“Important stories”: Putin’s adviser Yumashev and cellist Roldugin participated in offshore transactions with a turnover of millions of dollars

Officials and businessmen close to President Vladimir Putin participated in offshore transactions with a turnover of millions of dollars. This was reported by Important Stories, citing data from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ( ) .

According to the publication, in October 2010, the company Sandalwood Continental , which is associated with cellist Sergei Roldugin, received $830 thousand from the Cypriot Dulston Ventures . As “Important Stories” write, the basis of the payment states that the money is a payment for the extension of the loan agreement. However, the Cypriot company is not mentioned in “”.

Dulston Ventures is on the list of affiliates of several Russian companies included in the Severgroup of entrepreneur Alexey Mordashov, the publication adds.

In addition, according to FinCEN , Putin adviser Valentin Yumashev received $6 million from Epion Holdings Limited , a company registered in the British Virgin Islands. The company belongs to Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, the publication notes. According to reports, the money was transferred under a “services” agreement from 2006 to 2008. It is unknown what services Yumashev provided to Usmanov.

The presidential press service was unable to answer questions from “Important Stories,” and the official and billionaire themselves also did not answer reporters.

According to the publication, FinCEN documents show that the state company Rosoboronexport (part of the Rostec state corporation), which exports military equipment, transferred $271 thousand from December 2011 to January 2012 to the company Trimaga Rekatama , owned by Indonesian businessman Yang Uzin Tjong. Tjong's company, writes "Important Stories", was an intermediary for the supply of spare parts and aircraft engines to Indonesia.

Rosoboronexport made transactions through the International Financial Club bank, owned by businessman Mikhail Prokhorov. The co-owners of the bank are the wife of Rostec CEO Sergei Chemezov, Ekaterina Ignatova.

Rostec and Rosoboronexport did not answer questions from Important Stories. The International Financial Club assured that Tjong was never their client.

“Important Stories” found in FinCEN documents transfers of almost 400 thousand dollars from the Hong Kong company Ringo Trading Limited to Tatyana Teyf, the wife of the former deputy head of the state-owned Voentorg company.

In addition, in 2012, Teyf received almost $5.5 million from the St. Petersburg company Premier Group under an agreement for the transportation of unnamed goods, the publication adds. The founder of Premier Group is considered to be Sergei Magin, who was arrested in 2013 in the case of a ring . cash-cash

As Important Stories write, in 2015, Moscow Deputy Mayor Joseph Ordzhonikidze received more than a million dollars into his account under a “consulting agreement” from BEM Global Corp. The company belongs to a major developer Roman Fuchs, who, together with his brother Pavel, was put on the international wanted list in 2019 on charges of fraud during the construction of the Eurasia tower in Moscow City.

The BBC also gained documents access to FinCEN . According to them, billionaire Arkady Rotenberg opened at Barclays an account for the company Advantage Alliance Bank in London . As stated in the documents, from 2012 to 2016 the company withdrew more than 60 million pounds. Many transactions took place after the Rotenbergs came under US and UK sanctions, which were supposed to cut them off from the Western financial system, notes the BBC .

The US Treasury concluded that there are “strong grounds to believe” that the Advantage Alliance account belongs to Arkady Rotenberg, and that the company used it to buy millions of dollars of art for the billionaire.

For example, the ministry suggests that Rotenberg bought Rene Magritte's painting " La Poitrine " for $7.5 million in June 2014. Then a company associated with Arkady sent money from Moscow to an account at Barclays . The next day, the bank sent cash to the seller in New York. Two years later, Barclays began an internal investigation into several accounts that, according to the bank, were associated with Arkady.

After another six months , Barclays closed the Advantage Alliance account , "concerned that it was being used to transfer suspicious funds."

Updated at 10:50 p.m. information added BBC .