Tag: Russian

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Article: What’s Known About Massive Russia Money Laundering Scheme, ‘Troika Laundromat’

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What’s Known About Massive Russia Money Laundering Scheme, ‘Troika Laundromat’

Christian Baumgaertel, 07 March 2019

The so-called Troika Laundromat was a financial network set up by a Russian investment bank to help clients move money out of the country and hide it. The scheme exported about $4.8 billion over seven years, with the help of a now-defunct Lithuanian bank.

That much we know from disclosures by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project [OCCRP] and its partner news organizations. Almost daily revelations over the last week have widened the group of banks involved and added to a picture of massive laundering — perhaps facilitated by the absence of a central enforcement agency in Europe. Continue reading “Article: What’s Known About Massive Russia Money Laundering Scheme, ‘Troika Laundromat’”

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Article: Top US investor in charge of £3bn Russian hedge fund jailed over alleged £29m fraud

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Top US investor in charge of £3bn Russian hedge fund jailed over alleged £29m fraud

Oliver Carroll, 16 February 2019

A Russian court has sentenced a prominent American investor to two months of pre-trial detention in a development that has sent shockwaves through the country’s business community.

Michael Calvey, the founder of Baring Vostok Capital Partners, was one of several executives arrested on Friday.

He is one of the last major western private equity investors to remain in Russia, with his investment company claiming to have raised nearly $4bn (£3.1bn) in capital.

On Friday, a judge ordered Mr Calvey be detained for 72 hours, but agreed to a longer restriction less than a day later. Continue reading “Article: Top US investor in charge of £3bn Russian hedge fund jailed over alleged £29m fraud”

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Article: Russian Whistleblower Assassinated After Uncovering $200 Billion Dirty-Money Scandal

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Russian Whistleblower Assassinated After Uncovering $200 Billion Dirty-Money Scandal

Nico Hines, 10 October 2018

A crusading Russian official traveled to Estonia in the summer of 2006 to warn the authorities that an unprecedented money-laundering scheme had been established in the tiny Baltic financial sector. The scam he had uncovered would go on to become the biggest dirty-money operation in history: the $200 billion Danske Bank scandal.

Three months after Andrei Kozlov, the first deputy chairman of the Russian Central Bank, tried to raise the alarm, he was dead. Continue reading “Article: Russian Whistleblower Assassinated After Uncovering $200 Billion Dirty-Money Scandal”

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Article: Russia’s greatest Ponzi mastermind is dead, but his legacy lives on in the crypto world

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Russia’s greatest Ponzi mastermind is dead, but his legacy lives on in the crypto world

Sara Hess & Eugene Soltes, 25 April 2018

Sergei Mavrodi, creator of one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history, died last month at age 62, potentially leaving millions of “investors” in countries around the world in the lurch. Beginning around the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Moscow-born Mavrodi’s exploits expanded and evolved over the course of nearly 30 years, putting him in the same league as Bernie Madoff, who operated arguably the biggest such fraud ever, and Charles Ponzi himself, the Italian con artist whose name is now synonymous with this type of financial deception. Continue reading “Article: Russia’s greatest Ponzi mastermind is dead, but his legacy lives on in the crypto world”

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Article: Robert Mueller charges lawyer with lying to federal investigators during Russia inquiry

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Robert Mueller charges lawyer with lying to federal investigators during Russia inquiry

News Corp Australia Network, 21 February 2018

ROBERT Mueller, the special counsel to oversee the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, has charged a lawyer with making false statements to FBI agents conducting the investigation.

Alex Van Der Zwaan, the son-in-law of Russian oligarch German Khan, made the statements in November 2017 when he was interviewed about his work with a law firm hired in 2012 by the Ukraine Ministry of Justice to create a report on Yulia Tymoshenko. Continue reading “Article: Robert Mueller charges lawyer with lying to federal investigators during Russia inquiry”

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Article: Detecting Financial Statements Fraud: The Evidence from Russia

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Detecting Financial Statements Fraud: The Evidence from Russia

Natalia Feruleva, 31 January 2018

Russian stakeholders of joint stock companies, which shares are not traded on a stock exchange, and limited liability companies need the effective instruments which enable them to detect the facts of financial statement fraud quickly because the financial statement remains the main source of information about the companies’ performance for them. Although Institute of Auditors is one of the most reliable tools which identify financial statement manipulations, the costs, connected with audit, are too high and, and as a result, stakeholders have to look for other instruments to distinguish fraudsters, which make an attempt to overestimate or underestimate net assets and financial results, from non-fraudsters. Mathematical model of the American researcher Messod Beneish can be considered as an example of such tools. Continue reading “Article: Detecting Financial Statements Fraud: The Evidence from Russia”

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Article: Former Russian banker detained in Monaco over $ 8.8 mln fraud

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Former Russian banker detained in Monaco over $ 8.8 mln fraud

Vladimir Gudkov, 18 January 2018

Former Investtorgbank management board chairman Vladimir Gudkov has been detained in Monaco on fraud charges, a law enforcement source told TASS.

“Former Investtorgbank management board chairman and shareholder Vladimir Gudkov has been detained in Monaco,” the official said, specifying that the detainee is charged with large-scale fraud. Continue reading “Article: Former Russian banker detained in Monaco over $ 8.8 mln fraud”

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Article: Russian and British national guilty of elaborate $1 million fraud following private prosecution

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Russian and British national guilty of elaborate $1 million fraud following private prosecution

Edmonds, Marshall, McMahon, 13 December 2017

On the 13th December 2017, Andrey Kulich was unanimously convicted in a private prosecution for his involvement in a $1 million conspiracy to defraud Argyn Khassenov, following a four-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court.

Andrey Kulich, a Russian and British national, of Newham Bridge, Worcestershire, was sentenced to a total of 5 years imprisonment and confiscation proceedings will follow.

