The UK has issued an alert regarding the Russia-linked A7 network, a Kremlin-backed financial structure purportedly involved in settling over $86 billion in transactions within its first year. This network is accused of circumventing international sanctions through financial institutions in third countries, digital assets, and multilayered corporate arrangements. The National Crime Agency and government are working to help private-sector organizations identify these mechanisms used to move value across borders and avoid restrictions. The reported $86 billion figure is a claim from A7, illustrating the potential volume of activity, rather than an independently verified government assessment.
Further investigation reveals that the A7 network, contrary to some assumptions about cryptocurrency usage, heavily relies on conventional correspondent banking infrastructure. Its ability to move vast sums of money depends on access to the international banking system. At the core of the network is Ilan Shor, a Moldovan fugitive convicted for fraud and money laundering. Shor, along with Russia's sanctioned military bank Promsvyazbank (PSB) and State Development Corporation VEB.RF, presented the project to Vladimir Putin in 2025, indicating state endorsement. The network uses a system of 'bills of exchange' to market and sell securities to Russian entities, promising to settle payments to global suppliers.
The A7 network utilizes a web of front companies in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, designed to obscure links to Russia. These companies' bank accounts and websites are controlled by A7 staff, who access them via custom-built VPNs to execute rapid payments. Invoices and trade documents are falsified using custom code that replaces real goods with mundane items like LED lights, shelving units, and garbage bins, removing any reference to Russia. This elaborate scheme is crafted to evade detection by international financial institutions and compliance software, ensuring Russian-origin money flows globally.
Internal ledgers show that approximately RUB 2.1 trillion (around $25 billion) in bills of exchange passed through the A7 system by July 2025, with key A7 personnel claiming this figure rose to over RUB 6.1 trillion ($66 billion) by April 2026. These volumes are processed through payment vehicles and external treasuries in countries like Kyrgyzstan, the UAE, Hong Kong, Hungary, and Mongolia. Leaked SWIFT messages confirm payments moving through correspondent banking relationships to suppliers in more than 80 jurisdictions. One company, TKKR, is identified in approximately 1,400 bills of exchange up to July 2025, some for sanctioned Russian companies and military suppliers, highlighting A7 as a fiat-first payment system designed to facilitate Russian imports. Another distinct, alleged smuggling ring, uncovered by an IT blunder, has moved at least $90 billion in Russian oil, primarily through Dubai and India-based entities, funding the war in Ukraine. This network moved over 80% of Rosneft's ship-borne oil exports in November 2024.
Separately, JPMorgan Chase and HSBC unwittingly processed payments for companies controlled by the late Yevgeny Prigozhin, connected to his Wagner private army, as early as 2017. Leaked documents from C4ADS show a Sudanese mining company, Meroe Gold, a Wagner front, made purchases of industrial equipment from China, with payments routed through JPMorgan Chase and Hang Seng Bank (part of HSBC Group). While there is no evidence the banks knew they were handling Wagner-linked transactions, these incidents illustrate how Prigozhin used Western financial institutions to build his transnational criminal empire.
