Sergei Ilnitsky / EPA
Vladimir Putin, President of Russia
Secretaries believe that there are Portuguese and Ukrainians in Portugal being used as front men to launder Russian money and evade sanctions.
Despite the sanctions imposed by European Union to Russian companies following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Portugal continued to be the scene of million-dollar deals linked to capital of Russian origin.
According to the report, national authorities are currently investigating 26 surveys related to the violation of restrictive measures, with around 25 million euros being frozen in bank accounts, mainly in processes associated with luxury properties and suspicions of money laundering.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, part of these schemes aimed bypass the economic embargo imposed after the offensive ordered by Vladimir Putin. In several cases, the money entered Portugal through complex corporate structures, with headquarters in European countries, and using intermediaries to hide the true origin of the funds.
One of the most recent cases involves a Russian businessman who lived in Lisbon for several months and who, according to the Judiciary Police, led a European network dedicated to money laundering. The organization charged commissions on the “laundered” money and handled hundreds of thousands of euros daily in cash, with branches in the south of Spain and in several countries in the Schengen area.
Another media case was reported in 2022 by Georgy Alburov, researcher at the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), who exposed luxury real estate investments in Cascais linked to circles close to the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova. Portuguese authorities also investigated suspicious operations surrounding Yulia Sereda, former director of a Russian private bank, and a transfer of 800,000 euros intended for the purchase of a property was blocked.
Official sources admit that some Russian businessmen resort to Portuguese “foremen” to conceal the origin of their capital, and there are also suspicions of use of Ukrainian citizens residents in Portugal to facilitate transactions between Lisbon and Moscow.
At the same time, real estate market data reveal that, in several years of the last decade, Russian buyers paid higher prices per square meter than other nationalities in Lisbon, highlighting the weight of Russian capital in the luxury segment. The Security Intelligence Service (SIS) confirmed that it monitors the presence of investors linked, directly or indirectly, to the Russian regime, framing part of these activities as sanctions evasion schemes.
The Government is also preparing legislative changes to prioritize combating violations of international sanctions.
