Anti-Financial Crime & Financial Crime Compliance
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Crypto, Financial Crime, Russia, Sanctions

INSIGHT: How a Russian criminal network bought a bank to launder dirty money

Premium November 21, 2025

TETHER: "Money-launderers traditionally ask for at least a 10% cut of the sums they are cleaning. As far as British law-enforcement analysts can work out, [Ekaterina] Zhdanova (pictured) was charging her clients less than 3% on each transaction. Tether’s efficiency makes money-laundering so easy anyone can do it," a news investigation found.

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ANNOUNCEMENT: FATF president Giles Thomson to deliver keynote address at IAFCS London

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NEWS: Trump crypto firm got $100m from businessman under UK money-laundering investigation

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NEWS: Police launch money laundering probe into €1bn Kinahan Cartel empire

By PAUL O’DONOGHUE, Senior Correspondent

ANALYSTS know that Russia has a vast network of money launderers dedicated to helping it avoid sanctions.

However, UK officials today revealed the operations are more sophisticated and larger in scale than many imagined.

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Premium

ANNOUNCEMENT: FATF president Giles Thomson to deliver keynote address at IAFCS London

 Premium

NEWS: Trump crypto firm got $100m from businessman under UK money-laundering investigation

 Premium

NEWS: Police launch money laundering probe into €1bn Kinahan Cartel empire

Regulatory Watch News

  • FinCEN Permanently Ends Beneficial Ownership Reporting Requirements for Millions of Small Business Owners

    FinCEN

    Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is issuing a final rule that permanently removes the requirement for U.S. companies and U.S. persons to report beneficial ownership information to FinCEN under the Corporate Transparency Act. The final rule is effective on its publication in the Federal Register. FinCEN today also announced that it will delete previously reported information by U.S. persons—now exempt from the reporting requirements—from the beneficial ownership information database. Under the final rule, foreign entities that are reporting companies will still be required to report beneficial ownership information for foreign individuals.

  • Cocaine worth £232m seized in National Crime Agency investigation

    National Crime Agency

      A huge seizure of almost three tonnes of cocaine has been made as part of a National Crime Agency investigation. The haul – which has an estimated street value of £232m – was made on Thursday at London Gateway Port in Essex. Acting on NCA intelligence, Border Force officers recovered the 2.9 tonne consignment which was hidden in a coverload of bananas from South America.

  • Ironside: Sydney airport worker jailed over role in 127kg pseudoephedrine importation

    Australia Federal Police

    A Sydney airport worker was sentenced to two years and four months' imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 18 months, by the NSW District Court today (11 August, 2026) for his role in supporting a criminal organisation to import 127kg of pseudoephedrine. The man, 56, was arrested in June, 2021, after an AFP investigation linked him to the illicit activity as a result of intelligence gained during the AFP-led Operation Ironside. Operation Ironside was a three-year operation during which the AFP and FBI monitored criminals' encrypted communications through a dedicated encrypted communications platform.

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