Reported by: Ilya Lozovsky, Miranda Patrucic, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Norddeutsche Rundfunk (NDR), and Westdeutsche Rundfunk (WDR)

German police this morning launched a raid on properties belonging to sanctioned Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov on the shore of Lake Tegernsee in southern Bavaria.

In response to previous reporting by Süddeutsche Zeitung, his spokesman provided a statement denying that any of his earnings had been tainted by corruption and noting that, unlike other Russian billionaires, his money did not come from privatization of state assets. Its origins had been “certified by a major auditing firm” and were “completely transparent,” the statement read.

But in a previous investigation that drew on several large leaks of financial documents, including Suisse Secrets, the Panama Papers, and the FinCEN Files, reporters from OCCRP and the Guardian showed how Usmanov used complex schemes to hide assets in secretive offshore havens. (In response, his representative denied that “Mr. Usmanov has ever distributed his wealth among his relatives in order to conceal it from any governments” and said that this allegation is “baseless and unsubstantiated.”)

For that investigation, reporters examined 11 “suspicious activity reports,” filed before 2015 by U.S. banks who grew wary of Usmanov’s financial transactions. But they were just the tip of the iceberg. German authorities are believed to have received nearly a hundred such reports from leading German banks, including some filed as recently as this year.

Read full report: https://www.occrp.org/en/asset-tracker/german-police-raid-residence-of-russian-oligarch-alisher-usmanov-tax-evasion-and-money-laundering-suspected