Altair Holding SA bought a 75% stake in Keremet Bank in Kyrgyzstan on Christmas Day 2024, enabling sanctions evasion and cross-border payments tied to Promsvyazbank, a Russian state-owned bank.

Phase two revealed laundered funds moved through Keremet Bank, secretly purchased in late 2024 by Altair Holding SA linked to a Kyrgyz bank, used to move money for Promsvyazbank.

Two networks previously exposed by the NCA, TGR and Smart, laundered for cybercrime, drugs and firearms, helping Russian clients bypass restrictions to invest in the UK, with Smart led by Ekaterina Zhdanova and TGR by Georgy Rossi.

Over £5.1 million in cash and substantial cryptocurrency have been seized in the UK over the past year, with international authorities seizing an additional $24 million and 128 arrests tied to the operation.

Security Minister Dan Jarvis says the operation aims to detect, disrupt, and prosecute activity for hostile foreign states and will not be tolerated on UK streets.

The National Crime Agency leads Operation Destabilise to disrupt a Russian-linked money-laundering network moving cash from drugs, firearms, and immigration crime into cryptocurrency across at least 28 UK cities.

US officials previously flagged Keremet Bank for helping the Kremlin evade sanctions, linking the network to sanctions evasion and Russia’s military-industrial complex.

The NCA warns that while it has delivered a serious blow, the threat persists and continued arrests, prosecutions, and sanctions are needed to sustain pressure on similar networks.

Sanctions actions target key figures and entities, including OFAC-designated individuals and Altair Holding SA (linked to Rossi), in response to Russia’s attempts to exploit Kyrgyz financial systems and crypto networks.

Authorities say the billion-dollar laundering network uses a bank bought by a network-linked company to facilitate cross-border payments for Russian state-linked interests and illicit actors across 28 UK locations.

A new public awareness campaign in English and Russian aims to deter money couriers by detailing legal risks and sanctions, signaling ongoing disruption of the laundering ecosystem for the Russian state.

The network’s global footprint includes owning Keremet Bank in Kyrgyzstan to finance Russian military needs and purchasing items for the Russian military through the laundering service.

Overall, 128 arrests and substantial international cooperation show how local drug markets connect to global state-sponsored crime and geopolitical tensions.

Sal Melki, Deputy Director for Economic Crime at the NCA, notes a thread from a Friday-night cocaine purchase to geopolitical events, underscoring links to geopolitics, sanctions evasion, and state-sponsored activity.

Officials highlight the link between local drug dealing and high-level geopolitical, sanctions-evading, and state-linked financial activity, showing the pervasiveness of these crime networks.

The NCA says the network facilitated Russian espionage and state-linked activities, with connections to a seaside spy ring jailed earlier and involvement of Russian intelligence funding Bulgarian spies.

On Christmas Day 2024, Altair acquired a 75% stake in Keremet Bank, sanctioned for facilitating cross-border payments for Promsvyazbank, linked to Russia’s military industrial complex.

Key figures linked to these networks include Ekaterina Zhdanova, Khadzi-Murat Magomedov, Nikita Krasnov, George Rossi, Elena Chirkinyan, and Andrejs Bradens, with Ilan Shor mentioned in sanctions context.

The Smart network, chaired by Ekaterina Zhdanova, is sanctioned by the US and tied to the Kinahan crime group through a Kyrgyzstan-based bank involved in supplying the Russian military.

In the UK, most activity involves couriers delivering cash to be converted into crypto, often in car parks along motorways, prompting the NCA to warn of long prison terms for relatively small payments.

Recent court outcomes include sentences totaling 13 years for two men and a three-year sentence for Giorgi Tabatadze for laundering millions, illustrating cash courier and crypto conversion flows.