As reported by VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info, the Zurich prosecutor's office, together with the US DEA, Europol, and the Nigerian police, conducted one of the largest operations yet to disrupt money laundering from Russia and the Nigerian drug mafia. Billionaire and Nigeria's largest drug lord, Amadi Simon, was taken into custody, as was Sergey Salpanov, a former board member of Anelik RU Bank. According to our information, Roman Trushev, the former owner of the Nikolaev Oil Refinery, was also detained as part of the investigation. The money laundering was carried out through the Swiss Remit payment system, which is linked to banker German Gorbuntsov. The Swiss Remit website has now been confiscated by the Zurich prosecutor's office.

According to the prosecutor's office, the perpetrators created a system through which tens of millions of dollars were laundered over several years. This included money from Russia, as well as proceeds from fraud and drug trafficking. A complex transfer system, involving cryptocurrency and fictitious documents, was used to launder the funds. The prosecutor's office has not released the names of those arrested in the case.

 

However, our project has learned of them. Sergei Salpanov, a Russian citizen with Hungarian and Romanian passports (the latter turned out to be fake), was arrested as part of the investigation. In Russia, he was a board member of Anelik.ru Bank (a payment system), which was sanctioned by Ukraine in 2016 and liquidated in 2019. According to our sources, Roman Trushchev, the former owner of the Nikolaev Oil Refinery and the Petroneft holding company, was detained as part of the operation. He is wanted by Russia in connection with the contamination of the Druzhba oil pipeline. According to a source, Trushchev maintained close relationships with the owners of Swiss Remit and was expected to become a co-owner of the payment system at the time of the police operation. Trushev was later released.

 

Nigerian billionaire Amadi Simon was also arrested. In his home country, he is known as the country's largest drug lord. Zurich prosecutors believe that Swiss Remit was used, among other things, to launder funds from Simon's drug dealing business.

 

Swiss Remit was previously linked to banker German Gorbuntsov.