The ‘Russian Laundromat’ (a term coined by the team of journalists at the OCCRP who uncovered it) was a complicated scheme, run between 2010 and 2014, to launder up to $80 billion out of Russia. It was based on fictitious debts between companies in the jurisdictions to which criminals and corrupt Russian officials wanted to send their money. The debts between these companies were authenticated by Moldovan judges, such that all transfers were backed by a European court order and appeared exceptionally ‘clean’.

This KYC360 graphic case study explains how the Russian Laundromat worked.