By now most of you will have heard of the Pandora Papers, the latest version of a series of well-constructed exposes into the financial dealings of the rich and ultra-rich.
This week I want to concentrate on the Russian angle, and in particular how that impacts on a topic I've discussed before: Monaco.
The wealthy gambling microstate once again hit the headlines thanks to wealthy Russians, and although Putin's alleged girlfriend Svetlana Krivonogikh is given prominent mention in the video, news articles make clear she's far from being the only Russian in Putin's circle who has made their way to Monaco.
Those who do are probably interested in passports as much as they are in swanky property and a place to dock their yacht. Provide proof of residency (property deeds plus a term of years) and proof of self-sufficiency, and you too can have a passport that grants you visa-free access to Brazil, Japan, United Kingdom, United States and the entire European Union.
Ironically, Monaco passport holders do need a visa to travel to Russia but I suspect that isn't a significant problem for Putin's friends.
There's a reason why Putin's chums might want a passport above all else.
Bill Browder, TEDx
It's thanks to Browder's efforts that we have the Magnitsky Act, the intent of which is to authorize the U.S. government to sanction those it sees as human rights offenders, freeze their assets, and ban them from entering the U.S.. The Act is named after Browder's lawyer Sergei Magnitsky who died in a Moscow prison after investigating a $230 million fraud involving Russian tax officials.
Browder's argument for sanctions has always been that Russia's kleptocrats don't want to spend their time and money in Russia if they can help it. They'd far rather relax in more comfortable surroundings in the West. Therefore sanctions which limit their ability to travel and settle outside Russia are punishing those same kleptocrats that, Browder argues, make Putin's Russia the kind of country that it is today - one where friends of Putin can amass huge illicit gains and salt it away in trusts and shell companies.
Monaco celebrates its close relationship with Russia. A perhaps ill-timed article in the Monaco Tribune admits as much. The Tribune's a daily e-paper which publishes in French, English, Italian and Russian, and it had this to say about the Monaco Loves Russia initiative:
The first diplomatic relations between the Principality and Russia go back to the end of the 19th cenutry [sic] with the signing of trade and political agreements. However, it was only in 2006, with Vladimir Putin, that an official diplomatic relationship began.
Today, Monaco has over 800 Russian residents, as well as a Russian consulate, located on Monaco’s rock. Given their high purchasing power, Russians also represent an important asset to the local tourism sector.
A proud history of cooperation and mutual benefit, to be sure.
The media salivated over Putin's alleged mistress' Monaco apartment but with over 800 Russian residents and a consulate it's easy to see how she mightn't be the only Putin chum with a Monaco connection. Given their high purchasing power, and all that.
A follow-up in the Guardian makes much of a Monaco-based go-between, Moores Rowland. A professional accountancy and tax firm, it is connected to a network of law companies and offshore service providers around the world. There is little to be seen from outside other than a pleasant roof garden. Nice little touch of le Carré there. According to the article Moores Rowland creates and manages the network of companies and trusts that manage Russian wealth.
In short, it's not unlike the role that the Dracula Dossiers' Billington and Sons plays in that Night's Black Agents campaign setting: a go-between. Whether an Edom friendly or a Conspiracy asset, Billington's job is to sit there and look innocent, even nondescript, while dark deeds are done with its assistance.
It's perhaps a little over-the-top to imagine that Billington has an outpost in Monaco, but it's not going too far to wonder if a Monaco firm might have an interest in a shabby little law office in some nondescript British town. Particularly if that law office has a lot to do with wills, property and trusts.
Let's gamify this, and suppose that there is a Level 3 Node (provincial power) linked with Billington (at best a Level 2) as Billington holds some of the Level 3's assets.
Let's further suppose that the Level 3 is an accountancy and tax firm, Addison Boland, founded by an Englishman and a Frenchman in the 1970s. Addison Boland has since become a significant power behind the scenes thanks to an influx of Russian cash. The original Addison, Samuel, is related by marriage to the Billingtons of Whitby, and in the old days Samuel used to push a lot of business Billington's way. It was sometimes convenient to have a holding company or trust incorporate under British law, and Billington and Sons was the perfect British go-between.
From the Conspiracy's POV, it was a reverse infection. Billington's was already a Conspiracy asset and had been for many years before Samuel Addison reached out. Through its connection with Billington, Addison Boland became aware of and then corrupted by the Conspiracy. The Conspiracy then used Addison Boland to hide its assets through a web of shell companies and trusts.
That was all fine and dandy in the 1980s and 90s, when Addison Boland was an up-and-coming power. Then came the 2000s, and all that Russian money. So much Russian money, even Addison Boland couldn't keep track of it all.
The present-day Addison Boland is split into two factions.
Faction A, the Addison faction, wants to keep things as they are. The company's Conspiracy connections have served it well for decades. Added to that, the Addison faction are uncomfortably aware that their masters expect unquestioning obedience unto death - beyond death, preferably. Horace Addison, Samuel's 50-year-old son, is the de facto leader of this faction.
Faction B, the Boland faction, is dazzled by Russian money and Russian power. Many of their clients have direct links to the former KGB, or its successor the FSB. The Bolands have seen the future, and if ever there was a time to cut ties with their vampiric benefactors and sidle up to Moscow's elite, it's now. If the FSB or GRU have an anti-vampire program the Bolands are reaching out to it. After all, even vampire hunters have to hide their ill-gotten gains somehow, and the Bolands are happy to oblige. This faction is led by Alice Boland, the 30-year old granddaughter of the founding Boland.
Scenario Seed: Rats, Rats, Rats As Big As Blooming Cats
A former KGB asset turned high-end bagman, Gennady Balabanov, is arrested in France with large quantities of illegal pesticide. The authorities were monitoring him for various money laundering offences and didn't want to pull him in, hoping instead to tie him to more important crimes. Unfortunately, Balabanov blew a traffic stop and was arrested by local law in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, a medieval township on the Riviera not far from Monaco. Balabanov immediately screamed for assistance from the Russian government, but he died in jail before anything could be done.
The pesticide is banned because it's far too lethal. Its toxicity is acute and chronic (mutagenic), and it's banned under the Stockholm Convention. Nobody understands why Balabanov had it. According to official records it's still in a police lockup, but if the agents follow this line of investigation they discover the pesticide was stolen about a week after Balabanov's arrest. Nobody knows where it is now.
The official reason for Balabanov's death is heart failure, but examination of the body (which the agents will have to carry out themselves) indicate exsanguination. Which begs a few questions, not least why the authorities in a quiet little town in France are so keen to obscure the cause of death.
Turns out the pesticide was intended for Addison Boland, specifically Alice Boland, as emails between her and Balabanov indicate. Addison Boland has a rat problem. A big one. The rats which infest Billington's made their way to Monaco long ago, and the two rat colonies communicate with each other. Alice hopes to sever communications, permanently. It's all part of her ongoing alliance with the Russians; she helps hide their money, they help her with her infighting. If Alice gets control of Addison Boland, then Addison Boland becomes an all-Russian shop. If Horace Addison retains control, then he'll probably kick the Russians to the kerb for helping Alice.
The Yojimbo Option, but with extra rats.
Enjoy!
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