Sophisticated international sting dismantles glamorous Russian millionaire’s multibillion-pound money laundering network

A GLAMOROUS Russian millionaire’s multibillion-pound money laundering network has been crushed in an international sting.

Russian-speaking hackers used the system to turn millions in cryptocurrency into cash and assets.

Street gangs and drug dealers in Britain also used it to launder piles of cash.

Irish cartel the Kinahans are also accused of using the system, run by two networks called Smart and TGR, to get cryptocurrency in return for cash.

Even the Russian state used the secretive network to get money to spies based in other countries.

It is also claimed it was used to move funds from the state-controlled TV network RT, formerly Russia Today, to journalists based in the UK.

Russian citizens sanctioned amid the war in Ukraine used the network to disguise the origin of their cash and buy property in Britain.

Smart was run by Ekaterina Zhdanova, a Russian national said to have been born in Siberia.

Zhdanova made it in the financial industry and building up connections in Moscow.

She has been arrested in France, and had already been sanctioned by the US last year.

Georgy Rossi, whose current whereabouts are unknown, was the boss of TGR.

He also came from a background in Russian banking before relocating to Europe.

They are both believed to have made millions of pounds from money laundering.

The pair charged criminals around three per cent for transactions involving billions.

NCA director Rob Jones said Operation Destabilise is the agency’s largest money-laundering investigation in the last 10 years.

So far 84 arrests have been made, and £20million seized within the UK.

The network would need to launder around £700million to make that money back, the NCA said.

According to Mr. Jones, Operation Destabilize has revealed the existence of large-scale money laundering networks worth billions of dollars. These networks were operating in a manner that was unfamiliar to both international law enforcement agencies and regulators.

For the very first time, authorities were able to establish a connection between wealthy individuals in Russia, cybercriminals with vast cryptocurrency holdings, and drug syndicates operating within the United Kingdom.

“The thread that tied them together – the combined force of Smart and TGR – was invisible until now.

“The NCA and partners have disrupted this criminal service at every level.

“We have identified and acted against the Russians pulling the strings at the very top.

“This has removed the air of legitimacy that enabled them to weave illicit funds into our economy.

“We also took out the key co-ordinators that enabled the cash-based element of their operation in the UK.

“This is making it extremely difficult for them to operate here and sending a clear message that this is not a safe haven for money laundering.”

DIRTY MONEY

At the apex of this global network were individuals named Zhdanova and Rossi. They facilitated a system where criminals possessing illicit funds or cryptocurrencies could easily exchange them for an equivalent amount of clean money.

This meant they could hide the fact the money had come from crime.

Smart’s customers are alleged to have included a Russian ransomware group responsible for attempting to extort at least £27 million from 149 UK victims.

The victims included hospitals, schools, businesses and local authorities.

Drug dealers in the UK swapped dirty money for cryptocurrency that they could use to buy drugs from South American cartels.

Russian cybercriminals were able to buy assets such as properties abroad.

CROOKS SNARED

The scheme was first discovered with the arrest of Fawad Saiedi in London in November 2021, who was found with more than £250,000 in cash.

Saiedi was later jailed for possessing and transferring criminal property.

He is thought to have been involved in laundering more than £15million, under the instructions of Zhdanova and her associate Nikita Krasnov.

Other parts of the network that were exposed included cash couriers in the UK run by two men called Semen Kuksov and Andrii Dzektsa.

Between July 2022 and September 2023 they oversaw the laundering of £12.3 million in 74 days.

One courier linked to Kuksov’s network, Igor Logvinov, was arrested by An Garda Siochana in Ireland and later jailed for three years.

In Jersey in October 2021, an investigation found that Muhiddin Umurzokov, Anvarjon Eshonkulov and Batsukh Bataa had tried to launder £60,000 on the island.

They were found to be housing illegal migrants in sub-let homes paid for with cash from drug dealing and prostitution, and were all jailed.

Two other cases saw money smugglers stopped at the border in Kent.

Ukrainian nationals Taras Hirnyak and Andrii Trachuk were found with £1million in cash in washing powder boxes in May last year at the Channel Tunnel.

Ruslan Kaziuk was stopped at Dover in March 2023 with taped up packages of cash.

Another courier, Andrejs Jasins, was stopped at Frankley Services on the southbound M5 near Birmingham in March 2023.

He was found with £400,000 hidden under the passenger seat of his van.

The Latvian national had only flown into the UK the day before he was arrested, and was later jailed for two years.

GLOBAL NETWORK

The NCA worked with cop in the US, Ireland, Jersey and France to bring down the network, that had reach across 30 countries.

A series of sanctions, announced by US authorities on Wednesday, have been put in against individuals accused of running the network.

Zhdanova’s associates Khadzi-Murat Dalgatovich Magomedov and Nikita Vladimirovich Krasnov were sanctioned by the United States today.

Rossi, Chirkinyan, and another leading figure in TGR, Andrejs Bradens also known as Andrejs Carenoks, were also sanctioned by the US.

Associated businesses including TGR Partners, TGR DWC LLC and TGR Corporate Concierge Ltd have also been targeted.