Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian civilians have stoked widespread outrage. As a result, people with visibility into business dealings involving Russia have begun to disclose details of transactions they suspect are improper
Another challenge is that America and its allies have issued numerous “narrative” or “implicit” sanctions, which apply not just to cited entities, but also to thickets of unspecified ones connected in shadowy ways. Labyrinthine business structures must therefore be carefully mapped, says Christopher Stringham, a lawyer in Vienna with Refinitiv, a data firm that does just such mapping to help clients avoid steep fines.
Relevant information is disappearing in other ways, too. Many Russian companies and tycoons have hastily sold or transferred assets like ships and stocks to entities unlikely to be hit with sanctions. Those deals can look legit. In many cases, however, legal documents have also been prepared to preserve the original owner’s control. And, says Alexander Dmitrenko, an expert on Russia and Ukraine in the Tokyo offices of Ashurst, a law firm, “that paperwork isn’t visible.
It takes time for enforcement actions to play out, and these are early days. But consider the experience of Bellingcat, a muckraking outfit in Amsterdam. Christo Grozev, Bellingcat’s lead investigative journalist for affairs linked to Russia, says the horror of the Kremlin’s war is leading people to reach out with tips about Russian wrongdoing.
Because trade is so decentralised and diffuse, conducted via closed shipping containers or in the form of fungible commodities, an informal, global network of low-cost or volunteer spies can be of particular value in spotting smugglers. Samir Madani is a co-founder of TankerTrackers, a firm with analysts in London and Stockholm. Much of the information his team parses comes from people paid to snap photos of tankers in and near ports . But TankerTrackers also receives tips free from workers.
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