Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Europol joins hunt on EU-Russia money laundering

EU Observer

The EU’s joint police body, Europol, is hunting down Russian mafia money laundered in EU banks.

Its operation was revealed in a report by an investigator in the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, Swiss MP Andreas Gross, out on Tuesday (25 June).

It says: “On 25 April 2013, a meeting took place at Europol in The Hague to exchange information and co-ordinate the investigation by anti-money-laundering experts of a number of countries concerned by transfers of funds originating in the tax reimbursement fraud denounced by Sergei Magnitsky.”

Gross notes the meeting “should … mark the beginning of a co-ordinated action by the competent authorities to follow the ‘money trail’ wherever it leads.”

He adds: “Russian authorities should be at the forefront of such an action, as it is the money of the Russian people that was stolen.”

The case concerns a fraudulent tax refund, in 2008, of $230 million organised by the so-called “Kluyev group” and the subsequent death of the man who exposed it – Russian accountant Magnitsky.

Europol declined to comment on the revelation, citing house rules on confidentiality.

But EUobserver understands the countries which took part in the April meeting are Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Switzerland.