Golden youth: The new face of Russian money laundering and sanctions evasion

The new face of Russian money laundering and sanctions evasion is much younger, highly educated, multilingual, and tech savvy–the golden youth.

According to Ilia Shumanov, a member of Transparency International Russia in Exile (TI Russia)’s board and a managing partner at the TriTrace investigative bureau: “There is term ‘global Russiansʼ. It’s the international community from Russia. Letʼs call these people the ‘golden youthʼ. They’re around the Russian higher officials. They’re well connected. They have a good education.”

Many of the ‘golden youthʼ have lived outside Russia for most of their lives and may have multiple citizenships and therefore multiple passports.

It takes a bit of digging to identify them, however, because the connection to a sanctioned individuals or other elites may not be obvious. In some cases, the connections will be even more subtle and harder to identify.  

Once they are identified, however, a network of connections unfolds, revealing the wealthy Gen Z and millennial Russians linked to each other through elite private schools in the UK and elsewhere. They travel together on business jets; some are directors of companies with each other or their parents.

While it is critical to note that most global Russians are not party to criminal activity, Shumanov suggests some could be the “targets”, of the Russian authorities for example, “to recruit them; maybe to use them in some criminal schemes, especially if they have relatives who are also well connected”.

Operation Destabilise’s golden youth

Among them is Semen Kuksov, the son of Vladimir Kuksov, former chairman of AKROS, a leading Russian oil field service company. As one of many privileged young Russians who came to the UK as a child to attend elite private schools and go on to university, Kuksov junior lived in a £1 million flat in Kensington, London. Vladimir Kuksov has no connection whatsoever with his son’s crimes.

Semen was sentenced to five years and seven months for taking a “superintending role” in a cash-to-crypto money laundering operation that extended to France, Ireland, India, Australia and Dubai.

Later that year, the UK National Crime Agency’s (NCA) Operation Destabilise revealed he was also part of a multi-billion-pound Russian money laundering network, working with drug traffickers, ransomware gangs and spies. According to the NCA, the network — which operates in the UK, Middle East, Russia and South America — is connected to the Kinahan organised crime group (KOCG).

UK authorities have since linked him to other criminal activities. Semen Kuksov’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.

Crypto savvy

As a Gen Z money launderer, Semen Kuksov joins the ranks of other Russians of his generation from similar backgrounds who have been involved in sanctions evasion and money laundering and who also use cryptocurrencies.

“The Generation Z are a new type of criminal. They’re not bandits or racketeers from the street. These are finance guys who, like Kuksov, trained in business, understand crypto, speak English and are well connected,” Shumanov said.

“His motivation, it’s not only the money, but also he’s challenging the system. He could be the brilliant financier in an investment bank, but he moved in a different direction. Perhaps that was because of his environment and maybe other side is because he is a Russian, and Russians are not very welcome now in investment banking,” he speculated.

Nikita Krasnov, one of the main operators of the Smart Group who worked with Kuksov to launder money, is also Gen Z, he added.

Ekaterina Zhdanova, aged 39, sanctioned by the US Department of the Treasury‘s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in 2023 for her lead role the Smart Group helping Russian oligarchs to move money to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). She moved $100 million to the UAE on behalf of an oligarch, and facilitated tax residency there for other wealthy Russian clients. She also provided customers with UAE bank accounts and identification cards, OFAC said.

Oil smuggling, military tech

There is also Artem Uss — millennial son of Alexander Uss, the sanctioned former governor of the Krasnoyarsk Krai region — who is wanted by the US Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. In 2022 he was charged with conspiracy to defraud a department or agency of the US; conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA); conspiracy to commit bank fraud; and conspiracy to commit money laundering for the oil smuggling and IEEPA scheme.  

According to a Department of Justice press release, Uss was part of a group that obtained military technology from US companies, smuggled oil, and laundered tens of millions of dollars for Russian oligarchs. He and his co-accuseds used cryptocurrencies, a web of shell companies and a “network of fraudsters” to commit these crimes.

Uss was on the run in Italy when he was caught and put under house arrest, only to escape with the help of a Bosnian organised crime group. The US is offering a $7 million reward for information leading to his arrest and/or conviction.

“It’s the same pattern with crypto and organised crime and Russians. They have very powerful relatives in Russia [and] these high-ranking connections. They have a lot of money and they feel they have impunity,” Shumanov said.

Further coverage

This is the first in a series of three articles investigating the Semen Kuksov case written by Rachel Wolcott in partnership Ilia Shumanov and Transparency International Russia In Exile’s dirty money investigations team.

Second story in the series

The privileged, privately educated Russian who ran a cash-to-crypto MLAAS for other wealthy Russians and drug traffickers