The financial intelligence sent a recommendation to banks to ensure increased control over operations for the purchase of precious metals, since such an investment instrument began to bear the risks of money laundering. This was told to Izvestia by State Secretary of Rosfinmonitoring Herman Neglyad.
He recalled that the service operates in accordance with a risk-based approach.
“Gold as an investment tool has become increasingly important because confidence in a number of foreign currencies has been undermined in our country. Citizens and legal entities are interested in buying bullion. With this in mind, it is especially important to ensure control over transactions for the acquisition of precious metals, verification of the sources of origin of funds,” Neglyad specified.
The Bank of Russia is detecting signs that individual transactions with precious metals are suspicious and may be aimed at withdrawing assets abroad, the Central Bank confirmed to Izvestia. The regulator stressed that information about such cases is promptly recorded in the Know Your Customer platform when assessing the risk of citizens being involved in suspicious transactions.
The laundering scheme using precious metals may look like this, lawyers explained to Izvestia: unscrupulous firms buy gold or silver through a chain of technical companies. The bars are then either exported abroad or resold between affiliated intermediaries and ultimately to a bank. The funds received are cashed out.
Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:
Gold fraud: Russia warned about money laundering through precious metals.
