Moscow - A retired Russian army officer on a monthly pension of US$15 has discovered he is sitting on an inheritance of $3.6 million (€3.41 million) but he cannot afford the airline ticket to Switzerland to claim his fortune, Komsomolskaya Pravda reported yesterday. Mr Valery Sergeyev, a pensioner, discovered from a television report that Swiss banks had lifted secrecy regulations on accounts which had not been touched since 1945. He found out he was the sole heir to the fortune of his grandfather, who had lived in Switzerland since the first World War and died in the 1960s.
Mr Sergeyev is also waiting for his passport.