Spokesman of the Russian Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin said that investigators searched through an office of Valio, a major Finnish dairy company, in the framework of a case initiated against Dagestani money-launderers, Kommersant reports.
The suspects allegedly operate under the leadership of Abdulla Gasanov, an MP of the Levashinsky District of Dagestan, and brothers Magomedrasul and Magomed Karatov, co-owners of the Karat-1 security company. The criminal case was initiated in 2012, detaining started in spring 2013. Couriers of Kara-1 were detained at Vnukovo Airport with 645 million rubles. Hundreds of millions of rubles more were found in an underground center in Khimki, with Kuznetsov being its owner.
Magomedrasul Karatov and Kuznetsov were detained. Magomed Karatov was detained in Makhachkala two weeks later. Gasanov was arrested a year later.
The group was allegedly offering businessmen in Moscow, the Moscow Region and Stavropol Territory to cash any volumes of money delivered by couriers from Makhachkala. Up to 100 billion rubles were transported in about 7 years. Accounts of over 20 legal bodies were used, the Valio office in Saint-Petersburg being one of them.
