LONDON – Financial monitors at one of New York’s most famous banks have been watching as hundreds of millions of dollars move through offshore accounts. Banking transactions – a dozen in all, totaling more than $ 700 million – have raised suspicions among Bank of New York Mellon officials who have issued a series of alerts to the Treasury Department. But officials seemed to be completely unaware of who was behind the transactions, according to copies of reports submitted. Even their attempts to locate the companies named in the bank transfers were, in some cases, spectacularly wrong, with a report mistakenly linking a $ 100 million payment to a British merchant who “specializes in selling fruit and vegetables”. In fact, the changing capital was part of a vast offshore empire associated with Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov. His connection to these transactions almost a decade ago is only visible now because of details in secret financial archives obtained by the International Association of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and leaked to the Washington Post. Kerimov is one of Russia’s richest men, a political ally of President Vladimir Putin and a member of the upper house of the Russian parliament. representing his homeland Dagestan. It was first sanctioned by the United States in 2018. Britain and the European Union followed suit last month as part of a global crackdown in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, the open holes in these bank accounts – which are now in a database maintained by the Ministry of Finance – underscore how difficult it will be to locate, let alone freeze, assets linked to Kerimov and other Russian elites who have been transferred to offshore accounts over the past decade. U.S. officials describe penetration of shell companies and proxies which hide the involvement of many oligarchs as one of the most difficult to execute aspects of the economic offensive against Russia. “Russia’s elites and oligarchs are probably among the best in the world at hiding their wealth,” said a senior Finance Ministry official who was in charge of the sanctions policy. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the issue. Luxury yachts, luxury homes and private jets are relatively easy to pursue because they are “in plain sight,” the official said. “What will be more difficult are the places where people have set up companies – first to hide their assets.” A spokesman for Bank of New York Mellon, who has since been renamed BNY Mellon, said the company was “taking its role seriously in protecting the integrity of the global financial system”, but declined to answer questions about the reports submitted by company, including whether he made any subsequent deposits linking Kerimov. Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov is a political ally of President Vladimir Putin and a member of the upper house of the Russian parliament. (Mikhail Svetlov / Getty Images) Kerimov is among more than 4,000 Russians whose names have appeared in huge cases from secret offshore financial records obtained by the ICIJ in recent years. Among them is a collection of more than 11.9 million documents, known as Pandora Papers, which formed the basis of a series of surveys published by The Post and international contributors last year. Russians are numerically superior to other nationalities in the lists of people who have turned to law firms and financial advisers serving the world’s elites seeking to protect their assets in Panama, the Cayman Islands and other tax havens. Details in this article are taken from these fields as well as an information reporting crypt maintained by the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a Treasury unit that is the main reporting area that banks must file by law for the identification of suspicious transactions. The FinCEN Files, as this collection is known, were obtained from BuzzFeed News and shared with the ICIJ. The story goes on under the ad The story goes on under the ad

Taking advantage of the gaps

The archives provide an excellent insight into the tactics used by the oligarchs to hide or otherwise protect their wealth in an economic arms race that has intensified since Russia invaded Ukraine. The United States has imposed sanctions on more than 500 Russians over the past six weeks and has stepped in to strengthen its ability to enforce such measures. The Biden government has requested millions of dollars in new federal funding for forensic teams at the Treasury Department, set up a KleptoCapture unit at the Department of Justice, and formed an international working group with allies to exchange financial information. The name of the special group, REPO, is an abbreviation of its quarry: Russian elites, proxies and oligarchs. But despite unprecedented cooperation between Western governments, there are still differences in the sanctions lists adopted by the United States and its allies, as well as gaps exploited by oligarchs. [How U.S. sanctions take a hidden toll on Russian oligarchs] Such vulnerabilities were revealed last month when Alexei Mordashov, who was recently ranked by Forbes magazine as Russia’s richest man, sold most of his shares in one of Europe’s largest travel groups, the company said in a statement. shell company in the British Virgin Islands, possibly shielding $ 1.4 billion from European sanctions. Mordashev, 56, is the largest shareholder in Severstal, a heterogeneous steel and mining group that has advertised the use of its high-strength materials in Russian armored vehicles. European sanctions authorities have also cited shares in a Russian bank that has enriched Putin’s allies, as well as in media companies accused of spreading anti-Ukrainian propaganda. His 213-foot yacht, the Lady M, was recently confiscated by Italian police imposing European sanctions. But Mordashev may have succeeded in moving assets beyond the reach of European authorities. According to TUI, Mordasov’s sale of almost 30% of the German travel company TUI Group’s stake was revealed after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but before being hit by European sanctions. Alexei Mordasov, who was recently named the richest man in Russia, is under European sanctions, but may have managed to move some assets beyond the capacity of the authorities.
(Mikhail Svetlov / Getty Images) Russian President Vladimir Putin talks with Mordashev while visiting a college in Cherepovets, Russia in February 2020.
(Mikhail Svetlov / Getty Images) An Italian police car is parked in front of Lady M on 5 March. Mordashov’s 213-foot yacht was recently seized as part of European sanctions.
(Andrea Bernardi / AFP / Getty Images) TUI initially said it did not know who owned or controlled the shell company, Ondero Ltd., which suddenly became one of its major shareholders. Only after Mordasov received a list of detailed questions from ICIJ reporters – citing details revealed about Odero in the Pandora Papers – was the mysterious buyer identified. The next day, TUI said it had been “informed” that Ondero belonged to Marina Mordashova, who is described in media reports as the oligarch’s wife. Experts said the deal was likely to succeed, at least for the time being, in mitigating the impact of European sanctions. Unlike the most recent sanctions imposed by the United States, European measures generally do not include provisions to cover relatives of the main target. The story goes on under the ad The story goes on under the ad Mordasov has not been sanctioned by the United States so far. His name did not appear in a publicly published list of “priority” sanctions targets that the Treasury Department recently distributed to allies. Former officials and experts, however, said that he is probably in the sights of the US government. “We have also privately shared a list with [additional] “names we want to follow,” said a senior Treasury official when asked about Mordasov and other oligarchs who have not yet been sanctioned by the United States. The official declined to give further details. In a written statement, Mordashev did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but described the Russian-led invasion of Ukraine as “a tragedy for two brotherly nations.” He added: “I have absolutely nothing to do with the current geopolitical tension and I do not understand why the EU has imposed sanctions on me.” [Secret money, swanky real estate and a Monte Carlo mystery]

Suspicious relations with the Kremlin

Two years ago, it was Kerimov who was listed by Forbes as the richest man in Russia, pushed into this position by the rise in gold prices that raised the value of 76 percent of his family in Russia’s largest gold mining company , PJSC Polyus. His fortune has fallen since then, but still stands at around $ 13 billion, according to Forbes. On Wednesday, Polyus revealed that its largest shareholder, Kerimov’s son Said, had sold 30% of the company’s shares. The move reduced the Kerimovs’ stake in Polyus to less than 50%, possibly protecting the company from sanctions. Kerimov, 56, is a lonely figure who rarely gives interviews, but is known for ostentation. As his fortune increased, he regularly organized lavish parties that reportedly included performances by Shakira and Beyoncé. In 2006, it was severely burned after a $ 650,000 Ferrari crashed into a tree on an avenue along the Mediterranean coast of France. As a trained economist, he made his initial fortune by acquiring early shares in Russian companies, including Sberbank and Gazprom, which became dominant forces in the banking sector and in fossil fuels. He did it with …