Radical change of criteria. Considering that it could not be proved that a Russian mafia had laundered millions of euros in Spain from organized crime in this country to convict an alleged figurehead and order the seizure of the 400,000 euros he kept in a bank. The National Court, in a ruling signed by the magistrates Felix Alfonso Guevara Marco, Carolina Rius Alarcó and Ana María Rubio Encinas sentenced on December 23, 2021 Irina Ussova, the sister of Alexander Malyshev’s partner, one of the considered dangerous bosses of the Saint Petersburg mafia, called ‘Malysevhscaya’, for money laundering to one year in prison and one fine of two million euros. That is why the magistrates decreed the seizure of the balance of an account that this woman had blocked in Spainwhich had 416,167 euros.
This change of opinion, which was hatched while Vladimir Putin’s troops went to the borders of Ukraine, endorses the theses of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Officewho from the first moment considered it proven that Irina Ussova acted as a figurehead for her sister Olga Solovieva, who led an impressive lifestyle in a coastal town in the province of Malaga, despite the fact that she did not carry out any work activity that justified it. Prosecutor José Grinda, who was threatened with death by another member of Russian organized crime, demanded four years in prison for this womanas an integral part of the Russian mafia clan.
The National Court had previously judged other members of the mafia clan, whom it had paradoxically acquitted, considering that the connection of some figureheads with the Malyshev criminal organization could not be assured. Specifically, from Ussova the magistrates had determined that the money that this woman had in a financial institution in Spain, the 416,167 that were now seized, did not show that they came from criminal activity. That link could not be proven, despite the fact that she had opened other accounts in Spain in her name, and that she had granted a power of attorney to her sister so that they could dispose of significant amounts of money with which they bought homes and even the yacht called ‘Standing Ovation’.
Hungary, Estonia and Cyprus
This money came from Hungary, Estonia, Latvia and Switzerland, but above all from Cyprus, a country of the European Union since 2004 that has refused to provide information on the origin of most of the money that the mafia led by Malyshev laundered in Spain. This ruling, from 2018, also did not consider it proven that Ussova belonged to an association dedicated to introducing money from crimes into Spain, despite the fact that she did not speak Spanish and had left control of the accounts to her sister, the partner of the leader of the mafia.
That is why this last sentence of December 2021 is an important milestone in the fight against Russian mafias, given that the magistrates now consider that money laundering can be proven. In the trial that took place in the National High Court, it was possible to verify, thanks to the recordings and documents discovered by the Police during the searches required by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, that Olga Solovieva “gave instructions” on the fate of the money from Cyprus to Nicolay Ergorovichwhom he commissioned on a monthly basis to make transfers to his sister Ussova, whom he also ordered to go to a bank for check stubs, which he had to sign.
The Spanish police investigation revealed that Malyshev was forced to leave Russia in the middle of the criminal gang war in St. Petersburg. He first settled in Sweden and finally in Spain, at which time he returned to access the leadership of the mafia in this town, from which the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is from.
An ‘army’ of 2,000 ‘soldiers’
Malyshev managed to unify organized crime in the former Leningrad by allying with Gennadios Petrov and Sergei Kuzmin. This powerful new criminal organization then brought together 25 different groups that had an ‘army’ of 2,000 ‘soldiers’with whom they achieved a monopoly on organized crime in Saint Petersburg, the second largest city in the Russian Federation.
From this moment on, the criminal organization, already called Tambovskaya-Malyshevskaya, began to expand its tentacles in order to launder the huge amounts of money they obtained in Russia. Created at least two companies in Cyprusa country that came to be considered one of the main refuges of the Russian oligarchs and gangsters. These firms, whose name was SBZ Investment and Kingdra LTD, were the ones that sent money in Spain to the figurehead Irina Ussova.
But in the first trial, the magistrates did not appreciate that in reality this money from Cyprus was property of the clan, which assured that they were payments in exchange for legitimate work that had been carried out in Germany. But now the National Court maintains that this relationship went further, since Malyshev and his partner, Olga Solovieva, kept in their house the bank movements of the Cypriot entities that sent money to Spain, and with which maintained a high standard of living: “Their involvement is much greater”, highlights the sentence.
Maneuvers from Cyprus
The magistrates point out that Olga Solovieva established the company Peresvet SL, and transferred part of the shares of this company to a man named Alexander Lagnas González, who was actually the leader of the mafia clan, Alexander Malyshev. This, in turn, acted on behalf of the Cypriot company Kingdra LTD. This couple would also have used the services of the Russian citizen Serguey Bochishchev in the second company of the Mediterranean island, SBZ Investmentbecause according to the Spanish Police he had acted as a figurehead putting the company in his name.
“Of the tests carried out […] it has been proven that [el dinero] came from the criminal activity carried out by Alexander Malyshev in Russia“, complete the magistrates, who emphasize that those investigated did not clarify the origin of the money, at the same time that Cyprus, according to the Spanish Police, did not provide the information that was required about the companies and the justification of the funds.
“The police officer who participated in the preparation of the reports said at the trial that they could not determine the origin of the funds that were deposited in the accounts of Irina Ussova because the Cyprus authorities did not cooperate and did not provide them with that information“, continues the sentence, which justifies that for this reason they concluded that the illicit origin of the money that entered their Spanish accounts for the benefit of the family formed by Olga Solovieva and Alexander Malyshev had not been proven.
“Radically different situation”
“But the situation in this trial is radically different. Irina Ussova has declared and her testimony has been decisive in determining the criminal origin of the money that entered her Spanish accounts“, conclude the magistrates, who in this way give a 180-degree swerve.
In addition, and contrary to what was declared by this presumed figurehead, the judgment considers it proven that Ussova had “more than enough” data and evidence to know that she was laundering money for her sister: “”They were going to be used to enter capital that came from the criminal activity of Alexander Malyshev in Russia and knowing it, he decided to go ahead”, say the judges, in the sentence, to which he has had access THE NEWSPAPER OF SPAINa medium that belongs to the same editorial group as this newspaper, and whose condemnation of Ussova was advanced ‘ABC‘.
“If it is already abnormal to open bank accounts in a country where you do not live, do not have businesses, roots, or the ability to function alone in a bankmore illogical is that Irina Ussova did not ask Solovieva what were the reasons for wanting to use her accounts, nor that she spontaneously gave them to her and that she executed such a request without knowing what Olga Solovieva and Alexander Malyshev worked for, what legal sources of income they had known at the same time the criminal record of Alexander Malyshev”, continue the magistrates, who conclude in their sentence: “It is not necessary to make any effort to, in these circumstances, realize that such an abnormal situation was due to the fact that something was being hidden.money in this case, so that it would not appear in the name of the true owner and the only reasonable explanation for this is because it was money from crimes, because if it were of legal origin it would not be hidden”.