Journalists track down foreign assets registered to presumed relatives of ex-official who fleeced Russia’s banking industry

Presumed relatives of a former senior official at Russia’s banking regulator own or owned millions of dollars in assets, including real estate, in the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, and Latvia, according to a new investigation by journalists at Novaya Gazeta Europe.

Valery Miroshnikov served as a deputy head of the Deposit Insurance Agency, which, among other functions, oversees the restructuring of failing banks in Russia. Miroshnikov suddenly left the agency in July 2019 and fled the country in the wake of a corruption scandal involving the Federal Security Service’s banking crimes division. FSB Lieutenant Colonel Kirill Cherkalin later told investigators that the six billion rubles in cash discovered at his homes actually belonged to Miroshnikov, whom he accused of masterminding a criminal enterprise to fleece Russian banks.

Novaya Gazeta tied Tatyana Miroshnikova and Marina Gulyaeva to Valery Miroshnikov through past residences and leaked telephone records.

The two women bought and quickly resold multiple properties and registered numerous companies that conducted no business — activities that suggest they were involved in money-laundering transactions. Both Miroshnikova and Gulyaeva are reportedly named in a money-laundering case in Latvia. Details about the case are unknown, but the authorities have seized their properties in Jurmala.