The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Money
Fundraiser for Ukrainian refugees debanked – twice
Barclays and NatWest closed the accounts of a Moscow-born British citizen whose charity work included raising money for supplies for front-line medics, writes Noah Eastwood
ARussian-born lawyer fundraising for humanitarian aid in Ukraine has been debanked by Barclays and NatWest. Sergei Grachev, who is a British citizen, used a Barclays account to pay for supplies to be sent to civilian medics working on the front lines of the war in Ukraine in 2022, shortly after the conflict began.
But just four months later, in June, he received a letter from Barclays stating that his accounts would all be shut down.
He then switched to NatWest, only to be debanked again in August last year. Both banks have refused to provide a reason for the account closures.
Mr Grachev, 53, who lived in the Soviet Union, said the treatment he has received by two of Britain’s largest banks is “worse” than anything he experienced in communist Russia.
He said: “There is such a thing as proportionality. What they have done to me and how much business I have lost because of that is absolutely disproportionate. It is aggressive.
“This has been two years of hell. It is like a vendetta from a machine. It very much reminds me of my time back in the USSR, but it is worse. They shut everything: my entire business life in one day.”
Barlcays closed his accounts in September 2022, despite Mr Grachev severing ties with Russia following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, when he terminated business relations with his law firm’s Moscow office.
The firm, which advises international companies on Russian law, had previously worked with Alfa Bank, a private bank in Russia, that was later targeted by UK sanctions.
Mr Grachev had used his charitable foundation’s Barclays account to raise £5,000 to buy body warmers, clothing, medicine and motorcycles for use by paramedics on the front line.
He also ran a campaign on fundraising site GoFundMe that raised about £15,000 to evacuate horses from wartorn Kharkiv and used first his Barclays and then his NatWest account to make payments relocating them away from Russian shelling to a safe city.
Barclays closed 30 different accounts linked to 11 organisations he operates, including electric aviation company NeboAir, his law firm, his charitable foundation and an animal sanctuary at his 40-acre home in Suffolk.
In November 2022 Mr Grachev switched his accounts to NatWest, but was debanked again as a customer in August last year.
His personal accounts with RBS, which is owned by NatWest and with whom he had banked for almost 25 years, were also shut down, throwing his savings and two mortgages into jeopardy.
Mr Grachev gave evidence to a group of MPs after his accounts were closed by Barclays and before he moved to NatWest.
The all-party parliamentary group on Fair Business Banking said Barclays did not explain why his accounts were closed, but found that “reputation has taken on a position of outsized importance both from the perspective of the banking industry and its regulator”.
It added: “The position is now so exaggerated that reputation has, in some cases, leapfrogged the real risk of financial crime as the issue of paramount importance to banks.”
Despite repeated queries to both Barclays and NatWest, Mr Grachev has never been given a reason why his accounts were closed.
He has lived in Britain for almost two decades and has been a citizen since 2018. He started banking with Barclays in 2013.
Neither Barclays nor NatWest have any restrictions on sending money to Ukraine. If they suspect a customer of financial crime, they must report it to the National Crime Agency.
Mr Grachev, who was born in Moscow, was among the first households in Britain to take in refugees from Ukraine in March 2022. At his home in Suffolk, he ran events for Ukrainian refugees throughout that summer aimed at helping them learn about British culture and improve their English language skills.
Mr Grachev claims he lost out on important business because of the closures and has since been forced to rely on digital banks.
His business associate, Deepak, who did not wish for his surname to be published, was also debanked by NatWest last year.
The flight instructor who had been a NatWest customer for 30 years had both his business and personal accounts wound up last month. The bank gave him no reason as to why.
Deepak described it as “like 1984” and suspects that it was because his name appeared on a Barclays business account, closed in 2022, alongside Mr Grachev’s.
A Barclays spokesman said: “We must comply with our legal and regulatory obligations and we would only withdraw banking services from an individual or business in exceptional circumstances and in this case we do not agree with the customer’s interpretation of our actions.”
A NatWest spokesman said: “Like all UK regulated banking institutions, we are subject to legal and regulatory requirements, and we treat compliance with them as a matter of priority.
“This may mean we are required to delay, or refuse to act on a customer’s instructions, and/or restrict, or close a customer’s account. We do not make any comments on the specifics of this case.”
‘It very much reminds me of my time back in the USSR, but it is worse. They shut everything: my entire business life in one day’