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Germany uncovers Russian-Eurasian money laundering scheme

by Martin Fornusek February 21, 2024 12:25 PM 1 min read
Illustrative purposes only: Rear View Of Police Officer On City Street Against Police Car. (Reinhard Krull/Getty Images)
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German authorities uncovered a major Russian-Eurasian money laundering network, which facilitated an illegal cash flow of tens of millions of euros, the Berlin Public Prosecutor's Office announced on Feb. 20.

Searches were carried out in Germany, Malta, and Latvia with the assistance of local authorities and Eurojust. Eleven people, aged between 31 and 58, are considered suspects in the case.

No later than July 2021, the suspects created a network of companies based on a Maltese financial institution with numerous fronts to conduct money laundering, the investigators said. The group is believed to have operated mainly from Berlin and Riga.

One of the suspects – a 53-year-old man – had already been detained in the German state of Brandenburg, and funds in eight Maltese accounts had been frozen, German prosecutors said.

No further details on the suspects' identities have been provided at the moment.

In 2023, German and Latvian authorities established a joint investigative task force to uncover the scheme.

Investigation: Baltic-registered crypto firms service payments for Russian private army, allow sanctions evasion
Editor’s note: This article was updated on Jan. 30, 2024, to reflect the changes made in the original investigative piece by Vsquare after the publication. The previous version of the story claimed that Akshin Dzhangirov received about 285,600 euros in income from Sberbank in 2021. Known for its

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