Stop the Untouchables. Justice for Sergei Magnitsky.

Two EU countries shut down money laundering probes

EU Observer

Austria and Finland have said their companies did no wrong in a case of suspected Russia-EU money laundering. But victims of the crime disagree.

The sums involved are not so big – $150,000 in Austria and $199,500 in Finland.

But according to documents obtained by the UK-based investment firm Hermitage Capital, the money is part of the largest white collar crime in Russian history, a money laundering operation involving six EU countries and a plot to murder its Russian accountant, Sergei Magnitsky.

Bank statements sent by Hermitage to Austrian authorities show that in 2008 a Moldovan firm wired $150,000 to Austrian company Colop, which makes rubber stamps.

Documents sent by Hermitage to Finland show that the same year a second Moldovan firm made a payment to Finnish fur supplier, Saga Furs.

The money originated in the embezzlement of $230 million from Russian tax authorities by an organised crime group, the so-called Kluyev group, and went through a maze of Russian and Moldovan banks before coming to the EU.

When Magnitsky exposed the fraud, he was jailed and died in suspicious circumstances while in custody.

But for his part, Christian Hubmer, a spokesman for the local prosecutor in Linz, Austria, the home of Colop, says his people can find no record of the dodgy payment.