They may be ethnic Russians, but they have grown up abroad, and are well educated, generally in Europe, where they operate with impunity. Multi-lingual, and sophisticated in the discreet movement of money and assets, they are the next generation from their organized crime or oligarch parents, and they are very, very good at what they do. very few of them have been identified, let alone arrested in the act of money laundering or international sanctions evasion.
What is of interest to this Old School Caribbean Tax Haven money launderer is the fact that they employ multiple Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) passports in their craft, all with different identities. This means one laundryman holds passports from at least two of the Eastern Caribbean states, say Saint Kitts & Nevis and the Commonwealth of Dominica, as well as from say Malta and perhaps an old one from Cyprus. They evade the restrictions on Russian nationals acquiring CBI by have been born in Western Europe, or being outside Russia in their youth long enough to effectively change their nationality or residence. Their familiarity with advanced technology is also known to exist.
While a small number of them have been caught in Europe or North America, most of them are not initially identified as Russian, some pose as Eastern Europeans from EU Member states, and their fluent linguistic skills go far towards creating alternate non-Russian profiles. Remember, they are also alternating their CBI passports, which feature multiple different aliases, foiling most traditional law enforcement or compliance investigative techniques, and requiring that effective facial recognition be the primary identification tool.
We must hope that as their organizations are identified by European law enforcement, or the intelligence services, their identities will become known to compliance officers at international banks, but at the moment, these 'talented" individuals hold all the cards.
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