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Irene Kenyon, FiveBy Director of Risk Intelligence, was recently quoted in an article by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) on the network of proxies and middlemen that are used to obscure involvement in Syrian phosphate imports into Europe.
Security firms linked to sanctioned war profiteers and senior figures from sanctioned Russian oligarch, Gennady Timchenko’s, Stroytransgaz benefit from the trade. Stroytransgaz denies its companies were connected, but OCCRP and its partners found evidence of several links between Stroytransgaz and these firms.
Kenyon commented on blood money that is generated from the Syrian phosphate trade is likely going into the pockets of designated, corrupt kleptocrats and that using shell companies is a common strategy to disguise the fact that sanctioned entities or individuals were benefiting from a trade.
An abbreviated version of the story was also published by the Guardian.
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