The Russian oligarchs of the FinCEN Files
The secret activities of Russian oligarchs, rich businesspeople with connections to the Kremlin, play a role in the so-called Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR) that form the basis of the FinCEN Files. These reports about suspicious financial dealings are submitted to US authorities by banks from various countries.
A large number of them were leaked to the US website
BuzzFeed News and evaluated for 16 months by the International Consortium of
Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). They provide insights into financial
transactions whose legality is in doubt, some connected with money laundering.
Here's an overview of some of the oligarchs mentioned in the SARs.
If there is one Russian oligarch who could possibly thumb
his nose at the sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union over the
annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, it's Arkady Rotenberg (top photo). This
68-year-old businessman, a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin,
was one of the first influential Russians to be placed on EU and US sanction
lists after the annexation in 2014.
A short while afterward, Rotenberg's construction company
was given a commission from the state worth billions: to build a bridge from
the Russian mainland to Crimea. His company carried out the project between
2016 and 2018.
Just at this time, the FinCEN Files suggest, Rotenberg
purchased art objects with the help of the British bank Barclays — despite the
sanctions. According to the BBC, millions of British pounds were involved; a
painting by the Belgian artist Rene Magritte was among the works allegedly
bought. A spokesman for the businessman denied the accusations to the Russian
media outlet RBC, calling them "baloney."
Rotenberg was also a client of Deutsche Bank. His business
dealings came under internal investigation in 2015, according to reports by the
German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung. The bank found no indications of money
laundering. But the FinCEN Files are said to show that there is an indirect
connection between Arkady Rotenberg, his brother Boris and so-called mirror
transactions, controversial operations in which shares are sold and bought
simultaneously at different locations. Arkady denied to the Süddeutsche Zeitung
that he had owned companies involved in such deals or that he had exfiltrated
money from Russia.
Rotenberg has a special status among Russia's oligarchs.
Arkady and his brother Boris have known Putin since their youth in Leningrad,
today's St. Petersburg. They were in the same judo club, and Arkady worked for
a long time as a sports trainer before he went into business after the collapse
of the USSR and became an entrepreneur. His business interests are
wide-ranging, from construction companies and banks to fertilizer
manufacturers.
In August 2020, the Russian edition of the finance magazine
Forbes declared the Rotenbergs to be the richest family in Russia, with an
estimated fortune of some $5.5 billion (€4.73 billion). That sum includes the
capital owned by the two brothers and that of Arkady's two children, Igor and
Lilia.
Ever since the revelations brought by the Panama Papers
investigation in 2016, it's been known that the cellist and conductor Sergei
Roldugin, a previously inconspicuous figure who is also a friend of Putin from
St. Petersburg, is behind a network of offshore companies worth millions. The
latest revelations show that in October 2010, a company associated with him
received some $830,000 from a Cypriot company that, in its turn, is said to
have connections with the businessman Alexei Mordashov.
With his steel and mechanical engineering companies, the
54-year-old Mordashov is one of the richest oligarchs, with Forbes placing him
in the upper section of its list of the 10 wealthiest Russians. The mainstay of
his business empire is Severstal, one of the biggest steel producers in the
country. He was financial director of one of Severstal's predecessor companies,
and bought up the state-owned business during the big privatization wave in the
1990s.
Mordashov, who speaks fluent German, is also active in
Germany. The billionaire owns 25% of the tourism giant TUI and sits on its
supervisory board.
Alisher Usmanov, 67, is also one of the 10 richest Russians,
according to Forbes. Usmanov, who originally comes from Uzbekistan, is involved
in almost all lucrative sectors of the Russian business world, including the
metal industry, banks and media. In the past few years, he has expanded his
influence on social media and bought up the biggest networks, including VK, the
Russian counterpart to Facebook.
Usmanov's name appears in the FinCEN Files in connection
with Putin's adviser, Valentin Yumashev. The latter was once the powerful head
of the Presidential Executive Office under Russia's first president, Boris
Yeltsin, is seen as someone who paved the way to the Kremlin for Putin. He told
DW in an interview that he had seen Putin, the former head of the FSB
intelligence agency, as a "very strong figure" in comparison with
other potential candidates to be Yeltsin's successor.
Since Putin was elected president in 2000, Yumashev has been
active in the background as a lobbyist and entrepreneur, in the real estate
business, among others. He is married to Yeltsin's daughter, Tatyana. According
to the FinCEN Files, Yumashev received $6 million from Usmanov between 2006 and
2008 for certain "services" that were not specified.
One of the best-known Russian oligarchs, and one of those
hardest-hit by sanctions, is Oleg Deripaska. The 52-year-old was once
considered the richest Russian, but lost his top position partly because of the
US sanctions imposed on his empire of companies, particularly his aluminum
factories, in April 2018. He built up his fortune in the 1990s through metal
trading and invested in the aluminum industry in Siberia, and is reputed to
have good connections to the Kremlin.
Deripaska is mentioned in two places in the FinCEN Files. In
one case, Deutsche Bank handled transactions worth $11 billion for companies
from his network between 2003 and 2017. In a SAR, Deutsche Bank alludes to an
US investigation of Deripaska in connection with a cash transfer of $57.5
million in 2007. The bank mentions allegations made by the US authorities with
regard to possible connections with organized crime. Deripaska has denied
having ever laundered money or committed other financial offenses.
In the other case, it was revealed that at least $3 billion
was transferred via a small Latvian bank in connection with Deripaska's
businesses between 2002 and 2016. The money is said to have been meant for
lobbyists in the US, private jets and property deals.
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