A lawsuit filed in California federal court by the trust of deceased Indonesian vice president Adam Malik has accused Swiss banking giant UBS of deliberately closing selected accounts without consent of the beneficiaries and converting billions of dollars for its own profit.
Lead plaintiff AM Trust accused UBS of shutting down the accounts of people who died or were absent for prolonged periods of time, and "withholding or destroying internal records pertaining to these accounts and converting the proceeds to their own use while wrongfully denying requests for information and accounting."
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"When confronted by Account Holders with evidence of the accounts’ existence, the defendants would admit a banking relationship had previously existed but no records could be located due to passage of time including the date of alleged closure even though the bank records were in defendants’ possession or could be located by conducting a competent search," the complaint says.
The predecessors of UBS, Union Bank of Switzerland and Swiss Bank Corporation, have also been sued.
UBS, as the successor of Union Bank SBC, targeted accounts in which the account holders had died or were absent for prolonged periods of time, according to the lawsuit.
The trust alleged that that it has been trying to recover assets from the accounts for years without success.
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By GlobalDataThe lawsuit also seeks judgment for compensatory damages, an accounting, disgorgement of profits and restitution and attorneys’ fees and costs of suit.
The plaintiff has also asked the court for punitive damages and the imposition of a constructive trust.
