Category: Cases Дела

Spanish Russian mafia Troika case: press release of the court on “uneconomic” transcations of the defendants

Press release Audiencia Nacional Troika

“However strange, uneconomic or unconventional were the commercial operations in which the defendants invested, if the origin of the acquired, converted, transmitted or concealed property is not proven of beeing from criminal activity, there is no money-laundering offence, “explains the Chamber (translation of the last paragraph of the press release on the sentence in Troika Russian Tambov gang case).

Investigation of Izmaylovskaya gang (Chernoi, Deripaska, Makhmudov) in Spain, 2009

Izmaylovskaya case Makhmudov Deripasca accusation act Spain

Dated of March 13, 2009. A request by Spanish Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office to the judge to conduct certain investigative actions related to the case of Izmayloskaya gang –  Iskander Makhmudov, Oleg Deripaska, Mikhail Chernoi (Cherny).

“Oleg Deripaska, together with Chernoi and Majmudov, controlled the company “Rual Trade, Ltd.” residing in Tortola (British Virgin Islands), then the world’s third largest producer of aluminum (the company “RussAl” was a subsidiary of said “Rual Trade, Ltd.”) and which was the subject of several suspicious communications of money laundering in the “ FinCEN ”: one, for a total of $ 11,598,499; another, for $ 4,869,310,635 between the years 2003 and 2007″. (p.5)

“Money laundering that is the subject of this investigation have been fundamentally channeled, on the one hand, through the company “Vera Metallurgica, S. A.”; on the other, through “Fima Veneer & Plywood Corporation, S. L.”; and, finally, by means of companies with registered offices in tax havens (thus, Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands) that have served as a screen to introduce money from criminal activities into Spain”.  (p.23)

See also summary by the Russian Prosecution from 2015:  “On April 10, 2007, the Central Investigative Court No. 4 of the National Audience of the Kingdom of Spain initiated a criminal case (№101 / 2007-D) regarding Makhmudov I.K., Deripaska O.V., and other persons under Art. 515 (creation of a criminal association), Art. 301 (money laundering), and Art. 305 (offense against the State Treasury) of the Criminal Code of the Kingdom of Spain.

On 07.12.2012, this criminal case, with the qualifications of the offense under Art. 174, 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, was transferred by the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation according to the Art. 151, 459 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Russia for further investigation in the Investigative Department of the Ministry of the Interior of Russia.”

 

BND’s report on drug trafficking and money laundering in Liechtenstein, 1999, SPAG company

BND-Bericht Liechtenstein_recognized

German Intelligence BND’s report on drug’s money laundering in Liechtenstein, April 1999.

p. 15: ”

Zwischenzeitlich wurde bekannt, dass diese Bank vim organisierten Verbrechen noch zur Anlage bereits gewaschenen Geldes genutzt wird. Einen nachriechtendiesntlichen Hinweis zufolge transferieren russiesche Kriminelle über dieses Finanzinstitut die Mittel zum Erwerb bon Immobilien in Russland. Auch in diesen Transfer verdient RITTER mit. Er ist Mehraktioner der deutsch-russichen ST PETERBURGER IMMOBILIEN- UND BETEILIGUNGS- AG (SP AG), die die Immobilienkäufe abgewickelt warden sollen.

1997 sollen HEEB und RITTER von der IBR (Union bancaire privée, Switzerland) beauftragt worden sein, über die IBR vorgewaschene, kriminell erhielte Gelder in Deutschland an der Börse zu investieren und Aktien der SP AG zu erwerben. Der SP AG is ein 1992 gegründetes deutsch-russisches Joint-Venture mit Sitz in Frankfurt/M. Die gesellschaft besitzt in Russland umfangreiche Immobilien vermögen, z.B. in St Petersburg ein Bürogebäude im Wert von 10 Mio DM. Die Aktien worden seit Oktober 1997 im Freiverkehr an der Börse in Frankfurt/M gehandelt. Weitere Recherchen zur SP AG sind eingeleitet.”

