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EXCLUSIVE: Kremlin’s sanctioned crypto payment network has Budapest link
LONDON–A multi-billion-dollar, supposedly “sanctions-proof” international payment system backed by the Kremlin and sanctioned by the West, has been associated with a business in downtown Budapest – staffed by a Latvian go-karting enthusiast – since December 2024. Leaked documents corroborated by reporter.london with open-source reporting suggest there is a risk that Hungarian company MiddleAsiaTrade House kft,…
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Fugitive Moldovan tycoon recruits top Russian bankers to run sanctions-busting crypto firm: leak
CITY OF LONDON–Senior executives from Russia’s mainstream banking sector have joined an avowedly sanctions-proof crypto and payments firm at the heart of the Kremlin’s strategy to disrupt the West, leaked documents show. The documents reveal, in granular detail, the emerging sanctions evasion tactics and election interference campaigns run by fugitive Moldovan businessman Ilan Shor, who…
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Arm’s-length: Uzbek tycoon with links to Putin pal and sanctioned Russian bank grabs strategic assets in Europe
LONDON–Eriell Group is the top oil and gas services company in Uzbekistan, but until recently, its corporate headquarters was in Jersey. The firm’s chairman continues to do multi-million euro deals in Europe despite Eriell’s close ties to sanctioned Gazprombank and, allegedly, Gennady Timchenko, a sanctioned oligarch and personal friend of Vladimir Putin. The Eriell parent…
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Reportercast October 2023 in Kyiv with Andrii Mikheiev: on asset confiscations and international law
A podcast episode recorded in Kyiv on October 17 on the sidelines of a conference on the human rights abuses in Ukraine and Syria, organised by SUN (The Syria Ukraine Network), an NGO based in the US. Andrii Mikheiev is an international law expert with the International Center for Ukrainian Victory, a Kyiv-based NGO. He…
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Reportercast July 2023 with Valeriya Melnichuk, strategic advisor for Ukraine
Valeriya Melnichuk is a former BBC Monitoring journalist who has worked in the public relations department at the Ukrainian finance ministry during the intense period of the nationalization of PrivatBank and liquidation of numerous other smaller lenders which had been fraudulent or corrupt. Her boss at the time was finance minister Oleksandr Danylyuk, who Reportercast…
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Reportercast June 2023: with ex-Israeli military intelligence officer Yair Samban on terrorism financing
In this special one-year anniversary edition of our website and podcast, we dive deep into terrorism financing with field expert Yair Samban, who is currently a specialist consultant at Pegasystems, an IT company, and a former officer with Israeli military intelligence, tasked with analysing money flows to detect potential terrorists. Samban also wrote a book…
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Reporter and AML Intelligence reveal glaring loophole in the UK sanctions regime
LONDON–AML Intelligence, a new and fast-expanding news provider for money laundering compliance professionals, has published an exclusive article in collaboration with Reporter, outlining the concerns experts in London and internationally have about the British government’s approach to sanctions enforcement. The main issue is around the discretion British regulators give themselves in placing sanctions on companies…
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White shoe lawyers Dechert dump Russia-linked Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor after US sanctions
CHIȘINĂU–Kremlin-friendly oligarchs are becoming too toxic for UK and US lawyers to work for in the wake of global sanctions amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The controversial Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor has been linked by the US government with Russia’s security service, the FSB, as well as large-scale economic crime – but his now ex-law…