Billion-dollar money-laundering gang helping fund Russia's war effort | Global News Podcast

Welcome to the Global News podcast on. YouTube, where we go behind the. headlines of a story and tell you why it. really matters. On this episode, we're. talking about the billiondoll Russian. money laundering network here in the UK. It's been helping to fund Russia's war. in Ukraine. Britain's National Crime. Agency says it has uncovered the crime. gang, which reportedly purchased a bank. in Kyrgyzstan to help Russia evade. Western sanctions and channel funds. towards its war machine in Ukraine. We're joined by our news correspondent,

Will Vernon, to tell us more about this. one. Will, thanks for joining us. So, this first question is um just a bit of. a background, I guess. Just just can you. tell us how this group operated and how. it all came about? >> Well, what the National Crime Agency. have said is that they've exposed a link. between this multi-billion dollar money. laundering scheme and the Russian arms. industry. So a few years ago they. underco they uncovered uh this huge. network of money laundering where um.

criminals were being assisted to. basically turn dirty cash into clean. cash and the NCA has been working to. undermine and disrupt that network. What. they've discovered now uh is that. actually this cash was being funneled uh. into a bank in Kyrgyzstan which was. working with the bank in Russia and that. was basically directly uh directly. helping the Russian arms industry. >> Yeah. And I was going to ask you a bit. more detail about that. So how do they. help Russia to evade sanctions I guess. essentially and managed to clean that.

money launder that money? >> Well uh so the the network that the NCA. uncovered uh a couple of years ago there. were two of them. One was called DG TGR. and one was called SMARTT. And what they. were doing was basically um working with. criminals and it could be anything from. kind of low-level street crime like drug. dealing right up to people trafficking, selling guns, uh that kind of thing. Uh. and they were going to these criminals. and saying, "We'll take all your um. dirty money and we'll give you crypto um.

in exchange." Uh and what they were. doing then with that dirty money was. they they were then basically putting it. through legitimate businesses and. turning it into into clean cash. And. this network generated so much money, we're talking billions and billions of. dollars, that they're actually able to. to buy a bank. So they bought a bank in. in Kyrgyzstan. That's a small former. Soviet republic in Central Asia on. Christmas Day last year, Keramet Bank it. was called. Uh, of course, Kyrgystan is. is an ally of Russia, but isn't under uh.

Western sanctions, which makes it an. absolutely ideal conduit uh for this. kind of operation. Uh, and so uh this. was how the link to Russia works. All. the dirty money from crime in the UK. went via this Kirgy's bank which was. working with a Russian bank and. therefore it was going to to basically. buy drones and missiles and bombs for. the Russian war effort in Ukraine. I. >> I guess it's always difficult to.

identify who these people are but do we. know anything about the people the. organizations who who ran the network? >> So uh so the two networks Smart and TGR. Smart was run by a lady called Ikatina. Janova. Now she is currently in. pre-trial detention in France. She was. uh arrested on suspicion of unrelated. other financial crimes but western. agencies know that she was also running. this network. The other bit of it uh the. other bit of this TGR uh is run by a guy. called Gueorgi Rossi. Now he is under.

western sanctions. No one quite knows uh. where he is at the moment but uh I'm. sure the NCA are working hard as are. other agencies to track him down. You. followed Russian politics closely in the. past as well. Do we know anything about. how close this goes to the Kremlin? How. far up this goes potentially? >> So what the NCA are saying is that they. discovered that Keramet Bank, this. Kiri's bank that was bought on Christmas. Day. Nice little Christmas present for. Mr. Rossy to himself. Um that was.

working with a bank in Russia called. Proms Bank, PSB. Uh what we know about. Promesia's bank uh it's called a a. sanctions evasion hub by the US. Treasury. It's under all kinds of. western sanctions in Russia. It's. officially designated as a supporting. bank of the Russian defense sector. Uh. so what that means is that this industry. that builds tanks and missiles and bombs. and and everything else um can use this. bank to continue operating right and to.

continue churning out arms for the. battlefield in Ukraine. In Russia, the. military-industrial complex, so that's. the bit that builds all the weapons, is. either obviously there are many. companies that make up that sector, right? But they're all either. state-owned, state controlled, or linked. very closely to the state. So, you know, it it's a complicated story, isn't it? And there's many kind of rungs. to it, but you can draw basically a kind. of direct threat if you like uh from. low-level street crime in the UK through.

