Author: tio

Almost two decades after a sprawling $230 million tax fraud involving Russian officials led to the imprisonment of a whistleblower, the Paris Judicial Tribunal convenes on Monday for the first hearing on criminal charges against the scheme’s alleged architect.

Dmitry Klyuev, a Russian businessman who U.S. authorities have previously sanctioned as an alleged organized crime figure, faces charges of aggravated money laundering. French prosecutors describe Klyuev as “one of the primary organizers” of a vast conspiracy that siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars from the Russian Treasury through a labyrinth of offshore shell companies.

The scandal gained global notoriety and was dubbed the “Magnitsky Affair.” It was uncovered by Russian tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Moscow prison in 2009 after exposing the theft. His death prompted the U.S. to pass the Magnitsky Act, a landmark law that imposes visa bans and asset freezes on human rights abusers and corrupt officials worldwide. A coalition of other nations passed similar laws.

While the fraud originated in Moscow, French prosecutors allege that the stolen funds financed a lavish lifestyle across Western Europe. According to the indictment, between April 2008 and October 2012, accounts allegedly controlled by Klyuev funneled more than 2.1 million euros ($2.42 million) into the French luxury sector.

The spending spree included: 668,517 euros ($771,703) at a Parisian art and antique gallery; 696,015 euros ($803,445) across two high-end French women’s fashion brands; 96,814 euros ($111,757) at a luxury jewelry store in Courchevel, an exclusive ski resort in the French Alps; and 127,182 euros ($146,813) for a Courchevel tour package which, according to invoice and bank records reviewed by OCCRP, covered Russian Senator Dmitry Saveliev and his guests.

Investigative outlet Important Stories previously reported that Saveliev’s company additionally received almost $8 million from the same entity that paid this invoice.

Prosecutors allege these payments were routed through FBME Bank accounts held by two British Virgin Islands (BVI) companies: Altem Invest Limited and Zibar Management Inc. Although other individuals were listed as the beneficial owners, investigators allege Klyuev controlled the accounts. The paper trail includes incoming transfers from his personal Swiss bank account and outflows covering personal family expenses, such as tuition for his son’s boarding school in Switzerland.

FBME Bank was ultimately taken over by Cypriot authorities in 2014 following U.S. allegations that it facilitated money laundering and illicit transactions. It entered liquidation proceedings in 2023.

Klyuev did not respond to requests for comment and is being tried in absentia. If convicted and eventually arrested, he faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

His physical absence from the courtroom highlights the enduring geopolitical friction surrounding the case. A European Arrest Warrant issued in March 2025 at the request of France’s financial prosecutor concluded that Klyuev likely resides in Russia, noting he “has probable links to organized crime” and “significant local support.”

The warrant was deliberately not shared with Moscow. French law enforcement officials described Russia as a non-cooperative state, determining there were zero prospects for his extradition.

The French investigation stems from a 2014 criminal complaint filed by Hermitage Capital Management Limited, the investment fund and asset management company that was originally targeted by the Russian tax fraud.

For the firm’s founder, Bill Browder, who has spent the last 15 years spearheading the global campaign for Magnitsky sanctions, the Paris trial marks a critical milestone.

“The Magnitsky investigation, which led to some of the biggest journalistic exposés of the past decade, revealed how Russian officials and criminals laundered millions through Western banks,” Browder told OCCRP.

“With both French authorities and the U.S. Department of Justice identifying Dmitry Klyuev as the mastermind of the $230 million fraud, we are now seeing long-overdue justice being done,” he added.

Beyond the French borders, the stolen funds have seeped into other global luxury markets. Previous reporting by OCCRP revealed that Klyuev’s other BVI-based companies — which received deposits from offshore firms linked by U.S. authorities to the tax fraud — were used to invest millions in a seaside resort in Cyprus and luxury real estate on Dubai’s exclusive Palm Jumeirah.

A Chinese national wanted in his home country for allegedly running illegal gambling operations has had 85 luxury properties in London frozen by the U.K.’s Crown Prosecution Service. 

The prosecution service, or CPS, announced on March 24 that it froze the assets after issuing Unexplained Wealth Orders and Interim Freezing Orders under the Proceeds of Crime Act. The announcement did not name the subject of the freezing orders, referring to him only as “Mr. X.”

OCCRP and the Sunday Times have obtained corporate and property records showing that Mr. X is Su Jiangbo, who is wanted by Chinese law enforcement. He used a St. Kitts and Nevis ‘golden passport’ to create U.K. companies that bought up at least $108 million worth of London real estate.

Su Jiangbo, 40, is featured on an arrest warrant list published by Datian county court in China’s southeast Fujian province, which describes him as a “fugitive criminal suspect.” The court did not respond to a request for comment on the case.

