pay $38 million to the U.S. government to settle two criminal probes and admitting it failed to report $7.5 billion in illegal Russian transactions.
Russian investigators determined several accounts that existed at the bank were part of an illegal network that allowed Russian businesses to defraud their government of customs duties and tax revenues by transferring funds in and out of Russia in violation of currency controls.