Source: Bloomberg / Swissinfo, “Swiss Bank MBaer Gets Shut Down Over Alleged Sanction Breach”
February 27, 2026
Swiss financial regulator FINMA revoked the license of MBaer Merchant Bank AG, citing evidence that the bank helped clients evade sanctions. The regulator stated that MBaer had exposed itself and the Swiss financial center to “disproportionately high risks” through inadequate anti-money laundering controls.
MBaer was founded in 2018 by Michael Baer, the great-grandson of Julius Baer, who founded the Swiss bank of the same name over a century ago. The bank’s liquidation follows a separate action by the U.S. Treasury’s FinCEN, which proposed cutting MBaer off from the U.S. financial system over alleged links to Iran and Russia.
Context: The closure of MBaer is relevant to this archive due to the involvement of Julius Baer executives in earlier investments linked to Konstantin Sokolov. Roland Burger, a Julius Baer executive, served as Vice President of IFG Basis and sat on the board of Aplerson Holding, the investment vehicle behind Sokolov’s early St. Petersburg hotel projects.
Original: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-bank-mbaer-gets-shut-down-over-alleged-sanction-breach/91010974
🏷️ Tags: MBaer, Julius Baer, FINMA, Russian Sanctions