The investment group Quartell Trading, which, according to the US, is managed by the Russian mafia and is linked to the Russian government, transferred at least $ 900,000 to the accounts of the company owned by a businessman involved in the chemical weapons development program in Syria. On Saturday, June 17, CNN reports with reference to the documents available to the TV company.

It is alleged that, according to records from 2007 and 2008, the investment group originally agreed to transfer more than three million dollars to the accounts of Balec Trading Ventures, according to official data - to purchase expensive furniture. Of this amount, not less than 900 thousand. Both companies are registered in the Virgin Islands.

The US Department of Justice claims that Quartell Trading was one of many companies through which about a decade ago large amounts of money allegedly stolen from the Russian budget by the so-called "Klyuev group". Some of these episodes became part of the case of Sergei Magnitsky. Balec Trading Ventures is owned by a Syrian with a Russian passport Issa al-Zeidi, who has been on the US Ministry of Finance's sanctions list since 2014 because of his links with a Syrian organization allegedly developing chemical weapons, including the production of sarin.

According to the US Congress and Justice Department, the Russian criminal association, called the Klyuyev group, consists of former and current employees of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, two tax departments and the FSB. According to US data, in 2007 the "Klyuev group" conspired to take control of three subsidiaries associated with Moscow's Hermitage Capital Management, at that time - the largest hedge fund in Russia, where he worked as Sergei Magnitsky.

The group fabricated multimillion-dollar losses for companies that were taken under control. This allowed fraudsters to file a tax refund claim of $ 230 million. The payment was made in full one day - on the eve of the Catholic Christmas of 2007. A significant part of this amount has since been dispersed and frozen in bank accounts around the world.

"Sergei Magnitsky discovered even more than he himself understood, and more than we realized even after the adoption of the Magnitsky law," CNN's Daniel Fried, the former US policy coordinator for sanctions.

Another case related to the "Kluyev group" continues in Switzerland. Here the investigators rely on evidence provided by the Russian financier Alexander Perepilik. He admitted that for some time he was the main "launderer" of money for the grouping. The financier passed away in November 2012, according to official figures - from cardiac arrest while jogging. Rehpilich was engaged in exposing theft and money laundering in Russia.

DW.