Category: Cases Дела

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…”

Уголовное дело об убийстве политика Бориса Немцова. Экспертиза

murder nemtsov case expertise

Листы дела 114-130. Выводы экспертизы (листы дела 128 и 130):

– выстрелы производились отличными друг от друга по своим характеристикам припасами
– выстрелы производились из различного оружия.

Paul Manafort to help bringing down Spanish anti-corruption prosecutors in Andorra money laundering case

In 2017 Paul Manafort had a meeting with three Spanish nationals wanting to “bring down prosecutor Grinda” and his colleagues. One of the interlocutors was now imprisonned police’s officer José Villarejo, two others – businessmen from Andorra’s private bank investigated for money laundering since 2012 (among them – of Russian clients).

Literal transcription (Spanish):

Alberto Padrazo (Andorra’s private bank): No hay que moverse, tienen que irse de España [los hermanos Cierco]. Y se tienen que ir porque esto es todo un puta encerrona… Que el Gobierno andorrano no te quita a Grinda, eso solo viene de una parte, eso solo viene de una parte: de Paul Manafort [que en el que se han reunido el día anterior en Nueva York] y si no el famoso juicio 81, que es una macrocausa, que les vamos a sentar a todos en el banquillo y van a intentar… y el Gobierno de Andorra cuando vea que estos tíos tienen el apoyo de España y de Estados Unidos [Por Mariano Rajoy y Donald Trump] no van a tener cojones de hacer nada… Intento no precipitarme, yo que llevo trabajando un año en este tema (ininteligible) y le digo: “Mira, Javier, siempre es lo mismo… ‘Es que tengo papeles de no sé qué, de los Pujol’, nosotros no tenemos nada, darnos todo”.

English translation: “The Andorran government does not take away Grinda [prosecutor called “Spain’s Robert Mueller”] from our  path, that can only come  from one part, that only comes from one part: from Paul Manafort … and if not, the famous trial 81, which is a macrocause, that we will all sit on the bench and they will try … and the Government of Andorra when it sees that these buddies have the support of Spain [at the level above prosecutors] and the United States they are not going to have anything to do … I try not to rush, I have been working on this subject for a year  and the Government of Andorra…”

Alberto Pedraza, one of the interlocutors explained about Manafort: “I am a businessman who is looking for business. I was invited to a trip to meet Paul Manafort and I went, but I have nothing to do with what Villarejo and De la Joya will get in their hands. Besides, what is told in a conversation like this and what happens next in real life makes a lot of difference. “

The same conspirators also discuss plans to accuse Grinda and other two anti-corruption prosecutors of paedophilia in another tapes. This happened in real life (accusations emerged and continue circulate in “alternative media” in Spain). The investigations are ongoing amid suspicions that Russian mobsters and an oligarch backed it.
Source.

Accusation act in the criminal case number 534530 from 1994 in Sant-Petersburg against the Tambov-Malyshev gang – Petrov, Malyshev, Kuzmin

petrov malyshev accusation 1994

Accusation act in the criminal case number 534530 from 1994 in Sant-Petersburg against the Tambov-Malyshev gang of creating organized crime community , extortion, gathering slush funds and their laundering in Europe. Main defendants: Gennady Petrov, Sergey Kuzmin, Alexander Malyshev. Cash, arms, including pistols and an arbalest to shot on “alive victims” were seized by the investigators in different locations. Cash in plastic bags was seized  at Petrodin’s company.

The arrested as a member of the gang Valery Ob’edkov was a policeman and used government-issued weapon during raid attacks, according to this accusation act.

See also cover page of this 22 volumes case with full list of defendants and criminal code’s articles.

In 1995, it led to almost full acquittal in trial  amid testimonies of corruption of the court. In the court, victims of extortion said they were wrong identifying their kidnappers. The Spanish court in 2018 trusted to this Sankt-Petersburg aquittal of 1995 and the more recent FSB reports, including of its Sankt-Petersburg branch, presented by the defence. Gennadi Petrov, failed to show at the Sanish court himself, was called honest businessman with revenues from Petrodin company and the Bank Rossiya in the sentence. For more details see Spanish Troika case’s sentence (aquittal).

Russian mafia case in Spain: conviction for tax evasion of the defendant Salikov

sentence-salikov_recognized

Yuri Salikov was acquitted in the Russian mafia case (Troika case) in 2018 in Spain, on charges of money laundering of the Tambov gang funds, like all the other defendants. While the sentence recognized the suspicious transactions as “anti economic”, the difficulty was to prove the predicate offence when Russian authorities gave contradictory reports to Spain on the Tambov / gang, amid suspicion of strong ties of the main defendants with the Russian law enforcers and government.  See also accusation of 1994 in Sant-Petersburg against the Tambov-Malyshev gang of creating organized crime community , extortion, gathering slush funds and their laundering in Europe. It also led to almost full acquittal in trial  amid testimonies of corruption of the court. Victims of extortion said they were wrong identifying their kidnappers in the court. The Spanish court in 2018 trusted to this Sankt-Petersburg aquittal of 1995 and the more recent FSB reports, including of its Sankt-Petersburg branch, presented by the defence.

