Russian Ministries Estimate Illegal Transfers To West
Moscow, 22 Apr (Interfax) -- In the estimate of experts from the Russian interior and economics ministries, between $50 billion and $250 billion has been illegally transferred from Russia to Western banks over the past five years. Offshore zones, particularly in Cyprus, have become "money- laundering centers" for criminal Russian capital, representatives of the Russian Interior Ministry told Interfax Thursday.
Germany, where more than 600 firms have been established since the Soviet Union's breakup, is one of the main centers for Russian criminal groupings, they said. With reference to information received from German colleagues, Interior Ministry sources said that besides Berlin, where 350 commercial firms have been set up, criminal groupings from Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, and other CIS countries are actively "exploring" the Rhine region in western Germany, where Russian cartels alone own 50 realty and foreign-trade firms.
"The weekly turnover of illegal Russian capital in the Rhine region alone is estimated by German colleagues at $100 million to $150 million. Some of such firms are run by German citizens who do not even know what the actual function of these companies is," the sources said. Normally, the criminal Russian capital is first moved to offshore companies in Cyprus and then to Germany. Following a complicated "laundering" process, "clean" money is invested in legal businesses. The capital legalized in Germany finally enters accounts in respectable Swiss, American, or Japanese banks.