the money launderers to the Kirgese bank. to the Russian bank and to the Kremlin. So in terms of you know how close is. this to the Kremlin when we're looking. at Pomia's bank this Russian bank I mean. it's just about as close as you can be. without you know being right underneath. the the red towers of the Kremlin. It's. interesting that the National Crime. Agency here in the UK have also put out. a message to say, well, look, you could. be out on a Friday night or one could be. out on a Friday night buying cocaine.

from their dealer without having any. idea that the ramifications can impact. global events, geopolitical events, and. there is a big vast criminal ecosystem. at work here, isn't there? >> Yeah. And and the NCA isn't known for. its candidness, right? It's not that. common for them to talk this openly. about their operations. And why is that? As you say, it's clearly because they. think a p the public has some sort of. part to play uh in this, right? That. this vast criminal network has so many.

tentacles in different parts of the UK. The NCAA was saying that um this courier. system where they're moving all this. money around operates in 28 towns and. cities um in Britain, right? That's a. that's a huge network. So, We're putting. adverts, aren't they? In service. stations to warn people, you know, in. toilets and places like that. >> Yeah, I saw one myself a couple of days. ago when I was driving back from a work. trip. I I I I'm a Russian speaker and my. eyes were drawn to this Russian language. uh advert that was above the the that.

was in the toilets, basically saying, you know, if you um if you move dirty. money around, the UK, we'll find you and. we'll put you in prison. And this was. one of the messages that the NCA has. been sending um with this announcement, right, is that uh they're going after. everyone, not only the guys at the top, but the people who according to the NCA. are paid maybe just a few hundred pounds. to courier this this dirty cash uh. around the UK and uh around Europe as. well. Uh and you know, for for the UK, a.

country that so steadfastly supports uh. Ukraine. Most Brits of course do not. support Russia or its war in Ukraine. By. getting the message out there that by. engaging in low-level criminal activity, as you say, maybe buying a bit of. cocaine on a Friday night, you are. assisting the Russian war machine, you. know, by buying that illegal vape. It. might even be something as lowle as that. or drugs or not to mention that the the. much more serious crimes of people. trafficking or or selling um illegal.

guns. you are feeding into a much larger. kind of global criminal network that has. repercussions for for all us, you know, security and and and defense and and. geopolitics. >> And is there anything more to uncover? Do you think that there could be more. still to unravel from this story in the. National Crime Ay's ongoing. investigation? Well, the National Crime. Agency has already made, they say, more. than 120 arrests uh and uncovered many. uh millions of dollars of illegal cash.

Uh the message from them was that, you. know, the walls are closing in on these. couriers and the people that control. them and that they're going going to go. after everyone. I think there's another. kind of wider interesting point in all. this and that is the role that so-called. third countries you uh play, right? So. Kyrgyzstan in this example um is a. country that's allied close to Russia. but isn't sanctioned by the West. Uh. Kyrgystan is in a customs union with the. Russian Federation which means there's.

no checks at all between Russia and. Kyrgyzstan for goods and services and. financial transactions and that sort of. thing. Uh so the question for for the. west is you know how do you crack down. on these backdoor routes that are being. used western officials say um not only. for getting fridges and Coca-Cola and. all those sanctioned western products. into Russia but also according to the. west are being used to buy computer. chips for drones are being used to buy.

spare parts um for missiles of course. officials from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. and all these other countries um would. deny that. But how do you crack down on. those countries and and try and kind of. choke off those backdoor routes? And. we've seen, haven't we, recently certain. amount of diplomatic outreach towards uh. the countries of Central Asia, Central. Asian leaders recently met Donald Trump. uh in Washington. I'm sure that part of. that is to try and perhaps prize those.

countries away from Russia uh in order. to make sure that you know these illegal. backdoor channels are operating perhaps. um well it's difficult to choke them off. entirely but perhaps restrict them. [clears throat]. >> Well, interesting detail. Thank you so. much for your time. That wraps up this. episode. If you're interested in stories. from around the world, do check out our. Global News podcast. You can find it. wherever you download your podcast from. Also, subscribe to our BBC News YouTube. channel and give this video a like. And. if you want to drop us a comment, you.

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