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International banking group UniCredit wrongly withheld USD68.9 million (EUR63 million) in payment guarantees from subsidiaries of lessors AerCap and Aircastle, for fear of busting Western sanctions against Russia, the London-based High Court of England and Wales has ruled.

The judgement, handed down remotely on March 23, 2023, relates to two cases heard together. In both, the claimants - AerCap subsidiary Celestial Aviation Services (CATIL) and Aircastle subsidiary Constitution Aircraft Leasing - were trying to obtain payment under standby letters of credit that were confirmed by the London branch of UniCredit - an international banking group headquartered in Milan that became the fifth-largest of Germany's financial institutions when it merged with HypoVereinsbank (HVB) in 2005. These letters of credit, in turn, confirmed irrevocable letters of credit issued by Russian majority-state-owned bank Sberbank (parent of Russian lessor Sberbank Leasing). The letters of credit are governed by English law.

In the Celestial case, the AerCap subsidiary was the beneficiary of seven standby letters of credit confirmed by UniCredit. They were issued in 2017 and 2020 to...

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