Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Sanctioned Putin associate ‘laundered millions’ through Barclays

Sanctioned Putin associate ‘laundered millions’ through Barclays

One of Vladimir Putin's closest friends may have used Barclays Bank in London to launder money and dodge sanctions, leaked documents suggest.
Billionaire Arkady Rotenberg has known the Russian president since childhood.

Financial restrictions, or sanctions, were imposed on Mr Rotenberg by the US and the EU in 2014, which means Western banks could face serious consequences for doing business with him.

Barclays says it met all its legal and regulatory duties.

A leak of confidential files – banks’ “suspicious activity reports” – reveal how companies believed to be controlled by Mr Rotenberg kept the secret accounts.

The documents, known as the FinCEN Files, have been seen by the BBC’s Panorama programme.

Inner circle

In March 2014 the US hit Russia with economic sanctions following the annexation of Crimea in Ukraine.

The Treasury Department designated Mr Rotenberg, 68, and his brother Boris, 63, “members of the Russian leadership’s inner circle”.

The pair had sparred and trained in the same judo gym as Putin when they were young.

In recent years, Arkady Rotenberg’s companies built roads, a gas pipeline and a power station through contracts awarded by the Russian state.

The US Treasury said the brothers “provided support to Putin’s pet projects” and “made billions of dollars in contracts for Gazprom and the Sochi Winter Olympics awarded to them by Putin”.

In 2018, the US added Arkady Rotenberg’s son Igor to its list of sanctioned individuals.

The aim of the sanctions is to cut off named people from the entire Western financial system.

Yet the Rotenbergs appear to have continued moving cash through the UK and US.

Art and money laundering

In 2008, Barclays opened an account for a company called Advantage Alliance.

The leaked documents show the company moved £60m between 2012 and 2016. Many of the transactions occurred after the Rotenberg brothers had been sanctioned.

In July this year, an investigation by the US Senate accused the Rotenbergs of using secretive purchases of expensive art to evade sanctions – one of the companies involved in the scheme was Advantage Alliance.

US investigators concluded there was strong evidence that Advantage Alliance was owned by Arkady Rotenberg, and that the company had used its Barclays account in London to buy millions of dollars of art for him.

A report noted how “secrecy, anonymity, and a lack of regulation create an environment ripe for laundering money and evading sanctions”. Auction houses in the US and UK “failed to ask basic questions” about the buyers of the art.

Despite the sanctions, Arkady appears to have paid $7.5m to acquire the René Magritte painting La Poitrine.

In 17 June 2014 a company linked to Arkady sent the cash from Moscow to Alliance’s Barclays account in London. The following day Barclays sent the cash to the seller in New York.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
×