Banking leak 'reveals how Russian network funnelled £150,000 to Prince ...

A firm that pumped vast amounts of Russian private wealth into the West donated £150,000 to a charity that Prince Charles runs.

About £3.5billion was sent to Europe and the US by the Troika Laundromat, which comprises 70 offshore companies.

Those involved hold accounts in Lithuania and can be linked to some of the most outrageous frauds to be committed while Vladimir Putin has been president.

Lithuania's website 15min.lt has shared the details 1.3million banking transactions with the Guardian.

It is not suggested that recipients of the money - including the Prince of Wales - knew where it originated as its route was covert and criminal cash may have been mixed in with legitimate funds.

Prince Charles (right) is pictured talking with Ruben Vardanyan (left), who was the 99th richest man in Russia two years ago, and who used to be the boss of investment bank Troika Dialog, some of whose managers pumped money into the West over an eight-year period 

Prince Charles (right) is pictured talking with Ruben Vardanyan (left), who was the 99th richest man in Russia two years ago, and who used to be the boss of investment bank Troika Dialog, some of whose managers pumped money into the West over an eight-year period 

This would make it impossible to identify the original source and the money would have been passed through other companies into the banking system.

One benefactor of the cash was the Prince of Wales's Scottish stately home Dumfries House, which was saved from slipping into private hands by the Royal's charity.  

Other funds paid for fees at English private schools, football tickets, holidays, luxury properties and private jets. 

Dumfries House (pictured) was saved from slipping into private hands when Prince Charles stepped in but a leak has shown how a Russian banking network then funelled £150,000 to the Royal's charity 

Dumfries House (pictured) was saved from slipping into private hands when Prince Charles stepped in but a leak has shown how a Russian banking network then funelled £150,000 to the Royal's charity 

But anti-corruption activist Bill Browder said it wouldn't have been available in the West if it weren't for 'the pipe through which the proceeds of kleptocracy flow from Russia'.

Emails show how managers at leading Russian investment bank Troika Dialog kept money pumping into the west for more than eight years.

The activity started in 2004 when Armenian financier Ruben Vardanyan, who has close ties to the Windsors and Putin, who ran the bank. He was the 99th richest Russian two years ago, according to Forbes.

Vardanyan may have been an unwitting beneficiary of the money flowing through the system but it is not suggested he did anything illegal.  

He says he thought the bank knew the identities of clients and operated within the relevant

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