New Zealand shell companies may have played a part in the biggest money-laundering operation in Eastern Europe.
A recent investigation by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) exposed an enormous US$20 billion ($24.4 billion) transfer of dirty Russian funds, dubbed ”the Laundromat”.
The complex movement of cash, between 2010 and early this year, was allegedly facilitated by judges, well-connected officials, banks and offshore companies – including at least one New Zealand firm.