Kremlin-backed FinTech A7 has funnelled more than $6.9bn through the international banking system despite sanctions on Russia, according to a Financial Times investigation.

UK anti-money laundering technology company SmartSearch warns that the case exposes the limits of point-in-time compliance and strengthens the argument for ongoing sanctions monitoring.

The FT found that A7 relied on a web of front companies, existing businesses and counterfeit invoices to gain access to the SWIFT system. The findings arrive as the National Crime Agency (NCA) and UK Government issue an industry-wide alert, warning that the network depends on third-country financial institutions to sidestep sanctions.

The NCA says A7 claims to have settled more than $86bn of transactions in its first year, with the $6.9bn tracked by the FT reflecting only activity traced through international banking channels.

SmartSearch CEO Phil Cotter said, “That is not a fringe operation. It is a state-backed alternative value transfer system operating at a scale that touches the international financial system.”

According to the NCA, the network combined shell companies acting as sub-agents, fabricated invoices, correspondent banking relationships and the exploitation of SWIFT. Cotter remarked, “This is not a failure of any single institution. It is a highly sophisticated, deliberately layered exploitation of legitimate financial infrastructure, using techniques that are consistent with well-documented trade-based money laundering typologies.”

The stakes go well beyond regulatory breaches. RF. It says the network’s clients include “some of Russia’s most important players in the military-industrial complex”. The agency has also raised the possibility of proliferation financing.

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