By the present sentence, from 4 April 2019, Yuri Salikov was convicted by the Spanish court Audiencia Nacional for  tax evasion (for the same transactions earlier incriminated in money laundering case).

Salikov was co-owner and than took over the Spanish company Sunstar SL from Gennadios (Gennadi) Petrov which is fleeing the Spanish justice, one can read in the sentence. In 2002-2003 Yuri Salikov increased the capital of the company by more than 2 Mln of euros, simulating three loans, which were factitious, considered the court. The company invested funds of unknown origin to invest in real estate (p. 5). Doing so, “Yuri Salikov omitted to declare the income, recieved in the 2002 financial year, of 2 283 830 euros, failing to pay a fee to public finances which should be 938 235 euros” (p. 6).

The court condemned Yuri Salikov (Jurij Mihajlovich SALIKOV) as the author responsible for a crime against the Public Treasury, defining a  penalty of one year and three months in prison and a fine of 469 117 euros, with subsidiary personal responsibility of six months in case of default.
The convicted person must also indemnify the Public Treasury as civil liability in the amount of EUR 938,235 plus legal interest.

As it is clear from the sentence, Salikov and his wife, participating in the business of her husband and Gennadios Petrov, both have German citizenship.

Yuri Salikov is considered by the Spanish investigation to be close to bank Rossiya long time major shareholder Gennadios Petrov and Iskander Makhmudov (accused of belonging to Izmaylovo gang) who allegedly paid a pledge for Salikov in 2008. See taped conversations summary of the Troika case for details.

Avaaz Complaint against Bayrock B.V. / Bayrock Group LLC

AvaazComplaint (5)

 

Report on criminal offences filed by the Prakken D’Oliveira, a human rights lawyers firm, on behalf of the international human rights NGO Avaaz.

Avaaz suspects a number of legal and natural entities in gross violations in Kazakhstan, such as laundering of substantial amount of money that was embezzled in Kazakhstan. There are indications that through a number of entities, such as Bayrock Group LLC, Tevfik Arif and Leila Khrapunov, at least USD 1,480,000 were laundered in the Netherlands.

 

St Petersburg press article, 1993: the detained one metric ton of cocaine will be recycled for medical purposes

невское время

Nevskoye Vremya’s press article from February 25, 1993, St Petersburg, titled: “we will be treated by cocaine”.

On February 21, 1993, St. Petersburg’s  Department of the Ministry of Security of the Russian Federation (known as UMBR, the predecessor to FSB) announced that it intercepted «an attempted ton of cocaine into Russia» at the Vyborg border crossing. Four days later, the head of UMBR Viktor Cherkesov said that the cargo had arrived from Columbia on a ship, and had passed Finnish customs unnoticed disguised as “cans of Colombian stew”, but that Russian customs officers noticed that some cans did not have markings, and upon opening one found cocaine inside. «The seized cocaine became the property of the state and will be used for medical purposes,» said Cherkesov, quoted by the newspaper «Nevskoe Vremya» in the article «We shall now be treated with cocaine» published on February 25, 1993. Cherkesov said that as of 1993 in St. Petersburg there were not enough cocaine reserves for medicinal purposes and these needed to be replenished. At that time such explanations did not cause a public uproar.

In his interview Cherkesov chose not to name the company, which was the intended recipient of the cocaine in St. Petersburg (as the shipment was planned to be repackaged for further re-export to Western Europe. «The company’s name is kept undisclosed as the investigation is ongoing.», he said. He also withheld the name of the single detained suspect, whom he described as «citizen of Israel, and former citizen of the USSR».

Later, the Belgian newspaper Le Soir published its own investigation, according to which the seemingly valiant operation of St. Petersburg’s security services was in fact a breach of an ongoing Interpol-coordinated international operation under the code name «Acapulco», which had been in the works for three years, and began with a wiretap by Colombian police.

“”moved from Bogota to Göteborg, and then, from Gothenburg to Kotka (Finland), the container was finally intercepted by the Russians, contrary to all logic and jointly coordinated plans – at the Vyborg border crossing.”

According to Alain Lallemand – the investigation’s author (who would later go on to write a book on this case), the organizer of this delivery was a certain Oscar Donat, who was subsequently arrested in Israel. In the early 90’s Donat was the owner and operator of the giant St. Petersburg customs-clearance terminal «Eurodonat Terminals».

According to The Insider, Sergei Adoniev, convicted for scam in the US in 1998, was suspected by FBI of involvement in the case original cocaine smuggling case. The whole operation appeared to be supervised with Soviet émigrés in the US. See Swiss analytical report in the TBCA, in particular, on FSB and crime connection of Soviet emigration to the US. And FBI’s report (excerpts) on “Organizatsiya”.

Billionaire Sergey Adoniev’s plea in the US, 1998 (scam)

adoniev_plea

 

Sergey Chemezov’s partner, co-founder of Yota-Phone. Sergey Adonyev (Sergei or Serguei Adoniev) was charged of conspiracy to commit a crime accusation in the US and pleaded guilty. See more:  Citizen cocaine. What connects billionaire Sergei Adonyev, cocaine smuggling and Putin (The Insider).