Kaleido (Richlelieu) wants my client out

[Toly]

Hello,

We are tax and investment from Kyiv, Ukraine.

We have an old client. He used to operate a Marshall island company He worked as a CEO in a number of post-USSR companies. Most of his earnings were collected as remuneration for services. Over the time he amassed substantial personal funds. He applied and opened a corporate account at Credit Swiss (advised by CS).

Later CS suggested to transfer the funds to a different Swill bank (Kaleido Private bank - ) . The amount is 700 000 USD. Now Kaleido has been acqquired by Group Banque Richelieu and the client got a notice to take away his money. The money is in a corporate account of a Panamanian company.

We have tried several banks and EMIs but they do not want to accept the money.

The problem is complicated by the fact that the funds were mostly earned decades ago and there are no documents supporting it. However, the client sill have personal tax declarations and conformations of taxes paid.

Has anybody have any ideas how to save these money and park them somewhere else?

 

[linusAG]

perhaps:
GONET
MBaer

 

[SCHLOSSFINANZ]

Zero chance. Nobody opens a corp. account for a Panama company with such a UBO.‌
Gonet takes no offshore and MBaer takes no new high-risk clients at the moment.

 

[linusAG]

Interesting, perhaps I can ask banks in apac

What is your⁢ client's nationality and place of residence?

 

[OKboomer]

Convert to stablecoins?

 

[OKboomer]

BTW I am curious, in such situations, what happens with the money if there is‌ nowhere to transfer it? The bank I assume will not let you transfer funds to‍ a third party. Is there legal recourse in this case? How can they force one⁠ to send money somewhere if there is nowhere to receive?

 

[manukahoney]

Depending on the country and the bank, but some banks used to just write a⁣ check for you. Then you basically have no account with them and it's your problem⁢ when and where you deposit the check. And if it expires - well, bad for︀ you.

 

[manukahoney]

OP, you could try to persuade the bank to open account in your client name‌ and pay a dividend/make a loan. Alternatively if the account is still active and not‍ limited - your client can transfer money to a third party (including himself) as a⁠ loan or payment for some goods and services/investment etc.

 

[BlackVault]

Customer citizenship / residency? Ukraine or?

 

[Clank]

Capital security bank in the cook islands. It’s a small bank but it has existed‌ forever.

Most of Cook Islands trustees open accounts there for people with less than 5M‍ in assets.

 

[Toly]

Citizenship - Latvia, Residency - Ukraine.

 

[shimo]

""We have tried several︆ banks and EMIs but they do not want to accept the money.""-

I guess︇ you was trying open it for corporate-to-corporate transfer, but what if you transfer the funds︈ directly to a personal account in Latvia or another EU country Justify the transfer as︉ return of personal funds/income from legacy structure!?

- if your client still have personal tax︊ declarations and conformations of taxes paid, prepare Notarized affidavit explaining the origin and Declaration of︋ UBO status aswell. - This could work!

I'm not really sure about Latvian banks these︌ days, few years back they got into serious trouble over money laundering with Russian and︍ offshore funds. One major bank even collapsed.
Since then, the banks and the tax authority︎ have become super strict, maybe Georgia?

 

[OKboomer]

One of the shadiest banks I have come⁠ across. Don't know how anyone can entrust them 7 digit amounts. I also remember that⁤ for at least a year none of their clients could make any transfers anywhere in⁣ the world when their last remaiming second-rate correspondent bank dropped them.

 

[Clank]

Currently they have OCBC and two⁤ big Swiss banks as correspondents. I don’t know about them in the past. Most trust⁣ companies in Cook Islands recommend them.

 

[calbe636]

It’s a tricky spot when legacy funds end up in limbo after a bank takeover.‌ One route is to lean on those personal tax filings as your “story of origin”‍ and work with a boutique private bank in a friendly jurisdiction, think places like Liechtenstein⁠ or Singapore, that specializes in legacy corporate structures. They’re often willing to dig deeper into⁤ your client’s history rather than just ticking a KYC checkbox.

Another angle is to engage⁣ a reputable wealth-management firm that can wrap the Panamanian entity in a simple trust or⁢ foundation structure. That extra layer can make the paperwork cleaner for new banks and give︀ them confidence in the source of funds, especially if you back it up with certified︁ translations of those old tax declarations

 

[Toly]

The bank agreed to send the money as personal dividends of the UBO to an account⁤ in his name.
I already wrote a message to CSB.
I wonder if Wise may⁣ accept the money? A couple of months ago they have accepted my personal money ~90⁢ 000 Euro from a Liechtenstein bank.

 

[alley]

What SoF did you have to provide to have Wise accept such amount?

 

[Toly]

Not much. A credit advice from Nordea (Copenhagen) where I and my company had accounts‌ for many years. After closing those, I have transferred my personal account to Bendura Bank.‍ There were only 4-5 transactions in Bendura (the balance from Nordea, dividends and a couple⁠ of consultancy fees). Bendura wanted higher balance, so I had to close the account. Wise⁤ did not ask many questions. They believed my story - I have been in tax⁣ planning business since 1991 which is traceable. So, they did not ask for every single⁢ invoice since then. Only for 2-3 recent ones.