Europol joins hunt on EU-Russia money laundering

The EU’s joint police body, Europol, is hunting Russian mafia money laundered in EU banks.

The operation was revealed in a report by an investigator in the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, Swiss MP Andreas Gross, out on Tuesday (25 June).

The paper says: “On 25 April 2013, a meeting took place at Europol in The Hague to … co-ordinate the investigation by anti-money-laundering experts of a number of countries concerned by transfers of funds originating in the tax reimbursement fraud denounced by Sergei Magnitsky.”

Europol declined to comment, citing confidentiality rules.

But EUobserver understands that Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Switzerland took part in the event.

Gross urged the EU agency “to follow the ‘money trail’ wherever it leads.”

He added: “Russian authorities should be at the forefront of such an action, as it is the money of the Russian people that was stolen.”