This is big. These guys have been untouchable. Col. Yair Klein is being held in Sierra Leone, Leonid Minin in Italy. Wonder if they are ratting everyone out. Alexander Angert, Semyon Yukovich Mogilevich and Arkadi Gaydamak might be involved. Anyone know if the names of all those arrested is available?
Now Oleg is on the run somewhere in Russia and Igor is in a French jail, suspected of running the biggest money-laundering operation in history. It spanned Europe, involving deals with the great Siberian railway, Chechen rebels, and a small company based in the Somerset town of Taunton.
Italian authorities suspect as much as $9 billion of Russian mafia money was laundered in six years by a network run by Igor and Oleg Berezovskii. The proceeds of drugs, arms and human trafficking were traced from Russia to New York and around six European countries, in a two-year operation headed by Rome's anti-mafia 'supercops'.
Last week 50 people were arrested in Operation Spiderweb and authorities are now piecing together a complicated paper trail, expecting more arrests to follow.
Investigators are also examining the role of a now defunct British company, Florida Trading, based in Taunton. Italian police say it received funds from one of the key laundering companies in New York, and passed them on to an Italian firm involved in the scam.
Anthony Shiffers, who said he was asked to incorporate Florida Trading and become its nominal director for an eastern European client in 1999, said: 'We have had no contact with our client for years and in the end just gave up. The client did not comply with our requests and neither settled our fees so we arranged for the company to be struck off.'
He declined to name his client, citing industry codes of confidentiality. There is no evidence Shiffers was involved in any impropriety, or that Florida Trading knowingly received the proceeds of criminal activities. Shiffers has referred the matter to the money-laundering officer of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales.
Police say the laundering scam started as early as 1996. Initially, the money was sent from two banks in Russia to accounts in the Bank of New York, registered to a company called Benex Worldwide. It was then sent on to accounts and companies in Europe, before being returned to Russia 'clean'. The director of Benex, a Russian called Peter Berlin, was arrested in 1998.
During a two-year investigation Italian police noticed that dozens of companies across Europe were transferring small amounts of money to each other in payment for work that never happened. The transfers happened every day, totalling billions of euros. The money was eventually sent back to a host of companies in Russia with links to the Ismolskaya and Soltsnevo crime families.
Investigators estimate as much as $9bn could have been laundered since 1996. 'This makes it the biggest scam of its kind,' said one investigator.
Last Monday Italian police co-ordinated an operation in seven different countries, which arrested and charged 50 people, half of whom were of Russian descent, with criminal association with the intent to launder money. Their assets have also been frozen.
Igor Berezovsky was on a quiet break in Rennes, Brittany, when the police smashed down his hotel-room door. His company, Kama Trade, had an exclusive address on the Champs Elysée in Paris. But investigators became suspicious when they learned that 10 companies were registered at the same office. One of them, Temirtrans, was allegedly involved in a large contract to help rebuild Russia's Siberian railway. Others were involved in cosmetics or clothing deals. In the seaside resort of Rimini, in Italy, a company called Prima SRL, owned by Oleg Berezovskii, arranged contracts with companies all over Europe. Investigators focused their activity on these companies.
Two Russian nationals were arrested in Monte Carlo two weeks ago. Their bank accounts, holding $8 million, were frozen. The Italians then began plotting Monday's mass arrests.
But Oleg Berezovskii slipped the net. He was on a trip to Russia when the arrests occurred, and Italian police have asked Interpol for help in tracking him down.
Investigators are celebrating the arrest of another Russian, Andreas Marissov, who they regard as an 'important player' in the scam. They suspect him of providing funds and other support to rebel groups in Chechnya. 'He is the most important arrest,' said Luigi Rinella of the Italian police.