Austria and Finland have said their companies did no wrong in a case of suspected Russia-EU money laundering. But victims of the crime disagree.
The sums involved are not so big – $150,000 in Austria and $199,500 in Finland.
But according to documents obtained by the UK-based investment firm Hermitage Capital, the money is part of the largest white collar crime in Russian history, a money laundering operation involving six EU countries and a plot to murder its Russian accountant, Sergei Magnitsky.
Bank statements sent by Hermitage to Austrian authorities show that in 2008 a Moldovan firm wired $150,000 to Austrian company Colop, which makes rubber stamps.
Documents sent by Hermitage to Finland show that the same year a second Moldovan firm made a payment to Finnish fur supplier, Saga Furs.
The money originated in the embezzlement of $230 million from Russian tax authorities by an organised crime group, the so-called Kluyev group, and went through a maze of Russian and Moldovan banks before coming to the EU.
When Magnitsky exposed the fraud, he was jailed and died in suspicious circumstances while in custody.
Andrew Rettman