The list included 38 individuals suspected of offenses including involvement in illegal gambling, fraud and cybercrime. The list of wanted men included their photos and home addresses, as well as a police hotline number. It was re-published in Chinese-language media from both China and Taiwan.

Su Jiangbo did not respond to questions sent to his personal email, as well as addresses associated with companies he owns in Singapore, Cambodia, the U.K. and Hong Kong. Reporters were unable to reach him on phone numbers listed in different company registries, including a mobile phone number found in Singapore company filings.

Just weeks before the wanted list was published on September 15, 2023, Su Jiangbo began his spending spree in London. He carried on buying until at least June 2025, according to property records.

During that timeframe, companies owned by Su Jiangbo purchased at least 85 properties in new-build developments across central and south London. Among the purchases were a $13-million penthouse with a view overlooking St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Tate Modern art gallery, and the River Thames.

Records show that properties owned by Su Jiangbo’s companies were hit with freezing orders on the same day the CPS says it froze “flats across central and south London” belonging to Mr. X.

“The orders were granted against a Chinese national and associated U.K. companies, suspected of using money that has been illicitly obtained to purchase properties,” the CPS said in a statement.

The prosecution service added that there is an “ongoing civil recovery investigation into whether they were purchased with the proceeds of unlawful conduct.”

Su Jiangbo has not been charged or convicted of any criminal activity in the U.K. The CPS declined to comment further on the case.

Golden Passports

Records from the U.K., Hong Kong and Singapore company registries show that Su Jiangbo holds a passport from St Kitts and Nevis, the tiny Caribbean nation that sells passports for around $270,000, which give access to more than 150 countries without a visa. He is also a citizen of Cambodia. 

So-called “golden passports,” which are purchased through citizen-by-investment schemes, should trigger “enhanced due diligence,” according to U.K. Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds Regulations.

“Unusually complex or unusually large” transactions should also raise red flags.  

Su Jiangbo used his St. Kitts passport to create 12 firms, according to records from Companies House, the U.K. corporate registry. At least 10 of those U.K. firms were used to purchase London properties.

Su Jinbao’s multiple passports and major transactions do not appear to have set off alarm bells at Triptych Bankside, a new-build by the developer JTRE London. He purchased 15 flats worth around $26.5 million, putting almost half that sum towards the 18th-floor penthouse overlooking St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the River Thames.

A JTRE spokesman said the company “complied with all applicable legal and regulatory requirements.” 

A person involved in the sale of the apartments at Triptych Bankside said Su Jiangbo’s purchases did not raise any red flags. 

“From memory, it went through relatively straightforwardly,” said the individual, who requested anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to journalists.

They said Su Jiangbo never visited the development, which boasts 169 apartments.

“He had a certain amount of money he wanted to spend and he wanted a certain number of units,” the person said. “There was an opportunity to do a bulk deal, which obviously when you’re selling 169 apartments is very attractive, to say the least.” 

The person noted that developers are not subject to any legal requirement to carry out anti-money laundering checks, adding: “We rely on the agents and the lawyers.” 

Zhong Lun Law Firm, Riseam Sharples, and Ackroyd Legal LLP — law firms that records show represented Su Jiangbo’s companies in the conveyancing of his apartment purchases — did not respond to multiple requests for comment by email and phone. There is no suggestion that these firms didn’t carry out required anti-money laundering checks. 

“The anti-money laundering legislation that the agents and the solicitors have to go through is pretty strenuous,” said the person involved in the Triptych Bankside purchases. “We lost three or four deals because certain purchases couldn’t pass some of the anti-money laundering checks that are required.” 

New builds can be especially attractive to people looking to launder money through real estate, according to Ben Cowdock of the Transparency International’s U.K. chapter, which assisted OCCRP in acquiring conveyancing documents.

“Criminals can buy from developers off-plan and in bulk, often with fewer questions asked than in the resale market, and then generate apparently legitimate rental income,” said Cowdock, who was speaking generally and not about Su Jiangbo. 

“A targeted programme of enhanced guidance and enforcement is needed to ensure that solicitors handling new-build sales are conducting robust checks,” he said. 

The person involved in Su Jiangbo’s purchases at Triptych Bankside agreed that the regulations are not precise enough to ensure thoroughness in all cases.

“If you don’t ask the right questions — about multiple nationalities for instance — people aren’t necessarily going to volunteer that info, particularly if they’re malevolent,” they said. 

Unexplained Wealth Orders

As part of an attempt to halt suspicious funds flowing into U.K. real estate, the Conservative government led by Prime Minister Theresa May introduced Unexplained Wealth Orders, which came into force in 2018.

Alicia Kearns, an MP with the Conservative Party, now in opposition, said the orders were intended to “target and hunt down criminal money launderers and protect our markets.”

“These powers must be used to their full extent — including the seizure of criminal assets,” she added.

