Russian Crime Bosses hit by U.S. sanctions - Pandora Papers

In 2016 the U.S. passed the Global Magnitsky Act, which allows the U.S. State and Treasury departments to name and shame corrupt actors.

Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov

In 2017 they hit a group of 10 Russians and others connected to major organized-crime syndicates with sanctions. The syndicate targeted is known as "Thieves-in-Law" which is widely used to describe powerful organized-crime figures. The group engaged in money laundering, extortion, bribery, and robbery in Russia, Europe, and the U.S. Among those targeted was Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov, who had been indicted twice in the U.S., once in 2013 and for the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Gafur Rakhimov

Also included was Gafur Rakhimov, an Uzbek native renowned throughout former Soviet Central Asia and accused of money laundering, drug trafficking, and other crimes. Others were Vladimir Tyurin, Ruben Tatulian, and Yury Pichugin.

Vladimir Tyurin

Vladimir Bogdanov, Oleg Deripaska, Suleiman Kerimov, Igor Rotenberg, Kirill Shamalov, Andrei Skoch, and Viktor Vekselberg were added the following year, along with a dozen of their 'oligarch owned companies'. The Pandora Papers revealed the bite. It has meant a loss of hundreds of millions, as the impact of sanctions rippled across a hidden corner of what critics call Russia’s kleptocracy. Sanctions are not only hitting their Russian targets, but are then triggering losses that spread across their interconnected financial networks. The documents contain material on at least 46 Russian oligarchs who appear on the Forbes list of billionaires.