Vozchod Commercial Bank

The Wozchod Handelsbank AG was a Soviet bank based in Zurich , Schützengasse 1; it was founded in 1966 and liquidated after several internal scandals. In 1986 those responsible were convicted in Zurich. The liquidation could only be completed in 2014.

The Vozchod Commercial Bank also acted as the branch of the Commercial Department of the Bank for Foreign Trade of the USSR in Moscow. A large part of the Soviet gold trade was processed through this bank with the West.

In the 1960s, the bank attracted public attention with advertisements for the sale of gold and silver coins, bars and precious stones from pre-revolutionary and Soviet times against "freely convertible currency". Its official purpose was "in particular the development of Soviet-Swiss and the promotion of interstate trade, economic and foreign exchange relations in general, in particular through the financing of commercial transactions and other transactions aimed at the realization of the company's purpose and / or related to its activity". The general public only knew the bank through its building and its large address.

In 1984 the bank made huge losses due to the machinations of the chief trader; in 1984 they were put at around 760 million francs in court. In the bankruptcy, neither private investors nor creditors were harmed.

literature

• Documents Wozchod Handelsbank AG in the database Dodis the Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland .
• Advertisement in NZZ of January 31, 1968, page 20b.
• Conditional sentence in the «Wozkhod case». NZZ of September 26, 1986, page 19.
• The loss of the Vozkhod Bank. NZZ April 16, 1986, page 49.
• SOGC : 037/2014 of February 24, 2014 (page 25)
• Morgenröte AG. In: Der Spiegel 39/1966 p. 138. (Read April 1, 2015.)
• Wozchod Being Liquidated Following Big Loss. AP, Associated Press , Mar. 1, 1985 9:30 PM ET (Retrieved April 2, 2015.)