A7 Network Laundered $6.9B via Forged Documents, FT Investigation Reveals
A Financial Times investigation reveals that A7, a Kremlin-backed fintech established by sanctioned Moldovan businessman Ilan Shor, moved at least $6.9 billion through global banks using an industrial-scale forgery operation. Backed by Russia’s state-owned Promsvyazbank, A7 utilized front companies in the UAE, Hong Kong, and Kyrgyzstan to bypass Western sanctions. The network expanded into Nigeria and Zimbabwe in September 2025, opening offices in Lagos and Harare, though the extent of its operations there remains unclear. Major banks including Standard Chartered, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase handled these flows, with Standard Chartered in Hong Kong alone receiving $1.1 billion from A7-linked entities. The scheme involved altering transaction details and removing Cyrillic characters to evade sanctions checks, with most funds ultimately flowing to Chinese bank accounts. UK regulators have warned that this case exposes critical gaps in periodic compliance checks, urging continuous monitoring of international payment networks.