Jersey connection to a billion-dollar money laundering network that purchased a bank to fund the Russian war effort

The UK NCA have identified that a billion-dollar money laundering network active in the UK purchased a bank in Kyrgyzstan to facilitate sanctions evasion and payments in support of Russian military efforts.

Through Operation Destabilise, the NCA and its partners are targeting money launderers working for this network, who are known to operate in at least 28 UK cities and towns.

Operation Destabilise has been delivered in close collaboration with UK law enforcement and international partners, including:

• CHANNEL ISLANDS: STATES OF JERSEY POLICE
• Metropolitan Police Service, Police Scotland, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Border Force, National Police Chiefs’ Council
• Ireland: An Garda Siochana
• United States: Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), United States Secret Service (USSS)
• France: Direction Centrale de la Police Judiciaire
• Finland: National Bureau of Investigation
• The Netherlands: Dutch National Police
• Spanish law enforcement partners

Jersey’s Role in Operation Destabilise

• Direct involvement:
• Jersey Police assisted the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) in dismantling parts of the network.
• They intercepted £60,000 in Jersey banknotes being laundered in October 2021 and uncovered evidence linking suspects to wider criminal activity, including human trafficking and drug-related crimes in the UK.
• Three individuals were convicted in Jersey’s Royal Court in 2022 for 22 counts of money laundering, with one UK bank account alone seeing £4.31 million flow through in 10 months. [channel103.com]
• Cash collection hub:
• The network operated across 55 locations in England, Scotland, Wales, and Jersey, using couriers to collect physical cash and swap it for cryptocurrency (often Tether).
• Jersey was one of the nodes in this global laundromat, which serviced at least 22 crime groups. [comsuregroup.com]
• Intelligence sharing:
• Jersey’s Joint Financial Crimes Unit provided intelligence that helped the NCA “connect the dots” and expose the broader network, demonstrating the island’s role in international AML cooperation. [channel103.com]

21 November 2025 -Today's NCA press release provides further details on this ongoing operation

• For a fee, the launderers collect ‘dirty’ cash generated from the drugs trade, firearms supply, and organised immigration crime, and convert it to ‘clean’ cryptocurrency.
• These ‘cash to crypto’ swaps are an integral part of a global criminal ecosystem that spans offending in our communities, sanctions evasions and the highest levels of organised crime, including providing money laundering services to the Russian state.
• Together with our partners, we are actively combating this threat and have significantly restricted this network’s operations. In the second phase of the operation, a further 45 suspected money launderers have been arrested, and over £5.1 million in cash has been seized in less than 12 months.
• Using the intelligence gained on Operation Destabilise, the NCA has supported its international law enforcement partners in seizing $24 million and over EUR 2.6 million from the network. Since its inception, the operation has resulted in 128 arrests, with over £25 million in cash and cryptocurrency seized in the UK alone.

Sal Melki, Deputy Director for Economic Crime at the NCA, said:

• “Today we can reveal the sheer scale at which these networks operate and draw a line between crimes in our communities, sophisticated organised criminals and state-sponsored activity. The networks disrupted through Destabilise operate at all levels of international money laundering, from collecting the street cash from drug deals, through to purchasing banks and enabling global sanctions breaches.”
• As part of this operation, the NCA has launched a campaign to communicate directly with the money launderers who courier criminal cash, reaching them in locations where they are known to operate. The posters and messages (in English and Russian) highlight the risks they are taking by moving money linked to the most harmful crimes in our communities.
• Sal Melki added: “Cash couriers play an intrinsic role in this global money laundering scheme. They are in our communities and making the criminal ecosystem function – because if you cannot profit from your crimes, why bother? They are paid very little for the risks they take and face years in prison, while those they work for enjoy huge profits.
• “Millions of Britons will have seen these messages at service stations, but rest assured, they were not for you. To the launderers who will have seen them, your choice is simple: either stop this line of work, or prepare to come face to face with one of our officers and the reality of your choices. Easy money leads to a hard time.”

Who runs this network?

