Wagner mercenary chief got around UK money laundering checks by submitting his mother’s gas bill

The head of the feared Russian Wagner mercenary group was able to get of UK money laundering checks by submitting his elderly mother’s gas bill.

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was under sanctions in 2021 by the US, EU and US when British law firm Discreet Law requested identification documents from him as part of anti-money laundering checks before taking him on as a client.

Prigozhin’s Russian lawyers responded by sending the London-based law firm a picture of his passport along with a gas bill listed to the mercenary chief’s then 81-year-old mother Violetta Prigozhina , leaked emails seen by the Financial Times show. The bill involved an address in St Petersburg, Russia. 

The Russian lawyers wrote in an email: ‘The bill is issued in the name of the claimant’s mother who actually lives at the client’s residential address and pays the bill.’ 

A solicitor at Discreet Law responded: ‘We are satisfied with the [anti-money laundering] documents.’   

Prigozhina, now 83, was placed under sanctions by the EU last year in response to her support of her son’s activities in the Wagner group.  

Prigozhin, a millionaire with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, has approximately 50,000 fighters in Ukraine, of whom 40,000 are convicts and 10,000 contractors, according to UK and US intelligence.

Prigozhin, dubbed ‘Putin’s Chef’ having once provided catering services to the Kremlin, hired Discreet Law in 2021 to file a libel case in London against Eliot Higgins, the founder of investigative news service Bellingcat, over tweets he had made about the Wagner group. 

The legal proceedings were struck out in May last year by the High Court in London – two months earlier, Discreet Law had withdrawn its services for Prigozhin.

Margaret Hodge, a Labour MP, said the British law firm’s acceptance of a gas bill in the name of Prigozhin’s mother showed the need for urgent reform in the UK.

‘It is ridiculous that a Russian warlord avoided all suspicion of money laundering by simply using his elderly mother’s gas bills,’ she told the FT. 

‘Our bankers, accountants and lawyers all have a duty to perform robust checks on their customers,’ said Hodge. 

Prigozhin, dubbed ‘Putin’s Chef’ having once provided catering services to the Kremlin, hired Discreet Law in 2021 to file a libel case in London against Eliot Higgins, the founder of investigative news service Bellingcat, over tweets he had made about the Wagner group. 

Prigozhin, dubbed ‘Putin’s Chef’ (pictured together) having once provided catering services to the Kremlin, hired Discreet Law in 2021 to file a libel case in London against Eliot Higgins

The legal proceedings were struck out in May last year by the High Court in London – two months earlier, Discreet Law had withdrawn its services for Prigozhin.

Roger Gherson, the founder of Discreet Law, said his law firm ‘cannot comment on confidential communications with their former clients’.

‘Discreet Law’s position is that in taking instructions and undertaking due diligence they have at all times complied fully with their legal and professional obligations,’ said Gherson.

It came after Prigozhin accused Russia’s defense minister and chief of general staff on Tuesday of starving his fighters in Ukraine of ammunition, which he said amounts to an attempt to “destroy” the force.

Prigozhin said in a raised voice that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov are handing out orders “left and right” not to supply Wagner with ammunition and or air transport.

The company has been involved in heavy fighting in the east of Ukraine.

This “can be likened to high treason in the very moment when Wagner is fighting for Bakhmut, losing hundreds of its fighters every day,” Prigozhin said.

The millionaire Prigozhin and his fighters have been claimed for weeks that the military doesn’t provide them with enough ammunition. Wagner’s push to take over Bakhmut, a city in Ukraine’s partially occupied eastern Donetsk region, has stalled and turned into a grinding battle. 

 Prigozhin also has repeatedly accused Russia’s top military brass in recent months of incompetence. He has raised his public profile, issuing daily statements that boast about Wagner’s purported victories and mock his opponents.

 His criticism, however, appears to have fallen on deaf ears. Last month, Putin reaffirmed his trust in Gerasimov by putting him in direct charge of Russian forces in Ukraine, a move that some observers also interpreted as an attempt to cut Prigozhin down to size.

On Tuesday, in his long-anticipated state-of-the-nation address, Putin profusely thanked his military, but he made no mention of Wagner.