The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday announced sanctions against the International Investment Bank, a Budapest-based lender that is nearly 50 percent Russian-owned and unsupervised by Hungarian authorities.
This is stated in the message of the US Ministry of Finance.
According to US authorities, the presence of the International Investment Bank in Budapest "allows Russia to strengthen its intelligence presence in Europe" and facilitates malicious activities in Central Europe and the Western Balkans and corruption and sanctions evasion.
"The Russian government is ready to allocate additional resources, including state guarantees and subsidies, to save the bank from an impending default," the US Treasury notes.
The subsidiary of MIB - "MIB Capital", registered in Moscow, the current head of the bank Mykola Kosov and two former - the Russian Georgy Potapov and the Hungarian Imre Laslochki - also fell under the American sanctions.
"The heads of the MIB coordinated with officials of the Russian Federation the activities of the MIB even after Russia's further invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Kosov is the former head of the MIB, and Potapov and Laslochki are high-ranking officials on the MIB's board," the message emphasizes.
The sanctions include freezing the assets of the mentioned persons in the USA and prohibiting American citizens and companies from doing business with them.
Established in 2008, the International Investment Bank moved its headquarters to Budapest five years ago. Later, the Hungarian Parliament granted the bank full immunity from Hungarian authorities' supervision, and managers and guests of the financial institution could move around Hungary, and therefore the European Union, in accordance with the rules of diplomatic immunity.
In this connection, information spread about the financial institution that it could be an intelligence target of Russia, although officially the bank has repeatedly denied this.