Russia-linked crooks bought themselves a bank for Christmas

"On Christmas Day 2024, a Russian-linked laundering network bought itself a very special present: a controlling stake in a Kyrgyzstan bank, later used to wash cybercrime profits and funnel money into Moscow's war machine, according to the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA). The network, exposed through the NCA's long-running Operation Destabilise, has been sucking up dirty cash across at least 28 UK towns and cities, converting it into cryptocurrency, and using that crypto to move funds through a bank it quietly acquired in Kyrgyzstan."

"That bank, Keremet, was later identified as facilitating cross-border payments for Promsvyazbank, the Russian state-owned lender that bankrolls companies in the military-industrial base. For a fee, couriers working the UK end of the network collect cash from drugs, firearms, and immigration crime, then hand it to operators who push it through "cash-to-crypto" swaps. The NCA says those swaps sit at the heart of a global ecosystem that links street-level offending to sanctions evasion, Russian state activity, and cybercrime."

"while UK seizures of cash and cryptocurrency now exceed £25 million ($32 million). Sal Melki, deputy director for economic crime, said investigators can now "draw a line between crimes in our communities, sophisticated organised criminals, and state-sponsored activity," adding that the network "operates at all levels of international money laundering, from collecting the street cash from drug deals, through to purchasing banks and enabling global sanctions breaches.""

A Russian-linked laundering network acquired a controlling stake in Kyrgyzstan's Keremet bank on Christmas Day 2024 and used it to launder cybercrime profits and channel money toward Moscow-linked interests. The network, uncovered by Operation Destabilise, collected dirty cash across at least 28 UK towns and cities, converted it into cryptocurrency through cash-to-crypto swaps, and moved funds via the purchased bank. Keremet was identified as facilitating cross-border payments for Promsvyazbank, a Russian state-owned lender connected to the military-industrial base. Intelligence has supported multimillion-dollar seizures overseas and more than £25 million seized in the UK. Two core networks, Smart and TGR, operate the scheme, and Smart is run by Ekaterina Zhdanova.

Read at Theregister