Billion-dollar money laundering network ‘bought bank to fund Russia’s war effort’

A billion-dollar money laundering network, which is known to be active in the UK, bought a bank to facilitate payments to support Russian military efforts in Ukraine

A secret network has been helping Russia’s army and assisting criminals all over the world, from Russian-speaking hackers with millions in cryptocurrency to British street gangs with dirty cash to launder, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA).

Sal Melki, deputy director for economic crime at the NCA, said: “Today we can reveal the sheer scale at which these networks operate and draw a line between crimes in our communities, sophisticated organised criminals and state-sponsored activity.”

“For the first time,” he said, “we are tying drugs trades in our community all the way through to the highest levels of organised crime, geopolitics, sanctions evasion, the Russian industrial military complex, and state-linked activity.”

Launderers working for the group are active in at least 28 UK cities and towns, where couriers collect cash and turn it to crypto, said the NCA. A company linked to one of the network’s bosses bought a bank that is facilitating payments that are supporting the Russian military.

The NCA is investigating Russian money-laundering networks around the world in its Operation Destabilise. Since the operation’s launch, 128 arrests have been made and over £25 million seized in cash and cryptocurrency in the UK alone.

A spokesperson for the NCA said a thread can be drawn between a person in the UK “buying some cocaine on a Friday night” to “geopolitical events that are causing suffering across the world”.

“The networks disrupted through Destabilise operate at all levels of international money laundering, from collecting the street cash from drug deals, through to purchasing banks and enabling global sanctions breaches.”

In December last year, the agency exposed two networks, TGR and Smart, working together to launder money for transnational crime groups involved in cyber crime, drugs and firearms smuggling.

The networks were known to help their Russian clients “illegally bypass” financial restrictions to invest money in the UK, according to the NCA.

Smart is headed by 39-year-old Ekaterina Zhdanova, a Russian national said to have been born in Siberia before making it in the financial industry and building up connections in Moscow. Georgy Rossi was the boss of TGR.

It is understood that TGR and Smart laundered for Irish cartel the Kinahans, and for state-controlled TV network Russia Today.

Senior members of the networks were sanctioned by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in December and Zhdanova is being held in pre-trial detention in France.

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