Russian FinTech Allegedly Laundered $6.9 Billion Via Global Banks
Some of the world’s largest banks have reportedly handled billions of dollars for a Kremlin-backed FinTech that used forgery to enter the international financial system. An investigation by the Financial Times (FT) published Monday (Sept. 21) found that A7, a company established as an alternative to western payment systems, used “old-fashioned money laundering” to move […] The post Russian…
A7, a Kremlin-backed FinTech company, allegedly laundered over $6.9 billion through the global banking system, according to an investigation by the Financial Times. The news outlet obtained hundreds of files related to A7, which used forgery and a network of front companies to obscure its activities and move money via the Swift system.
Banks such as Standard Chartered, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup held accounts with A7, but all declined to comment further on the matter. A7 was established by Ilan Shor, a Moldovan oligarch, with support from Russia’s state-owned Promsvyazbank. The company was positioned as Russia’s leading cross-border import payments provider since Western banks were disconnected from Swift following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The scheme involved front companies depositing cash at banks within the Swift system, which could then be used to pay overseas bills for Russian companies. A significant portion of the flows ended up in Chinese bank accounts. Experts are concerned that this scale of money-laundering network highlights the difficulty of maintaining clean correspondent banking practices.
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