Russian Laundromat
The Russian Laundromat was a scheme to move $20–80 billion out of Russia from 2010 to 2014 through a network of global banks, many of them in Moldova and Latvia.[2] The analyzed documents contained the details of approximately 70,000 banking transactions, according to Bloomberg, with 1,920 firms in the UK and 373 in the US involved.[9] In 1998, Platon entered politics as a member of the Municipal Council of Chișinău on the lists of the electoral bloc of agrarians.[3] On 20 March 2017 the British paper The Guardian reported that hundreds of banks had helped launder KGB-related funds out of Russia, as uncovered by the investigation named Global Laundromat.[3] On 27 March 2017, The Herald in Scotland reported that Scottish shell companies were used as part of the scheme, estimated at $5 billion.[5] By June 2017 the UK watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority, had demanded information from HSBC and the Royal Bank of Scotland concerning the Russian Laundromat.[3] More than $6 billion was fraudulently moved, laundered or embezzled from Kazakhstan's BTA Bank by its former chairman and CEO Mukhtar Ablyazov.[14] In response to the reports, HSBC stated that it was against financial crime and that the case "highlights the need for greater information sharing between the public and private sectors".