March 27, 2020

April 4, 2019

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Last year, on April 4, 2019, the family of Quinn Lucas Schansman filed a lawsuit against Russia’s Sberbank and VTB Bank, as well as the Western Union Co., Western Union Financial Services, MoneyGram International and MoneyGram Payment System.

Schansman, 18, was the lone American killed when Russian militants shot down Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 in 2014. The lawsuit sought unspecified damages from the companies for the death of Schansman.

The banks and U.S. money-transfer firms allegedly provided services to Russia-backed militants that have been identified by the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) as responsible for the downing of the commercial jetliner by a Russian-made Buk missile.

The JIT included investigators from the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Malaysia and Ukraine. The missile was determined to be from Russia’s 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade and was fired from territory held by the Russia-backed militants. Other findings by the JIT had been corroborated or supported by evidence gathered by journalists and independent investigators, such as the British-based Bellingcat.

The lawsuit accuses the Russian banks and U.S. money-transfer firms of allowing large sums of money, mainly from Russian-diaspora sympathizers, to be sent to the Russia-backed militants in the occupied territory of eastern Ukraine.

The funds were used by these militants to acquire heavy weapons and to control many regions in eastern Ukraine, the 63-page lawsuit alleges.

“We realize that we will never get our son back. But we are committed to shedding light on – and holding accountable – all who participated in his murder,” the victim’s father, Thomas Schansman, said in a statement.

The lawsuit is based on a 1992 U.S. anti-terror law that allows U.S. victims of terrorism to sue those who provide material support to those carrying out the attacks.

“The men who launched the missile may never be hauled before a court to answer for their crimes, but all of those who participated in arming them and supporting them must be,” said David Pressman, a former deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and one of the family’s lawyers.

Moscow has repeatedly denied responsibility for the downing of the plane and has blamed Ukrainian forces for firing the missile. Three Russian nationals – Igor Girkin, Sergei Dubinsky, Oleg Pulatov – and one Ukrainian, Leonid Kharchenko, have been named by the JIT as wanted suspects, as the trial continues in their absence because Russia does not extradite its citizens and some are believed to be hiding out in the occupied territories of Ukraine.

Source: “Family of U.S. teen killed in MH17’s downing sues Russian banks, U.S. money firms,” RFE/RL, The Ukrainian Weekly, April 14, 2019.

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