Prigozhin earned $250 million from oil, gold and diamonds under sanctions - FT

Prigozhin earned $250 million from oil, gold and diamonds under sanctions – FT

The journalists came to the conclusion that the sanctions imposed by the West had little effect on the financial situation of “Chef Putin”.

The leader of Wagner PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin, while already under sanctions , earned $250 million from the extraction of natural resources outside the Russian Federation, according to an investigation by The Financial Times .

Journalists examined the documents of companies under international sanctions for their ties to “Wagner” and came to the conclusion that the restrictions imposed by the West had little effect on Prigozhin’s financial situation.

For example, the volume of sales of Prigozhin’s Europolis company, which has been under US sanctions since 2018, in 2020 from the oil fields of Syria amounted to $134 million, with a net profit of $90 million.

In December 2021, two months before the invasion, the company reported a drop in contract revenue to just over $400,000, but still boasts $92 million in cash on its balance sheet, the FT investigation said.

Other companies associated with Russian militants continue to trade. So, M Invest, which is engaged in gold mining in Sudan, which came under US sanctions in 2020, still generated sales of $2.6 million in 2021.

Two companies that ship large quantities of industrial equipment to companies supported by PVK “Wagner” in Sudan and the Central African Republic have received more than $6 million in revenue by the end of 2021.

However, some of Prigozhin’s companies transferred their activities to other organizations before the West took steps to close them down. “Mercury LLC, a company that works in the Syrian oil sector and is under EU sanctions in 2021, had sales of $67 million three years before being included in the list, but later announced zero revenue,” the journalists reported.

(C)UNIAN 2023

One comment

$250 million “earned” amid persistent and alarming accounts of horrific executions, mass graves, acts of torture, rape and sexual violence, pillaging, arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances.

You have to feel for Africa. Increasing Islamic terrorism, the French bombing civilians by mistake, Wagner atrocities, coups and dictatorships.

The world desperately needs a system of good transparent governance. It’s shockingly difficult to see how hard Ukraine has to struggle against those seeking to prevent that.