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The final three members of the Docklands-based group were sentenced on March 10,
after their criminal enterprise was taken out following a five-year investigation by the Organised Crime Partnership (OCP) – a joint National Crime Agency and Metropolitan Police Service unit.
Aurimas Bielskis, 41, of Rope Terrace, Vitalijs Slapkins-Slapkovs, 34, of Basin Approach and Nedas Kiviliauskas, 34, of Northamptonshire, were handed suspended sentences at Kingston Crown Court on Friday and ordered to do community service.
The gang was headed up by Artem Terzyan, 39, of Eastern Quay, Docklands, and neighbour Deivis Grochiatskij, 45, of Wesley Avenue, who set up bank accounts linked to shell companies to launder the money through, investigators discovered.
Money would be sent from one shell company to another in a complex web of transfers, before it was sent out to international accounts held in countries including Germany, Czech Republic, U.A.E, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
The two men also laundered £10m they had generated by claiming fraudulent government Bounce Back Loans (BBLs) for the various shell companies they had set up.
OCP investigators also identified that the group traded in the sale and purchase of luxury pre-owned watches as another way to launder illicit cash.
Andy Tickner, from the OCP, said: “This was a painstaking and complex investigation in which the team analysed reams of financial data and transactions, as well as conducting hundreds of hours of surveillance.
“Ultimately the case proved that Terzyan and Grochiatskij had built a sophisticated,
large-scale money laundering system which saw them transfer £70m worth of criminal cash out of the UK.
“We were also able to build a picture around the structure of the network, as well as members’ individual roles in setting up bogus companies and moving money, both physically between bank accounts.
“This network played a vital role in enabling other…
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