MOSCOW: Russian Finance Minister, Anton Siluanov, said that Russia will contribute to finance Ukraine $13.75 million as part of first IMF (International Monetary Fund) loan.
“The program (IMF $17.5bn package –Ed.) will be financed via the IMF quota resources, and the funding from shareholder countries in the framework of their participation in the so-called New Borrowing arrangements,” Siluanov said.
The first tranche is 3.546 billion in special drawing rights (around $5 billion) and will be made available to the account of the National Bank of Ukraine, he said.
On March 11 the IMF approved a $17.5 billion rescue package for Ukraine that has created a lot of criticism. The bailout comes with strict terms which have already made Kiev make huge cuts to its 2015 budget. Ukraine’s austerity measures include cuts in social spending and the price of utility services almost tripling.
Germany’s second biggest bank, Commerzbank, is to pay $1.45 billion (€1.36 billion) in fines to settle US Justice Department charges over transactions with sanctioned companies in Iran and Sudan.
From 2002-2008, the German bank cleared transactions worth $253 billion for Iranian and Sudanese companies that were sanctioned by the US. It used a method called ‘wire-stripping’ so as not to leave an identity on the transaction.
“Commerzbank concealed hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions prohibited by US sanctions laws on behalf of Iranian and Sudanese businesses,” said Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell in a statement published by the Department of Justice.
The Frankfurt-based bank, which has its US branch in New York, was accused of performing transactions for an Iranian shipping company linked to weapons of mass destruction. The bank continued to process more than $224 million worth of dollar transactions to 17 Sudanese banks when other banks wouldn’t. The Justice Department said Commerzbank used non-transparent methods.
“Commerzbank committed these crimes even though managers inside the bank raised red flags about its sanctions-violating practices. Financial institutions must heed this message: banks that operate in the United States must comply with our laws, and banks that ignore the warnings of those charged with compliance will pay a very steep price,” Caldwell said.
