Russian court cancels seizure of some JPMorgan funds in VTB dispute

FILE PHOTO: A view of the exterior of the JP Morgan Chase & Co. corporate headquarters in New York City May 20, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Segar//File Photo

MOSCOW (Reuters) -A Russian court has cancelled the seizure of part of JPMorgan’s funds in Russia in a lawsuit brought by state lender VTB, court documents show.

However, the ruling only applies to funds held by JPMorgan in so-called type C accounts which cannot be transferred out of Russia, and in a current account used to pay staff and taxes.

The court had ordered the seizure of funds in JPMorgan accounts after VTB sued it for $439.5 million, the amount it says was blocked by the U.S. bank in its correspondent account in New York when the Russian lender came under U.S. sanctions.

JPMorgan said in a filing on Wednesday that the value of claims against it and orders to freeze its assets was greater than its available assets in Russia. It did not specify the amount of those assets.

According to the Russian court documents, JPMorgan has 243.3 billion roubles ($2.64 billion) of assets in Russia of which most – 204.7 billion – is in type C accounts.

Foreigners who hold such accounts cannot move the money abroad, but nor can it be seized, according to presidential decrees.

In its latest ruling, the Russian court reversed the seizure of the money in JPMorgan’s type C account and freed the bank’s Russian subsidiary to make payments of staff wages and taxes from a separate current account.

VTB and JPMorgan did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment on Thursday.

($1 = 92.2600 roubles)

(Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya; writing by Mark Trevelyan; editing by Alexander Smith)