In Brief: A Swiss Bank Challenges Claim of Probe

A Swiss bank affiliated with Bank of New York challenged a report that its majority owner, Bruce Rappaport, is a subject of a U.S. probe into money laundering tied to organized crime in Russia.

"As far as we know, Mr. Rappaport is not under investigation for anything," Matthew Stevenson, chief executive officer of Geneva-based Bank of New York-Inter Maritime, said in a telephone interview Thursday.

The report first appeared in The New York Times and was picked up by Bloomberg News and subsequently by American Banker.

On learning of the Times report, Mr. Stevenson said, his bank approached Swiss banking authorities. "We went to them; they didn't come to us," he said. Bank of New York owns 28% of the bank.

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