FinCEN Profile: Putin’s partner launders money through a British bank?

One of Vladimir Putin’s best friends may have used Barclays Bank in London to launder money and evade sanctions, according to leaked documents.

Billionaire Arkady Rotenberg has known the Russian president since childhood.

The United States and the EU imposed financial restrictions, that is, sanctions, on Mr Rotenberg in 2014, which means that Western banks could face serious consequences when doing business. with the.

Barclays Bank said it has met all of its legal and regulatory responsibilities.

A leak of confidential records or “suspicious activity reports” by banks reveals how companies believed to be controlled by Rotenberg have maintained confidential accounts.

The documents, known as FinCEN Papers, were shown on the BBC’s BBC Panorama television program.

In March 2014, the United States imposed economic sanctions on Russia after Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine.

Then the US Treasury Department named Mr. Rotenberg, 68, and his brother Boris, 63, on the list of “Russian leadership informants.”

These two practiced martial arts together at the same judo practice site as Putin when they were young.

In recent years, Arkady Rotenberg’s companies have built roads, gas pipelines and a power plant through contracts designated by the Russian state.

The US Treasury Department said the brothers “supported Putin’s own projects” and “won billions in contracts for Gazprom and the Sochi Winter Olympics that Putin gave them.”

In 2018, the United States added Igor, Arkady Rotenberg’s son, to the list of people who should be punished.

The purpose of the sanctions is to remove names from the entire Western financial system.

However, the Rotenberg brothers appear to have continued to transfer cash to the UK and the US.

In 2008, Barclays opened an account for a company called Advantage Alliance.

The leaked documents show the company moved £ 60 million between 2012 and 2016. Many transactions occurred after the Rotenberg brothers were placed on the sanctions list.

In July this year, a US Senate investigation accused the Rotenberg brothers of secretly buying expensive works of art to evade sanctions: Advantage Alliance is one of the companies involved in this transaction.

The US investigators conclude that there is strong evidence that the Advantage Alliance is owned by Arkady Rotenberg and that the company has used his Barclays account in London to buy millions of dollars worth of artwork from him.

One report said that “confidentiality, anonymity and lack of regulation have created an environment conducive to money laundering and to evade sanctions.” Auctions in the US and UK “don’t ask basic questions” about who buys the artwork.

Despite the sanctions, Arkady appears to have paid $ 7.5 million to purchase René Magritte’s La Poitrine painting.

On June 17, 2014, an Arkady affiliate sent money from Moscow to an Advantage Alliance Barclays account in London. The next day, Barclays transferred the cash to the vendor in New York.

In April 2016, Barclays launched an internal investigation into several accounts that they suspected were related to the Rotenberg brothers.

Six months later, the bank closed the Advantage Alliance account due to concerns that it had been used to transfer suspicious funds.

But the leaked suspicious activity profile shows that other Barclays accounts with the alleged link to the Rotenberg brothers remained open until 2017.

One such company is Ayrton Development Limited.

According to the records, Barclays doubted Ayrton’s activities and concluded that “[Arkady] Rotenberg is the real owner of Ayrton. “

Barclays had no comment when asked by BBC Panorama how many accounts they suspected belonged to the Rotenberg brothers.

“We believe we have complied with all of our legal and regulatory obligations, including those related to US sanctions,” a Barclays spokesperson said.

The Rotenberg brothers declined to comment on this incident.

FinCen filings are leaked confidential documents that reveal how major banks allow dirty money to enter banks around the world.

The presentation also shows how the UK is often the weak link in the financial system and how London is awash in Russian cash.

This information was compiled by BuzzFeed News and shared with the International Association of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and 400 journalists from around the world.

Program Panorama is in charge of the investigation for the BBC report.