Spain 'cracks $300m money racket'

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BBC

Police in Spain say they have smashed a massive international money-laundering ring centred on the southern coastal resort of Marbella.

Forty-one people of at least five nationalities were arrested.

The group is suspected of laundering more than $300m (£155m) for gangs involved in murder, drug trafficking, arms dealing and prostitution.

Spanish authorities said they suspected some of the cash was illegally siphoned from Russian oil company Yukos.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4344447.stm

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1. Yukos. We'll have to keep an eye on that one. nt

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2. Update: 41arrests, Yukos links....(The Independent, 14 March)

Spanish police crack huge money-laundering racket
By Elizabeth Nash in Madrid and Andrew Osborn in Moscow
14 March 2005


Forty one people have been arrested in the resort of Marbella on suspicion of organising Europe's biggest money-laundering network, linked to Russia, America and Canada and worth at least €250m (£175m).

Funds were said to be illegally siphoned by mafia gangs from the troubled Russian petroleum company Yukos with the co-operation of at least one corrupt company employee, the Interior Ministry said.

Police sources said "huge sums" were transferred from Yukos's Russian bank accounts, apparently without the knowledge of the company or Russian tax authorities. "They seem to have been ripping Yukos off," a source close to the inquiry said.

Yukos, which has been engaged in a stand-off with the Russian government over unpaid back taxes, said yesterday it had no knowledge of the matter and denied any involvement in money-laundering. "It's nonsense. You might as well say we were laundering money on Mars," Alexander Shadrin, a company spokesman, said.

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=619661

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3. Update, Guardian: extradition moves

Spanish arrests put Yukos in dock

Bosses fight extradition from UK

Terry Macalister
Monday March 14, 2005
The Guardian

London-based executives from struggling Russian oil group Yukos will today fight to prevent themselves being extradited at a case being heard at Bow Street magistrates court.

The legal battle comes as more than 40 people were arrested in Spain yesterday over a possible €250m (£172m) money-laundering operation at the energy company founded by jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

A team acting for Yukos lawyer Svetlana Bakhmina will also this week try to find new ways to secure the release of the mother of two, who has been on hunger strike for a fortnight in Moscow.

Her lawyers believe Ms Bakhmina - who has been held for three months with no rights even to speak by telephone to her children - is being used as a "hostage" to encourage her boss to return from Britain. She is charged with the theft of property worth 18bn roubles (£340m) from a Yukos subsidiary in 1998.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1436882,00.html