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Money-laundering ring used about 300 accounts

As a tangential part of a money laundering investigation of the Bank of New York, police officials in several European countries this week detained more than 50 people suspected of involvement in a network that funneled millions of dollars from Russia through Western banks and companies. Orders were issued to freeze roughly 300 bank accounts in Europe and North America.

The raids appeared to confirm concerns in several West European countries that large-scale laundering of money obtained illegally in Russia continues through seemingly legitimate businesses.

Italian investigators said that the arrests grew out of a little-noticed investigation into Russian organized-crime activity in an area of northeastern Italy near the seaside resort of Rimini. Russian business people became particularly active there after the Soviet collapse, buying consumer goods like clothing and shoes for the Russian market.

Officials said some of the money had been funneled through accounts of the Benex Corp. and related accounts at the Bank of New York. Benex and the bank were at the center of a federal money laundering investigation in the US in the 1990s.

The investigators said that by examining bank and commercial records they were able to uncover a criminal network of mainly Russian and Italian business people. Of those detained, about 20 are being held in Italy, 12 in France and Monte Carlo, and the remainder in several other European countries and Canada. About half are Russian.

They investigators said authorities had confiscated large amounts of commercial records that could cast further light on the network and lead to further arrests.

The investigators said much of the activity appeared to focus on a Rimini marketing company called Prima, which is controlled by Oleg Berezovsky, a 36-year-old emigre. It was unclear, they said, whether Berezovsky was related to Boris Berezovsky, a high-profile Russian businessman often suspected of organized crime links. Oleg Berezovsky's brother Igor, owner of a Paris-based trading company, Kama Trade, was detained by the French police in the western French city of Rennes. The investigators said the arrests were made Monday and Tuesday.

The investigators said that another Russian detained in France, Andreas Marissov, 38, an associate of the Berezovskys, is suspected of supplying funds and other support to rebel groups in Chechnya.

The investigators also cited telephone intercepts and commercial records as evidence linking the suspect West European businesses with money made from criminal activity in Russia. Money was passed through Western bank accounts to the seemingly legitimate businesses in France, Italy and elsewhere in Western Europe. From there, they said, it was reinvested in legal and illegal enterprises.

The operation, the investigators said, may have laundered in the billions of dollars, but they did not specify exact amounts. Prostitution, drug sales, tax evasion and protection rackets were some of the sources of the funds in Russia, they said.

Vladimir Vassarenko, a 34-year-old Russian, was a significant figure in the early stages of the investigation, they said. Along with a business associate, Simon Bakhchinyan, Vassarenko is suspected of having broadened his activities to include smuggling artworks and illegal immigrants, including young East European women going to work in the West as prostitutes.
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