The high-profile criminal scandal over Landromat, the largest channel for withdrawing funds from Russia abroad, is five years old. During this time, law enforcement authorities in dozens of countries around the world opened criminal proceedings against participants in the washing scheme, and only in Russia, through which Landromat had been stolen more than $ 20 billion, a strange slow-paced investigation appears. Despite the fact that about 500 people were involved in the criminal scheme for the withdrawal of money, only a few fell under the investigation. Probably, the slowness of the Russian Themis is associated with big names, including FSB generals who appear among the organizers of the laundering channel, as well as with the position of the department Alexander Bortnikov, who oversees the investigation.
Hand washes
The main operators of Landromat are four people - banker Alexander Grigoryev, who owned a number of banks (including Russian Land Bank, Doninvest Bank and Western Bank), Moldovan oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc, his business partner Vyacheslav Platon and "Decide" by Alexander Korkin. These are the people who ensured the functioning of the canal, but people and structures that covered the work of the “king of cash” (the so-called Alexander Grigoriev, as well as those who used the services of Landromat and withdrew billions of dollars through it) remained in the shadows.
“Landromat” worked as follows: two foreign front companies entered into fictitious loan agreements, and they took on guarantee any Russian company (also front) and a Moldovan citizen. Then the lender demanded the debt from the borrower and from the guarantors, the corrupt Moldovan judge decides to collect the debt from the Russian company, to repay the debt, an account was opened in the Moldovan bank controlled by Plahotniuc, where money was transferred from Grigoryev's banks (mainly from the Russian Land Bank) .
Despite the fact that it became known about the “Landromat” back in 2014, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs opened a criminal case about the criminal community that was withdrawing money abroad only at the beginning of 2019. By that time, Vyacheslav Platon was already serving his sentence in Moldova for fraud and economic crimes, Plahotniuc was fighting for power in Chisinau (now left the country), and Grigoriev was under investigation in another banking case. In August 2019, he was convicted of embezzlement of funds from Doninvest and Western banks. The MIA case only led to the arrest of Alexander Korkin. At the same time, information appeared that Korkin was a shareholder of Victoriabank, the first commercial bank in Moldova, the owner of which is Plahotniuc.
According to Slyudka, the detention of Korkin was based on the testimony of Alexander Grigoryev, who, while under investigation, issued the FSB and TFR all the information he knew about the channel. However, only a small fraction of the information was launched — several bankers working in the “shadow market” of banking services were detained, but none of their partners and patrons from government agencies were injured.
FSB - self-employment
“In fact, in Russia, the investigation of one of the world's largest money laundering channels is being conducted by the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation. The investigator of the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Konstantin Abramenkov, in whose production the materials are located, actually carries out the instructions of the CSS representatives, and the first deputy head of the Directorate, Major General Alexander Filatov, oversees all the work, "journalists write with reference to testimonies of Grigoryev and other" shadow "Bankers.
They note that a significant part of the largest “shadow bankers” of the mid-2000s became witnesses or accused in the “Landromat case”, many of them actively cooperate with the investigation and talk in detail about their “work” everyday life, “roofs” and partners.
“Both the surname and the amount of money the business has long outgrown the level of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, but remains in this department and may not leave it - while with the help of this investigation FSB FSB officers replenish their“ reserves ”of incriminating evidence on politicians, bankers, and former and current special services officers, not only from Russia, but from Ukraine, Moldova and a number of other countries, ”says Slyushka.
Thus, Grigoryev’s testimony indicates that he organized the “Landromat” with the help of Alexander Korkin, who repeatedly reported on his connections to the FSB, including Viktor Voronin, the former head of the FSB headquarters of the FSB. It also says that the $ 21 billion withdrawn from the country was stolen from the federal treasury through various government agencies, whose leaders were in share with the kidnappers and cash-in-cash.
Separately, it is indicated that the FSB, according to the testimony, prepared operational certificates, which it sent to the very top, and there it was already decided who should be removed from the game and who should be kept on a short leash.
This version is confirmed by the “Cherkalin case” - FSB colonel Kirill Cherkalin from the FSB banking department was arrested this spring, although his cooperation with cash-out bankers was known a few years ago. In the same way, for the time being, the colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Dmitry Zakharchenko was safe, who "protected" the contractors of Russian Railways and helped them crank up multi-million dollar frauds with state contracts.