"Abramovich personally led by the hand through the offices"

Several sources of the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel and Rucriminal.info reported that Russia has stopped fighting money laundering, no major criminal cases are being opened, and one-off events on crypto exchanges are associated exclusively with the redistribution of spheres of influence and do not develop into large-scale investigations. This is due to the need to bypass sanctions, which all these shadow financial channels do quite well. "All channels work without problems, but there is no queue of people wanting to connect. Firstly, due to the lack of obstacles from the security forces, the prices on the market are minimal. Secondly, everyone understands perfectly well that sooner or later sanctions against the financial market will be lifted and small and medium-sized players will immediately come and remember everything. There will definitely be no gratitude," the VChK-OGPU source noted. However, there are two players in the money laundering market that stand out from the rest due to the huge scale of their activities, the number of clients from government agencies and state-owned companies, and their direct affiliation with the special services. Our interlocutors note that in the cryptocurrency market, this is the Moldovan businessman Ilan Shor, whose move to Russia and unhindered activity under the control of the special services was personally negotiated by Roman Abramovich. “Abramovich brought him to Russia by the hand and led him through the necessary offices,” the interlocutor said.

Abramovich continues to patronize Shor. Shor's crypto exchange Grinex is now the main player in the market for money laundering and financial flows outside the Russian Federation. And it has the status of "untouchable." It was to Grinex that all the top clients of another laundering crypto exchange Garantex moved after the searches, and the sources themselves associate the searches in Garantex with the redistribution of the market in favor of Shor's Grinex. The second largest player in the money laundering market, according to VChK-OGPU sources, is the owner of Slavia Bank, Asad Mehdiyev, who is closely connected with a number of officials and representatives of the Russian FSB. His channel is engaged in transferring funds not in crypto, but with the help of banking structures in neighboring countries.

Thanks to international connections, Mehdiyev provided his bank with correspondent relations with a number of financial institutions in the Arab world, Azerbaijan, Turkey, whose instruments are used, among others, by affiliates of Rosneft and other major Russian companies. The various instruments of Slavia Bank are used as criminal schemes for illegal financial transactions and the mass withdrawal of funds abroad, as well as to ensure contraband flows into the Russian Federation. In addition, Mehdiyev and his structures actively sell these instruments on the Russian market to anyone who wants to somehow bypass American and European sanctions, without getting into the development of the FSB SEB. According to sources, Mekhdiyev and his management structure are in constant contact with Ivan Tkachev, Head of Department K of the FSB of the Russian Federation. Mekhdiyev's business is entirely under the protection of Department "K". Mekhdiyev's smuggling cases are supervised by the 7th Department "K", which oversees the Federal Customs Service. The 2nd Department "K" supervises the work of the Slavia bank and provides cover from various inspections of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. Ivan Tkachev and a high-ranking employee of Department "K" Pokrovsky also personally supervise all of Mekhdiyev's decision-making cases through the Federal Tax Service. Mekhdiyev also acts as the main decision-maker for the head of the Federal Tax Service of Russia Daniil Egorov. At one time, Egorov introduced Mekhdiyev's management to his deputy Yulia Shepeleva, who supervises the largest taxpayers in the country, and to the heads of various Interregional Inspectorates. Today, Mekhdiyev's structures are in fact some of the largest in the market of all-Russian tax decision-making, smuggling, and illegal cash-in-and-envelope operations. Many of the largest construction companies in Moscow (including Donstroy and its affiliated legal entities) and other regions are on a monthly subscription to Mehdiyev for tax services. Then bribes are paid to the Interregional Inspectorate No. 4 and its subordinate inspectorates, as well as on a permanent basis to the Federal Tax Service of Moscow and the Moscow Region with its territorial inspectorates. The following high-ranking officials of the Federal Tax Service are also involved in large-scale corruption with Mehdiyev's structures: Elena Suvorova, Irina Aleksandrova, Ruslan Shishulin, Olga Ivanova, Filipp Yarovoy, Ivan Shulga, Andrey Savchenko and Alexey Zhitlov. The above officials, in conjunction with the Federal Security Service of the FSB, systematically serve the colossal client flow of Mehdiyev and his structures for criminal minimization of the taxable base in the country's budget in exchange for bribes. According to Mehdiyev himself, the thief in law Shakro Molodoy owes him a lot, part of whose capital (amounts of more than 15 million US dollars) he was able to keep in his bank "Slavia" during the difficult period in the life of the criminal general. In addition, Mehdiyev actively uses for various criminal x actions of the criminal resource of such associates of Shakro as Alexander Zakharov and Martin Babakekhyan, who after serving their sentence for the murder of the governor of the Magadan region Valentin Tsvetkov became regular guests of the main office of the bank "Slavia", located at the address: Moscow, Kedrova st., building 5 "A".

Timofey Grishin

To be continued