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Date Published: 15/12/2022
ARCHIVED - WATCH: Spain takes down 25-million-euro Russian money laundering gang
Police uncovered a vast network that bought luxury villas in Spain for corrupt senior Russian officials
The Spanish Police and Europol have this week dealt another massive blow to the inner sanctum of the Kremlin by dismantling a cartel that reportedly bought 75 luxury properties in Spain worth 25 million euros on behalf of Russian citizens and companies.
According to an official report, the plot allowed “senior officials” of Putin’s government launder cash from the so-called Magnitsky case.
Sergei Leonidovich Magnitsky died on November 16 2009 after a horrific beating while incarcerated for almost a year in the Butyrka prison in Moscow. The lawyer was locked up by the dictator after uncovering fraud and corruption within the Russian government and making the issues public.
The operation is still very much open but for the moment the Spanish police have only arrested one woman in Tenerife after searching four different properties. With Magnitsky having indicated that more than 230 million euros has been defrauded altogether, the trail is currently being closely followed across 12 countries.
🚩Agentes de la @policia, en colaboración con @Europol
— Policía Nacional (@policia) December 14, 2022
han embargado inmuebles por valor de 25 millones de #euros 💵
👉Están relacionados con un caso de #corrupción cometido en ðŸ“#Rusia en el que se defraudaron más de 230 millones de dólares#CasoMagnitsky#SomosTuPolicía pic.twitter.com/qb4Huuw1QO
“This is the first operational exploitation in Spain of the so-called Magnitsky case, a fraud that began with the theft of documentation from companies related to a Russian investment fund with which the corrupt officials fraudulently claimed a million-dollar return from the Russian Public Treasury,” the statement read.
“The investigation carried out in Spain has detected a network of natural persons (the majority are Russian citizens with hardly any ties to our country) and legal entities, who would have received part of these fraudulent funds for the acquisition of real estate,” the National Police explained, adding that more than 40 official reports prove that even more Russians have purchased luxury property with funds from this plot.
Image: Policia Nacional
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