Round Up: Operation Destabilise – NCA and partners disrupt $multi-billion Russian money laundering networks with links to drugs, ransomware and espionage
National Crime Agency (NCA): Operation Destabilise: NCA disrupts $multi-billion Russian money laundering networks with links to drugs, ransomware and espionage, resulting in 84 arrests
An international NCA-led investigation – Operation Destabilise – has exposed and disrupted Russian money laundering networks supporting serious and organised crime around the world: spanning from the streets of the UK, to the Middle East, Russia, and South America.
Investigators have identified two Russian-speaking networks collaborating at the heart of the criminal enterprise; Smart and TGR… Read the full press release here: https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/operation-destabilise-nca-disrupts-multi-billion-russian-money-laundering-networks-with-links-to-drugs-ransomware-and-espionage-resulting-in-84-arrests
National Crime Agency (NCA): Operation Destabilise: Case Summaries
Case Summary 1: “…network used physical tokens for cash handovers, a common practice for cash-based money launderers. Tokens are usually low denomination bank notes which bear a unique serial number. This serial number is passed on before a cash handover takes place and when the two parties meet, the person collecting the cash will produce the bank note to prove that they are the intended party. The token is usually then handed over, acting as a receipt that the handover has taken place…”
Case Summary 2: “…The Crown assessed that the value of criminal property transferred was £15,667,720. This was uncontested. Saiedi was sentenced to 4 years and 4 months imprisonment…”
Case Summary 3: “…investigation focused on money laundering activities of…who were attempting to launder approximately £60,000 in used Jersey bank notes in Jersey. Evidence from seized mobile phones, documentation, receipts and lists revealed their involvement in sub-letting UK properties paid for in cash from drug trafficking or prostitution. The seized mobile phones held identities of Uzbekistanis, Hungarians, Latvians and Romanians, believed to have illegally entered the UK, to be housed in properties subject to illegal sub-letting…”
Case Summary 4: “…Ukrainian registered Mercedes Sprinter, was intercepted outbound the Channel tunnel. The van had two occupants, both Ukrainian nationals…claimed to be taking items to Ukraine for the war effort. A search identified several boxes labelled Asda washing powder found to contain an estimated £1 million in cash…”
Case Summary 5: “…During a search of the vehicle, Border Force Officers found silver taped packages containing cash in:
- three cardboard boxes containing wax pellets;
- two Bags for Life containing wax pellets;
- concealed inside a white van door, inside the natural space behind screwed down chipboard…”
Case Summary 6: “…Three bags were found within the storage area beneath the front passenger seat. Within each bag was a further inner bag within which Officers identified sterling notes estimated to be in the sum of £400,000. The notes were secured with coloured elastic bands…was charged with money laundering…The total cash seized and subsequently forfeited was £357,730.95. The contents of…mobile revealed a number of photographs indicating a greater level of involvement than that of simply a courier…”… Read the full case summaries here: https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/?view=article&id=3685:operation-destabilise-case-studies
US Department of the Treasury: Treasury Exposes Money Laundering Network Using Digital Assets To Evade Sanctions
With touchpoints around the world, the TGR Group is an extensive sanctions evasion and money laundering network that works to obfuscate the illicit activities of its clients, including through the use digital assets, such as stablecoins like Tether (USDT). Controlled by Ukrainian national George Rossi, the networkprovides a range of services to place, layer, and integrate illicit financial schemes into the global financial system. These include: the laundering of funds associated with sanctioned entities; providing an unregistered service to exchange cash and cryptocurrency; the receipt of cash and making the value available to clients in the form of cryptocurrency; providing a pre-paid credit card service; and, obfuscating the source of funds to allow high-net worth Russian nationals to purchase property in the United Kingdom… Read the full press release here: https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy2735
US Department of State: Exposing The TGR Group Sanctions Circumvention Network
…action reaffirms the G7 commitment to counter attempts to circumvent sanctions, disrupt illicit actors misusing virtual assets to hide and enhance their wealth, and degrade Russia’s ability to fund its malign influence activities abroad. We will continue to protect the international financial system and take action against sanctions evaders inside and outside of Russia… Read the full press release here: https://www.state.gov/exposing-the-tgr-group-sanctions-circumvention-network/
