A Finland-based court has ruled in favor of four Nordic banks in a discrimination lawsuit filed against them by Russian oligarch Boris Rotenberg, Reuters reported.
Rotenberg, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and is under U.S. sanctions, claimed that Danske Bank A/S, Nordea Bank Abp, Svenska Handelsbanken AB (publ) and OP Financial Group were not letting him make payments even though he was a European Union citizen as he holds a Finnish passport.
The banks claimed that they risk losing access to the dollar market if they allow Rotenberg to carry out the transactions, Bloomberg News reported.
The court said that Rotenberg could not prove that he lives in the European Economic Area and that the banks' concern regarding the risk in in letting Rotenberg make payments were not unfounded, according to Reuters.
The court ruled in favor of the banks and also ordered Rotenberg to pay the banks' legal expenses, roughly €530,000.