While anti-corruption advocates applauded the U.K. for introducing Unexplained Wealth Orders, they are not a silver bullet, as OCCRP has reported

The orders enable authorities to investigate the provenance of a person’s assets. But even if the owner fails to satisfactorily explain how they acquired an asset, there’s no guarantee it will end up being confiscated. Prosecutors might begin civil recovery proceedings in the High Court to seize it, but the owner can still contest the proposed forfeiture before a judge, and appeal if things don’t go their way.

In Su Jiangbo’s case, the High Court issued the orders on his properties on 18 March. He will have three months to prove that the money used to purchase the properties was lawfully obtained, or he could risk having them seized. 

Serbian independent watchdogs are sounding the alarm ahead of Sunday’s local elections, warning that the ruling party has transformed small municipal races into a heavily funded national battleground plagued by massive, opaque spending and the deployment of American ultra-right “phantom” election monitors.

Fewer than 250,000 voters across 10 municipalities will head to the polls this weekend. Yet, for President Aleksandar Vučić and his ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), the stakes extend far beyond local governance. 

Vučić recently headlined a massive pre-election rally in Belgrade, effectively turning Sunday’s vote into a dress rehearsal for national polls expected by 2027, amid ongoing student protests demanding snap elections.

Against this tense backdrop, the SNS is pouring vast resources into small towns like Aranđelovac and Majdanpek. According to preliminary reports analyzed by the watchdog group Transparency Serbia (Transparentnost), the ruling party transferred 35.2 million dinars ($344,982) from its main account specifically to bankroll its local campaigns, alongside an 11.8 million dinar ($115,647) advance for national television ads.

This partisan financial muscle dwarfs the 10 municipalities’ combined public campaign subsidy of just 10.7 million dinars ($104,859). 

The official figures only show a fraction of the real money at play. Nemanja Nenadić, program director at Transparency Serbia, told OCCRP that the exact amount spent is unknown because “only a small part of the money passes through legal channels.”

“There are very serious suspicions that a significant part of the campaign is not financed in any way that complies with the law,” said Nenadić. He dismissed the preliminary financial reports as “quite useless” for omitting the final weeks of the race and hiding unpaid debts. Instead, he noted, the true costs are quietly buried in public budgets and the misuse of state personnel.

Yet, the most alarming anomaly of Sunday’s vote will likely unfold inside the polling stations. The electoral landscape has been flooded with foreign observers. In the lead-up to the vote, Serbian authorities rapidly approved monitoring missions from three U.S. organizations tied to the MAGA movement of President Donald Trump, including the America First Policy Institute.

“The appearance of foreign quasi-observers is a step further in destroying the integrity of the elections,” Raša Nedeljkov, program director at the Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA), told OCCRP. Instead of observing neutrally, he said, they act as “supervisors” for ruling party polling chiefs, even utilizing an SNS lawmaker as a translator.

This strategy directly mirrors a playbook used during local elections in Georgia last October. With independent watchdogs crippled by the state, Georgia brought in a network of 29 foreign “fake observers,” according to the European Platform for Democratic Elections.

That network included right-wing American operatives Jake Hoffman, an executive with the Florida Young Republicans, and Jay Patel. Both men, affiliated with the Hungary-based Center for Fundamental Rights, publicly praised Georgia’s heavily criticized elections. Now, local media reports indicate Hoffman and Patel are slated to monitor Sunday’s vote in Serbia.

State-aligned organizations are aggressively defending the American presence. The Center for Social Stability (CZDS) confirmed its partnership with the America First Policy Institute. Bizarrely tying Balkan municipal races to American culture wars, CZDS claimed that criticism of the monitors was an attack on “patriotism, tradition, a healthy family and sovereignty.” The group explicitly referenced conservative U.S. activist Charlie Kirk and past efforts to build a “Trump Tower” in Belgrade.

The manipulation appears to extend to the ballots themselves. Of the 50 registered electoral lists, CRTA suspects 19 are “phantom” groups deliberately designed to confuse voters and dilute genuine opposition.

The ruling party, however, routinely dismisses allegations of financial and electoral malpractice. Responding to recent undercover media reports that the SNS paid citizens to attend Vučić’s Belgrade rally, Parliament Speaker and party top official Ana Brnabić called the accusations “nonsense..” As reported by the Tanjug news agency, Brnabić also lashed out at CRTA, labeling the watchdog’s previous reports of electoral coercion as “monstrosities.”

These heavy-handed tactics echo recent history. The Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS) reported that during November 2025 local elections in several other municipalities, the ruling party spent triple the amount of previous cycles. Those elections were marred by severe violence, with masked men and unmarked cars terrorizing polling stations in full view of the police.

Just hours after war broke out in the Middle East last month, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned the Security Council that the fighting risked “igniting a chain of events that no one can control in the most volatile region of the world.”