Russian Government Sues Bank of New York for $22.5 Billion in Tax Evasion Case

On May 1, 2007, Russia’s Federal Customs Service brought an action in the Moscow Arbitration Court against the Bank of New York, seeking $22.5 billion in damages for alleged money laundering relating and tax evasion in the 1990s.¹  The Bank of New York immediately issued a statement that, even though it had not seen the complaint, any such suit would be “totally without merit, if not frivolous.”²