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A wealthy Russian businessman has been arrested at his multi-million pound London home by National Crime Agency officers on suspicion of money laundering.
The 58-year-old man was arrested on Thursday by officers from the NCA’s anti-kleptocracy unit and is also suspected of conspiracy to defraud the Home Office and conspiracy to commit perjury, the NCA said in a statement.
According to the agency, a 35-year-old man working at the premises was arrested on suspicion of money laundering and obstruction of an NCA officer after he was seen leaving the premises with a bag containing thousands of pounds in cash.
A third man, aged 39, was arrested at his home in Pimlico, London, for offenses including money laundering and conspiracy to defraud. The NCA said he is the ex-boyfriend of the businessman’s current partner.
Investigators interviewed the trio and released them on bail. Around 50 officers were involved in the operation at the businessman’s London property and the search yielded a significant sum of money as well as a number of digital devices, the NCA said.
The operation is one of a number of investigations by the agency’s new Combating Kleptocracy Cell, which was set up in July to investigate corrupt elites in the UK and individuals linked to the Kremlin laundering their assets.
In a statement on Saturday, the NCA said it had secured nearly 100 “interventions” against Putin-linked elites and supporters – actions that eliminate or reduce a criminal threat. It included orders to freeze accounts on bank accounts held by individuals close to sanctioned Russians.
The NCA has also targeted the sale of high-value assets used by auction houses to disguise the movement of assets, it said.
NCA Director-General Graeme Bigger said: “The NCA’s Combating Kleptocracy Cell, which was established just this year, is significant in investigating the potential criminal activity of oligarchs, the professional service providers who support and enable them and those with Russian links. Getting success. rule.”
He added: “We will continue to use all the forces and tactics at our disposal to disrupt this threat.”
The NCA said it had helped freeze a number of properties, eight yachts and four aircraft, and was working with the embargo regulator, the Financial Sanctions Enforcement Office, as well as global partners to ensure other assets in the UK were frozen. Target illegal assets held abroad.
The update comes after government figures revealed last month that Britain had frozen more than £18bn of Russian assets in response to the war in Ukraine.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February, the UK government has frozen the assets of 120 Russian entities and more than 1,200 individuals linked to the Kremlin, including former Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich and energy company chief executive Alexei Miller. Gazprom.
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