Translation:

‘In the meantime it became known that this bank is still used to invest money of organized crime that has already been laundered. According to a pertinent note, Russian criminals transfer funds for the purchase of real estate in Russia through this financial institution. RITTER also makes a profit in this transfer. He is a multi-shareholder of the German-Russian JV ST PETERBURGER IMMOBILIEN- UND BETEILIGUNGS-AG (SP AG), which are to handle the property purchases.

In 1997, HEEB and RITTER are said to have been commissioned by the IBR (Union bancaire privée, Switzerland) to invest on the stock exchange prewashed, criminally received funds in Germany and to acquire shares in SP AG. SP AG is a German-Russian joint venture founded in 1992 with headquarters in Frankfurt / M. The company owns extensive real estate assets in Russia, e.g. an office building in St Petersburg worth DM 10 million. The shares have been traded over the counter on the Frankfurt / M stock exchange since October 1997. Further research on SP AG has been initiated. ”

The report led to at least three probes, two in Germany and one in Liechtenstein (see mentions of Rudolf Ritter).

See more documents on SPAG.

See warrant for SPAG’s shares  signed by Vladimir Putin, acting as St Petersburg’s vice mayor, 1994.

The SPAG’s probe in Germany (Darmstadt Prosecutor’s office) was closed in 2009 because of proscription. One of the main protagonists Vladimir Kumarin from Tambov gang, interrogated by German investigators in St Petersurg, denying any wronging, was imprisoned in Russia in 2007.

According to Jürgen Roth, German chancellor at that time Gerhard Schröder (soon after stepping down as chancellor, Schröder joined Gazprom and Rosneft) was personnally involved in making pressure on the prosecution to stop the case (see the book “Gangsters aus dem Osten” by Jürgen Roth, 2004).

 

 

Iskander Makhmudov and Gennady Petrov’s conversation, Tambovskaya case

A phone conversation between Gennady Petrov, defendant in the Troika case of Tambovskaya gang, and Iskander Makhmudov, which took place on September, 21, 2007, at 17:36. Makhmudov promises to Petrov to “do everything right now” in response to a previous Petrov’s request.

From the Troika case, examined at Madrid’s court, 2018.

See also, the 2019’s conviction for tax evasion of the defendant Yuri Salikov, since he concealed and did not pay taxes on several million euros, arrived at the account of the Spanish company that he co-owned with Petrov.

According to the Spanish Prosecution, Yuri Salikov, calling Makhmudov “The Chinese” in his own conversations with Petrov, from pretrial detention, expected that Makhmudov pays a deposit to allow Salikov to be released.

Makhmudov is one of the richest Russia’s oligarchs denying any wronging, one of the leaders of the Russian government’s procurements together with Andrey Bokarev. Makhmudov is one of the key figures in the investigations against Izmaylovskaya gang in Germany (2010), Spain (2009-2016), the announced French Senate’s probe (in connection to the so-called Benalla case)-2019, a RICO complaint in the USA, a complaint by a kazakh entrepreneur against Makhmudov (abduction).

Archived Interpol’s warrant on Mikhail Cherny, Izmaylovskaya gang

Accessed in 2014. The arrest warrant issued by Spanish Interior was valid from 2009 till 2016 under this URL. Charges mentioned: criminal organization, money laundering. See also confirmation from Russian Prosecutor General’s office that they investigate a criminal case based on Spanish Prosecutor’s Office material since 2011. See Spanish Prosecutor’s office protest against inaction of the Russian Prosecution (2014).

In the beginning of the 90ths brothers Mikhail and Lev Cherny (Chernoy) also cooperated with Solntsevskaya and Taiwanchik (see the 2009 report by the Italian prosecutor Luigi de Ficchi , p. 12, for more details; For background, see a RICO complaint against Izmaylovskaya and its USA’s enablers.

 

 

 

Gaydmak vs Leviev (Levaev) dispute in UK over diamonds business in Africa

gaydamak vs leviev UK

The case, brought by Arkady Gaydamak against Lev Leviev (Levaev) in London in 2012, over disputed unpaid commissions and dividends from diamonds business in Angola. Involves testimony on the roles of the US-Russian rabbi Berl Lazar and an Angolan general. Gaydamak lost the suite.