• In December 2024, the NCA exposed two networks, TGR and Smart, as part of Operation Destabilise, the international NCA-led investigation into Russian money laundering networks supporting serious and organised crime around the world.
• Smart and TGR collaborated to launder money for transnational crime groups involved in cybercrime, drugs and firearms smuggling. They also helped their Russian clients to illegally bypass financial restrictions to invest money in the UK, threatening the integrity of our economy.
• Smart is run by Ekaterina Zhdanova, who worked closely with Khadzi-Murat Magomedov and Nikita Krasnov. In summer 2023, individuals associated with the Russian Intelligence Services attempted to use the Smart Group to provide funding to individuals based in the UK and Europe. This included a UK-based group of Bulgarian nationals, led by Orlin Roussev, who have since been convicted of a spying operation across Europe on behalf of Russia.
• TGR is headed up by George Rossi, his second in command Elena Chirkinyan, and Andrejs Bradens (also known as Andrejs Carenoks).
• All six senior members of Smart and TGR were sanctioned by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in December, and Zhdanova is currently being held in pre-trial detention in France.
• In August, ‘Altair Holding SA’, a company linked to Rossi, was sanctioned in the UK as part of a broader crackdown on Russia’s attempts to exploit Kyrgyz financial systems and crypto networks. Altair was identified as owning a controlling stake in the Kyrgyzstan-based Keremet Bank, which was utilised to evade sanctions.
• Altair Holding SA purchased their 75% stake of Keremet on Christmas Day 2024. Keremet has subsequently been identified as facilitating cross-border payments on behalf of Promsvyazbank, a Russian state-owned bank, which supported companies involved in the Russian military industrial base.
• Ilan Shor is a Russian / Moldovan oligarch who was also involved in the sanctions evasion scheme linked to Keremet. Shor was arrested in 2014 for the theft of $1 billion from Moldovan banks and has since been identified as engaging in interference in Moldovan elections on Russia’s behalf.
• Payment service providers such as Ilan SHOR’s A7 company, which the UK and EU now sanction, are used to enable both money laundering and malign activity. A7 and Promsvyazbank announced the launch of the A7A5 token, promoted as the world’s first rouble-backed cryptocurrency stablecoin. Networks linked to A7 are likely designed to allow cross-border payments to circumvent sanctions.

Examples of our response

• In April, two men were sentenced to a combined 13 years for laundering £6 million following an investigation by the Metropolitan Police. Valeriy Popovych and Vitaliy Lutsak exploited the Russia-Ukraine war to launder criminal profits, using criminal cash to purchase vans and lorries in the UK before selling them in Ukraine.
• The profit was then converted into cryptocurrency. The pair admitted picking up cash from Semen Kuksov, previously jailed after being found guilty of money laundering offences following an NCA investigation. Kuksov was taking direction from Nikita Krasnov of the Smart Group. When arrested, a search of Popovych’s house uncovered £130,000 in cash. Popovych’s criminal scheme enabled him to purchase a second house valued at almost £1 million in South West London.
• In the month before Popovych’s and Lutsak’s sentencing, cash courier Giorgi Tabatadze was sentenced to three years in prison for helping the networks to launder £2.2 million. NCA officers arrested Tabatadze in April 2024 and seized over £750,000 in cash from his car and his home address.
• As is typical for couriers utilised by these networks, Tabatadze was directed to drive around the UK collecting and delivering criminal cash so it could be fed into their complex laundering scheme.
• Operation Destabilise has not gone unnoticed amongst the criminal community. Members of the network were believed to have reservations about operating in London.
• In summer 2024, Russian-speaking laundering networks in the capital were charging significantly higher commission rates, recognising that it was challenging to work there. As a result of actions taken on Op Destabilise and through working with private sector partners, the ability of these networks to access the legitimate banking sector, particularly in the West, has been significantly restricted.

Source

• https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/operation-destabilise-nca-exposes-billion-dollar-money-laundering-network-that-purchased-bank-to-fund-russian-war-effort
• https://www.channel103.com/news/jersey/jersey-police-helps-bust-multibillion-russian-money-laundering-network/
• https://www.comsuregroup.com/news/operation-destabilise-money-laundering-in-jersey-london-moscow-dubai-and-elsewhere/