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German authorities raided an import-export firm and the house of a businessman in the state of Brandenburg on Tuesday on suspicion he was concerned in a scheme to launder thousands and thousands of euros ({dollars}) for Russian criminals, prosecutors mentioned.
The suspect is accused of receiving some 7 million euros ($8.three million) in illegally obtained money, laundering it in Germany after which transferring it to offshore accounts for “individuals from Russia,” the Frankfurt prosecutors workplace mentioned.
The suspect, whose title wasn’t launched, is alleged to have been a part of the so-called “Troika Laundromat” – a money laundering community linked to the previous Russian funding financial institution Troika Dialog, which is alleged to have maintained a community of offshore firms with accounts in Baltic banks, prosecutors mentioned in a press launch.
Federal German police have been investigating the community for the reason that starting of 2019, prosecutors mentioned.
Authorities gave no additional particulars on the investigation or the suspect, and prosecutors’ spokeswoman Nadja Niesen mentioned she couldn’t remark past the discharge.
German authorities have been cracking down on Russian money laundering schemes, and final yr seized properties price greater than 40 million euros ($47 million) they alleged have been bought by means of one other community, referred to as the Russian Laundromat.
That scheme, they mentioned on the time, concerned transferring some $22 billion from Russia into Europe by means of banks in Moldova and Latvia utilizing fictitious firms.
Much of what’s publicly recognized of the laundromat operations comes from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, whose journalists have been additionally concerned in the Panama Papers revelations, reporting how paperwork from a Panamanian legislation agency confirmed a whole bunch of wealthy and highly effective individuals registered firms in tax havens.
The OCCRP, citing paperwork obtained by it and the Lithuanian information website 15min.lt, has reported that the principle objective of the Troika Laundromat was to channel billions of {dollars} out of Russia, permitting Russian oligarchs and politicians to secretly purchase shares in state-owned firms, purchase property in Russia and overseas and extra.
The Troika was made up of at the least 75 firms in a posh monetary net, which functioned from 2006 to early 2013, the OCCRP reported final yr.
The Kremlin has dismissed the OCCRP studies as being unfaithful or distorted, and “nothing particularly novel.”
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