Commenting on the case, Tamlyn Edmonds, Partner at Edmonds Marshall McMahon who was instructed by the victim of the fraud, Argyn Khassenov, said: Continue reading “Article: Russian and British national guilty of elaborate $1 million fraud following private prosecution”

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Article: WSJ editorial board calls for Mueller’s resignation and accuses Clinton campaign and DNC of collusion

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WSJ editorial board calls for Mueller’s resignation and accuses Clinton campaign and DNC of collusion

Sonam Sheth , 29 October 2017

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board called this week for a full Russia investigation — not into President Donald Trump’s campaign, but into the Democratic Party, the FBI, and the special counsel Robert Mueller. Continue reading “Article: WSJ editorial board calls for Mueller’s resignation and accuses Clinton campaign and DNC of collusion”

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Article: Forfeiture Case Based on Alleged Elaborate $230 Million Russian Laundering and Fraud Scheme to Settle

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Forfeiture Case Based on Alleged Elaborate $230 Million Russian Laundering and Fraud Scheme to Settle

Peter D. Hardy & Priya Roy, 15 May 2017

On the eve of trial this past Friday, the government announced an agreement to settle, subject to court approval, a major civil forfeiture action in the Southern District of New York. In the case, United States v. Prevezon Holdings, Ltd. et al., the government alleged an elaborate scheme involving money laundering and other offenses committed in Russia, Cyprus, and Manhattan. The case gained some notoriety in the press due to lurid allegations of the suspicious death while in pretrial detention in Moscow of a Russian lawyer who had uncovered the tax refund fraud scheme, and the alleged defenestration earlier this year of a lawyer working for the decedent’s family. Although the civil forfeiture complaint filed in 2013 sought to forfeit at least $230 million worth of assets, the parties settled for approximately $5.9 million. In the wake of this settlement, both the defense and the government now appear to be claiming victory. Continue reading “Article: Forfeiture Case Based on Alleged Elaborate $230 Million Russian Laundering and Fraud Scheme to Settle”

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Article: Millions in suspected Russian crime proceeds flowed through Canadian banks, companies

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Millions in suspected Russian crime proceeds flowed through Canadian banks, companies

Diana Swain and Jennifer Fowler, 10 May 2017

A powerful Russian crime syndicate that’s accused of laundering hundreds of millions of dollars around the world appears to have also flowed millions through nearly 30 Canadian bank accounts.

A CBC News investigation has spent months tracking down some of the individuals and companies attached to those accounts and found the $2 million sent to Canada was spread among recipients ranging from a boxing manager in Montreal to a construction company in Calgary. Continue reading “Article: Millions in suspected Russian crime proceeds flowed through Canadian banks, companies”

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Article: Harsh fraud sentencing trend continues – a clear message of deterrence

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Harsh fraud sentencing trend continues – a clear message of deterrence

Louise Bennett, 17 February 2017

Two City traders convicted over £141m banking fraud, LNB News 26/01/2017 150. [Subscription]

Two City traders have been convicted of conspiring to defraud a Russian bank of more than £141m in a series of complex frauds. Georgy Urumov was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to defraud, two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Vladimir Gersamia was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to defraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The pair will be sentenced on 27 January 2017. Continue reading “Article: Harsh fraud sentencing trend continues – a clear message of deterrence”

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Article: Russian Gang Netted $3M Daily via Video Ad Fraud

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Russian Gang Netted $3M Daily via Video Ad Fraud

Jeremy Kirk, 22 December 2016

An expansive botnet run by a Russian cybercriminal gang netted more than $3 million a day by generating fake views of online video advertisements. The finding is already reinforcing concerns over the prevalence of fraud in online marketing. Continue reading “Article: Russian Gang Netted $3M Daily via Video Ad Fraud”

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Article: Financial fraud involving illegal withdrawal of over RUB 1 bn abroad was solved by Russian MIA General Administration for Economic Security and Combating Corruption

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Financial fraud involving illegal withdrawal of over RUB 1 bn abroad was solved by Russian MIA General Administration for Economic Security and Combating Corruption

THE MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION, 16 November 2016

“Employees of the General Administration for Economic Security and Combating the Corruption of the Russian MIA detected an illegal scheme for withdrawal of money in foreign currency abroad through many-fold overstatement of the cost of imported goods,” said Russian MIA official representative Irina Volk.

According to the available information confirmed by documents, the malefactors had used banking details of dummy entities registered in the Kaliningrad Region to transfer funds to the bank accounts of the controlled non-resident under the guise of fulfillment of foreign trade contracts for supply of computer hardware and components. For that purpose, they had provided financial institutions acting as currency control agents with documents that contained false information about grounds, purposes and nature of transfers, namely about the cost of goods that had been artificially overstated hundreds of times subject to forged shipping documents – invoices. Continue reading “Article: Financial fraud involving illegal withdrawal of over RUB 1 bn abroad was solved by Russian MIA General Administration for Economic Security and Combating Corruption”

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Article: Investigators track millions of dollars from Russian tax fraud coming to Canada

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Investigators track millions of dollars from Russian tax fraud coming to Canada

DANIEL LEBLANC, 27 October 2016

Investigators have tracked millions of dollars associated with an elaborate tax fraud in Russia to bank accounts in Canada, bolstering their call for Ottawa to adopt legislation to freeze the assets of corrupt foreign officials.

Anglo-American financier Bill Browder and a team of investigators and lawyers compiled the data on the transfers of the funds, which indicate a clear Canadian connection to a $230-million (U.S.) swindle in 2007 by Russian officials who used his Russian-based hedge fund, Hermitage Capital Management. Continue reading “Article: Investigators track millions of dollars from Russian tax fraud coming to Canada”

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