A BENIDORM court has green-lit the trial of a Russian mafia money laundering gang operating on the Costa Blanca- five years after they were arrested.
Prosecutors have requested six-year jail terms for each of the five defendants.
They have been accused of money laundering and organised crime activities via investments in the real estate, hospitality and leisure sectors across Alicante province and in the Balearic Islands.
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In addition to the two three-year prison sentences requested for each crime, the prosecution wants fines totalling more than €22 million euros for four of the defendants—all Russian except for one Ukrainian.
The financial penalties asked for range from €600,000 to €8,221,000, and the prosecution also demands the confiscation of the money seized in various accounts and confiscated property.
Among those charged is an Altea-based Russian lawyer and real estate agency owner, Alexey Shorikov, whom the judge described as a lobbyist for the Partido Popular(PP).
The prosecution maintains Shorikov created a network of contacts with public officials in Alicante province and with police officers to benefit his clients.
40 people were either arrested or investigated by the Policia Nacional in December 2020 in what the force called at the time, the biggest move to counter ‘East European-mafia for a decade’.
Operation Testudo focused on the Marina Baixa area with arrests in Altea and Finestrat, as well as in Alicante City.
Detainees included current and ex-PP councillors from Benidorm and Altea, as well as Guardia Civil and Policia Nacional officers.
Proceedings against some of those was dismissed due to a lack of evidence, while action against 18 others had to be dismissed.
That followed the Alicante Provincial Court annulling a summons for the defendants to testify, as it was issued outside the investigation period and had not been extended due to a judicial mistake,
The prosecution indictment said that in 2013, the police detected ‘unusual capital movements’ carried out by Russians in Alicante province.
They received large money transfers from companies located in the United Arab Emirates and from other businesses in Latvia and the United Kingdom linked to the energy industry.
The origin of these funds was ‘not sufficiently justified’ and the transactions were of ‘dubious legality’.
They involved ‘substantial sums of money being moved between Spain and Russia without attracting the attention of the authorities’- according to prosecutors.
Suspected laundering included the purchase of homes in La Nucía and Altea, land in Formentera, and an agreement to lease a hotel complex in Ibiza for €6m per year,
One of the defendants is the Ukrainian hacker Denis K, from Alicante.
He was convicted by the National Court for defrauding banks of five million euros by using a programme that allowed cash withdrawals from ATMs in several countries.
The prosecutor maintains another defendant used Denis K to launder some of his profits linked to the Ibiza hotel,
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