On Thursday Bloomberg reported the United States Department of Justice has launched a probe of banks which have aided Russian businessmen evade Western sanctions over the military conflict in Ukraine, and Swiss banking giants Credit Suisse and UBS are on the list of banks being scrutinized. The report quoted people familiar with the matter.

Reportedly the DOL has issued subpoenas to the Swiss banks, along with a number of United States banking majors, in the investigation. The sources said the subpoenas were issued prior to the crisis at Credit Suisse which forced its takeover by UBS.

The sources said the probe will examine which bankers and advisors dealt with sanctioned clients, and how the clients were vetted by the institutions over the past several years. The source said there may be subsequent investigations to determine if the employees at the banks broke any laws.

If the lenders are found to have broken US laws the institutions could face severe penalties for violating the sanctions. In 2014 French international banking group BNP Parabas plead guilty to the DOJ’s charges it facilitated barred transactions involving sanctioned parties in Sudan, Iran, and Cuba, resulting in a fine of about $9 billion. In 2019, Standard Chartered Bank agreed to pay over $1 billion to settle with the DOJ over allegations the bank had violated sanctions levied against Iran.

Last month Credit Suisse had announced that it had frozen over $19 billion in Russian assets which were subject to sanctions imposed against Moscow.

Last year the Department of Justice launched a special taskforce devoted to seizing assets from Russians who, according to the government, were close allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Named KleptoCapture, the taskforce has seized a number of private planes, yachts, and properties from Russian citizens who were reportedly allied with President Putin.