The European Union Has Joined the Money Laundering Investigation of the $230m of Stolen Money Exposed by Sergei Magnitsky

February 25, 2013

Finan­cial intel­li­gence experts from six EU mem­ber states have joined forces to inves­ti­gate the mon­ey laun­der­ing trail uncov­ered and exposed by late whis­tle-blow­ing Russ­ian lawyer Sergei Mag­nit­sky, report­ed EU Observer. 
“The FIUs are work­ing on the case and there will be a fol­low-up meet­ing before the sum­mer,” a source at the EU Com­mis­sion told EU Observer.
Accord­ing to the EU Observ­er, the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion has formed a joint inves­ti­ga­tion at a meet­ing of the Finan­cial Intel­li­gence Units plat­form on 7 Feb­ru­ary (http://euobserver.com/magnitsky/119156).
The EU Finan­cial Intel­li­gence Units’ Plat­form is a group set up in 2006 by the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion, which gath­ers finan­cial intel­li­gence units from the mem­ber states. Its main pur­pose is to facil­i­tate coop­er­a­tion among nation­al finan­cial intel­li­gence units.
Pri­or to his arrest and death in cus­tody, Mr Mag­nit­sky gave tes­ti­mo­ny detail­ing how a group of Russ­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials and orga­nized crim­i­nals stole com­pa­nies from his client, the Her­mitage Fund, and $230 mil­lion they had paid in tax­es to the Russ­ian trea­sury. The Mag­nit­sky inves­ti­ga­tion iden­ti­fied that the thefts from the bud­get were sys­tem­at­ic and took place through the same Russ­ian tax offices both before and after the $230 mil­lion theft.
“As EU coun­tries start coop­er­at­ing and shar­ing infor­ma­tion, even­tu­al­ly the whole mon­ey laun­der­ing scheme will become crys­tal clear,” said a Her­mitage Cap­i­tal representative.

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