They bought the bank to help Moscow bypass Western sanctions. The police discovered a criminal network

Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) announced the discovery of a money laundering network that bought a bank in Kyrgyzstan to help Moscow bypass Western sanctions and support the Russian army fighting against Ukraine.

The police revealed that George Rossi, the head of the criminal group called TGR, purchased 75% in December 2024. shares in Kyrgyzstan's Keremet Bank, which facilitates payments to the Russian state-owned Probsvyazbank (Promsvyazbank, PSB). This, in turn, supports companies operating in the Russian arms industry sector. The NCA has confirmed that TGR, and another Russian criminal network, Smart, are engaged in money laundering.

British investigators, conducting an operation called Destabilise, found that criminals used the services of hundreds of couriers in at least 28 cities in Great Britain, who transported cash from, among others, from drug and weapons trafficking.

According to Sal Melki, deputy director of economic crime at the NCA, the operation carried out by the criminal group means that “the buying of cocaine on a Friday evening in the UK can be linked to geopolitical events that are causing suffering around the world.” – It's not as simple as saying: “OK, I pay the dealer and that's it.” In fact, it's a huge criminal ecosystem that finances really bad things around the world, Melki emphasized.

According to investigators, the weakest element of the network are the couriers, which is why this year, notices in Russian and English were placed above the urinals at gas stations on highways, warning against the consequences of transferring money to organized criminal groups.

– We communicate with them directly in their own language and say: the walls are closing in. (…) We know who you are and we will come for you, Melki said.

The NCA announced that as part of international operations, 128 people were detained and cryptocurrency worth £25 million was seized in Great Britain. Over the last 12 months, a further 45 people have been arrested on suspicion of money laundering and £5.1m has been confiscated. Intelligence information also helped foreign authorities confiscate $24 million. and 2.6 million euros.

The first clue regarding the activities of the Russian criminal network was picked up by the British police in 2021.

From London Marta Zabłocka (PAP)

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