84 Arrested in the UK in Operation to Dismantle Global Criminal Russian Money-Laundering Network Using Cryptocurrency

Seventy suspects have been arrested in an NCA operation to dismantle a scheme that helped oligarchs, drug cartels and the RT television station convert illicit money into cryptocurrency, the Guardian reports. In total, Operation Destabilisation identified the alleged leaders of the money laundering networks and arrested 84 people, as well as seized more than £20 million in cash and cryptocurrency, the NCA said.

The operation involved the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, the French Central Directorate of the Judicial Police and the Garda Síochána. 

The UK law enforcement agency, which tackles serious and organised crime, said the action was the ‘most significant money laundering operation’ it had conducted in several years. 

According to law enforcement, the networks laundered cash and cryptocurrencies for serious and organised crime groups in the UK and the West: Russian hacker groups that demand ransom from corporations after disrupting their computer networks, as well as Russian oligarchs seeking to circumvent sanctions, particularly in the UK.

NCA Director General of Operations Rob Jones said that Operation Destabilise had uncovered billions of dollars worth of money laundering networks that operated in ways that were previously unknown to international law enforcement or regulatory authorities.

The NCA also reported that Ekaterina Zhdanova, who was sanctioned last year by OFAC for helping ransomware groups receive and launder illicit funds, was the head of Smart. She is said to have worked with TGR boss George Rossi, whose whereabouts are unknown to the international law enforcement coalition. Rossi's second-in-command is Elena Chirkinian.

Smart and TGR laundered cash for transnational criminal groups such as the Kinahans, a family crime syndicate responsible for drug and firearms trafficking in the UK and abroad, which was sanctioned by the US in 2022.

From late 2022 to the summer of 2023, the Smart network was used to fund unspecified Russian espionage operations, the NCA said. The money launderers also helped Russian clients avoid UK sanctions. Investigators also found links to funds moving to the UK that originated from the Russia Today (RT) television network. RT's owner has been sanctioned in the UK.