Russian moguls near President Vladimir Putin have actually used some of the globe’s biggest financial institutions to relocate enormous amounts of presumably filthy money, according to an international journalism examination published Sunday.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and BuzzFeed News said that huge financial institutions flagged $2 trillion worth of suspicious purchases in between 1999-2017. The FinCEN Files examination, led by 108 media outlets from 88 countries, is based on more than 2,100 leaked dubious activity reports (SARs) submitted by financial institutions to the U.S. Treasury’s economic police.
In Russia, the investigation discovered dubious banking tasks by companies believed to be owned by Putin-linked tycoons Oleg Deripaska, Arkady Rotenberg, Alisher Usmanov as well as Alexei Mordashov, in addition to the president’s childhood years friend Sergei Roldugin:
— Deripaska moved a minimum of $3 billion in 2002-2016 via a little-known Latvian financial institution to spend for lobbyists in Washington and also private jets as well as property in New York and also Montenegro, the Baltic investigative journalism center Re: Baltica reported.
— Rotenberg-linked Advantage Alliance relocated 60 million pounds ($ 77.7 million) in 2012-2016 through London-based Barclays, with many deals taking place after the Rotenbergs were approved by the U.S. in 2014, the BBC reported.
A U.S. Senate investigation implicated Rotenberg this summer season of dodging assents by getting costly art through Barclays. The bank closed the account in autumn 2016 on worries that it moved suspicious funds.
An agent for Rotenberg on Monday informed the RBC news website that the most recent reports “are absolutely nothing more than rubbish.”
— An Usmanov-linked offshore holding business paid $6 million in “service” charges to prominent Putin advisor Valentin Yumashev with JP Morgan Chase Bank in 2006-2008, the investigation claimed.
— Roldugin-linked Sandalwood Continental obtained $830,000 from Mordashov-linked Dulston Ventures to expand a loan contract in 2010, according to Russia’s iStories investigative information website.
Roldugin’s name previously appeared in ICIJ’s Panama Papers leakage in 2016 which implicated the cellist and other members of Putin’s inner circle in a $2 billion cash laundering scheme.