A Russian money laundering network that works for the Irish Kinahan cartel and the Kremlin, has been sanctioned by US law enforcement and has had £20 million (€24 million) in cash and cryptocurrency seized by Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA).
The NCA said that an investigation into the Russian money laundering network had led to 84 arrests. It confirmed Smart and TGR as the two Russian-speaking networks, which specialise in stealth conversions of cryptocurrency to cash, at the heart of a global money laundering conspiracy.
The networks have helped criminals, such as the Kinahans and Russian “elites” sanctioned by the US authorities, to continue to grow and conceal their wealth, and to move it around the world undetected.
They ran services specifically for clients based in Dubai, with one of the couriers arrested having previously been detained by the Garda’s Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau.
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The NCA said the international investigation it led, called Operation Destabilise, disrupted the Russian networks that helped launder money for “transnational crime groups such as the Kinahans”.
The boutique services offered by the Russian networks include “the receipt of cash and making the value available to clients in the form of cryptocurrency”, often to other jurisdictions.
They also “provided a prepaid credit card service” allowing for criminal wealth to be spent in a manner that was untraceable and concealed the location of criminals globally.
Another money laundering service involves “obfuscating the source of funds to allow high-net worth” clients, mostly Russians, purchase property in the UK.
The NCA’s disclosure that the Kinahan cartel are clients of the mainly Russian-led network confirms the deep links that cartel founder, Christy Kinahan, and his sons Daniel and Christopher jnr, were suspected to have held with Russian organised crime and commercial interests.
Many Garda officers have believed for some time the Kinahans will attempt to flee Dubai – now that an extradition agreement is in place between UAE and the Republic of Ireland – and relocate to Moscow.
The links between the Irish cartel and the Russian money laundering network, exposed by the NCA’s investigation, will deepen those concerns within Irish law enforcement.
The two groups under investigation offered their money laundering capabilities, for payment, to crime syndicates in the UK, South America, Russia and Middle East, including the Dubai-headquartered Kinahan cartel.
“The notorious family-run crime syndicate, responsible for trafficking drugs and firearms into the UK and around the world, were sanctioned by the US in 2022,” the NCA said of the Kinahans.
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) – the same agency that sanctioned the Kinahans in 2022 – on Wednesday confirmed that it had sanctioned five people and four commercial entities linked to the TGR and Smart Russian networks.
It described TGR Group as “a sprawling international network of businesses and employees that have facilitated significant sanctions circumvention on behalf of Russian elites”.
“Through the TGR Group, Russian elites sought to exploit digital assets – in particular US dollar-backed stablecoins [a cryptocurrency] – to evade US and international sanctions, further enriching themselves and the Kremlin,” said acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence Bradley T Smith.
The US authorities described Ukrainian-led TGR Group as the lead entity in the conspiracy, though it had leveraged Russian-led Smart Group to aid its money laundering, including through digital assets.
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