In a 3-0 decision, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said state-controlled Sberbank was not entitled to sovereign immunity, after being accused of using the U.S. banking system to funnel donor money to the Russia-backed separatist group Donetsk People's Republic.
The flight was shot down over DPR-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine by a surface-to-air missile, killing all 298 people on board.
Schansman's family sued Sberbank, another Russian bank and two U.S. money transfer companies in April 2019, saying they should be liable for doing business with the DPR. A year later, Russia's Ministry of Finance bought a majority stake in Sberbank from the country's central bank.
Sberbank had argued it deserved a presumption of immunity as a state agency or instrumentality.
Bianco disagreed. He said the FSIA comprehensively governed sovereign immunity in civil cases, and its framework was not “silently repealed” by the anti-terrorism law.
Jenner & Block, a law firm representing the Schansman family, welcomed the court’s rejection of what it called Russia’s effort to immunize Sberbank by “strategically acquiring” a majority stake.
The case is Schansman et al v Sberbank of Russia PJSC, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 22-3097.
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