An Instagram photo showing a Bentley Continental GT V8 doing 250 kilometers an hour reads “We take off. #IAmRocket #Gagarin.” Elina Cobaleva, a Russian celebrity stylist, sits behind the wheel. She is the ex-wife of Veaceslav Platon, a Moldovan businessman, and one of the country’s richest men. The two were married in 2001 and divorced...
Behind the superstructure of banks, courts, and businesses real and fake that comprised the Laundromat are three Russian businessmen whose firms took in enormous sums – Alexey Krapivin, Georgy Gens, and Sergy Girdin. Last year’s Panama Papers leak of secret financial documents revealed the three to be the real owners of a number of offshore...
As Russian tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky slowly died in a Russian prison from abuse and neglect, US$230 million (5.4 billion Russian Rubles) in taxes stolen from his client disappeared into a maze of phantom companies, crooked banks and offshore accounts. Magnitsky, accused of the largest tax scam in Russian state history despite being the whistleblower...
As Belgrade slept on the night of Nov. 28, 2015, the giant turbofan engines of a Belarusian Ruby Star Ilyushin II-76 cargo plane roared into life, its hull laden with arms destined for faraway conflicts. Rising from the tarmac of Nikola Tesla airport, the hulking aircraft pierced the Serbian mist to head towards Jeddah, Saudi...
Over the past 13 months, at least 68 cargo flights from Serbia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Czech Republic have carried thousands of tons of munitions to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Jordan, three key suppliers of the Syrian rebels. Of the 68 flights identified, 50 were officially confirmed to have carried arms and...
At Heydar Aliyev Airport in Baku, you can always count on the business class checkin line at the Azerbaijan Airlines Prague flight being just as long as the one for economy class. That’s because Azerbaijan’s ruling clique have made the Czech Republic a favored destination in recent years. They have come not just as high-end...