Gaydamak is convicted in the so called French “Angolagate affair” of arms  sales and money laundering between France and Angola during the civil war in Angola (1975-2002).  The amount of these sales is estimated at some $ 790 million.

The first instance sentence for the “Angolagate affair” was handed down on October 27, 2009 in Paris.  Gaydamak, alias Bar Lev ARYE (his Israeli ID) and Falcone were found guilty of illegal arms deals, tax fraud, money laundering, embezzlement and others, sentenced to six years in prison and fines. Gaydamak was sentenced in absentia.

The Paris Court of Appeal’s decision was given on April 29, 2011. Gaydamak’s sentence was reduced to three years of prison and €375,000 fine for tax evasion and  laundering of money of “serious criminal origin” (p.73 of the document). The appeal decision confirmed the international arrest warrant for Gaydamak (ibid). The appeal court cleared the majority of defendants, including Gaydamak, for proper arms trafficking, accepting their claims that they acted on behalf of Angola’s government.

In 2013 a group of Angolan citizens submitted a complaint to Swiss prosecutors against Gaydamak, his partner Russian senator Vitaly Malkin and others, pretending they helped to embezzle Angolan State debt to Russia to Swiss accounts.

In 2018 brother and son of Leviev were reportedly arrested in Israel in the case of diamonds smuggling.  (See also mentions of Levaev in a Gennady Petrov’s conversation from Tambovskaya gang case and an Austrian Prosecution’s document on Leviev’s link to Mikhail Chernoy from Izmaylovskaya gang).

Taiwanchik (Alimzhan Toktakhunov) claimed in an interview that Gaydamak was his friend. Gaydamak resides in Moscow.

In 1972, Gaydamak emigrated to Israel and than to France from USSR on the so-called Jewish exit visa. See more on this type of emigration and suspicion of cooperation with KGB of the new immigrants also involved in organized crime, raised by Swiss Intelligence (2007) and an FBI report (90ths).

Swiss prosecutor Bertossa on Pavel Borodin’s sentence in money laundering’s “Kremlingate”

From the book by Bernard Bertossa and Agathe Duparc. Paris, Fayard, 2009

Bertossa on Borodin Mabetex

The case of embezzlement and laundering of up to 15 million $ on the Kremlin’s buildings restauration, also known as Kremlingate, during president Eltsin’s administration.

Russian authorities dropped the file, transmitted by Switzerland, saying that they received “only copies of the documents which are not proofs”. In Switzerland Russian official (the Head of the Presidential Property Management Department) Pavel Borodin was found guilty and sentenced to a fine in 2002.

Geneva’s Prosecutor Bernard Bertossa:

“In this case, we had all the evidence against Pavel Borodin: receipts, contracts, bank accounts. After that, those who wanted to cover up the scandal took over the case in Russia, we received a visit to Geneva from the Russian prosecutor and judge responsible for the investigation. We showed our file to them. I remember the prosecutor, a huge guy in the old apparatchik style, who never smiled. Both didn’t want to hear or understand anything, it was a dialogue of the deaf. They were in absolute bad faith. I imagine they came to Switzerland to find out what we knew, and maybe better prepare for the absolution of Borodin. In any case, we quickly understood that their attitude was exclusively dictated by political motives unrelated to the implementation of the law. Shortly after this interview, we learned that the file open in Moscow was closed. One of the reasons given was that the documents we had forwarded were not originals and therefore could not be considered as evidence. It was filthy hypocrisy!
But, after all, we didn’t need the Russians to go through the proceedings. In 2000, Geneva’s judge Daniel Devaud decided to indict Pavel Borodin and issued an international arrest warrant against him. <>
In 2002 Borodine and two Swiss financial intermediaries, who had helped him to wire transfer the amounts obtained due to  his corruption, were however found guilty of money laundering and sentenced to fines of 400,000 francs.  They did not appeal. As in many other cases, this case had some side effects. Our file was sent to the Swiss tax authorities and one of the companies that participates in the corruption of Borodin was ordered to reimburse ca. 10 million francs to settle taxes fraud…”