Lawsuit filed against Alfa-Bank and BTC-e-linked company for 1.8 billion rubles

On 28 January, the owner of the British company Mayzus Financial Services (MFS), Sergey Mayzus, filed a lawsuit in the Moscow Arbitration Court seeking 1.8 billion rubles from Alfa-Bank and XP Solutions Limited. A copy of the claim is in ForkLog’s possession.

According to the document, between 1 January 2016 and July 2017 Canton Business Corporation, operator of BTC-e, transferred €45.3 million and $30.9 million to accounts XP Solutions Limited in Alfa-Bank. The transactions were conducted through the MoneyPolo payment system, one of MFS’s brands.

The owner of Canton Business Corporation is Russian Alexander Vinnik, who was sentenced in December 2020 to five years in prison in France for money laundering through BTC-e.

Earlier, by the Limassol District Court ruling of 1 February 2019, Sergey Mayzus managed to recover from Canton Business Corporation more than 1.86 billion rubles in dollars and euros. An arrest was placed on the company’s accounts.

According to the plaintiff, in June 2020 XP Solutions Limited withdrew from Alfa-Bank accounts more than $90 million belonging to Canton Business Corporation, to its accounts in New Zealand.

As of 8 February 2021, bailiffs recovered only 58.8 million rubles in favour of Sergey Mayzus.

«The withdrawal of these funds precisely during the period of recognition and enforcement of the Cypriot court’s decision in the Russian Federation indicates that the funds were withdrawn with the aim of defeating the possibility of enforcement on them», – the claim states.

In ForkLog’s comment, Sergey Mayzus stressed that Alfa-Bank conducted the transfer having been warned that these funds were subject to court proceedings. The bank did not notify Rosfinmonitoring about the transfer.

The plaintiff asserts that Alfa-Bank did not conduct proper identification with respect to XP Solutions Limited and Canton Business Corporation.

«The bank did not take into account that XP Solutions Limited is a provider of financial services on the FXOpen payment platform, registered in Saint Kitts and Nevis and включенной by the Bank of Russia in the list of companies with signs of unlawful activity in the financial market», – the claim states.

According to the plaintiff’s information, Canton Business Corporation’s funds were transferred to New Zealand to secure the collection of a penalty in favor of the U.S. Treasury for money laundering.

Sergey Mayzus contends that Alfa-Bank violated anti-money-laundering laws, and as a result of the defendants’ actions MoneyPolo faced reputational risks.

ForkLog has sent a request to Alfa-Bank.

BTC-e collapsed on 25 July 2017 after its founders were charged with laundering at least $4 billion.

On the same day, U.S. law enforcement arrested in Greece the alleged BTC-e founder Alexander Vinnik. His wallets contained bitcoins stolen in hacker attacks in 2011-2013 from the Japanese exchange Mt.Gox, as well as from the exchanges Bitcoinica and Bitfloar, totaling more than $1 billion.

Immediately after Vinnik’s arrest, unknown individuals sent 66,143 BTC from BTC-e’s hot wallet to Coinbase.

In December 2020, Vinnik was sentenced in France to five years in prison for money laundering of proceeds obtained by criminal means.

Earlier, Sergey Mayzus told ForkLog that among the organizers and participants in the BTC-e money-laundering scheme were poker players who used bank accounts at the Moscow branch of Alfa-Bank.

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