Russian Fintech A7 Exploited Bank Controls to Funnel Billions in Sanctioned Payments
An FT investigation reveals how Kremlin-controlled fintech A7 tricked international banks into processing billions in sanction-busting payments to Russian state companies, using front companies and industrial-scale forgery operations.
An investigation by the Financial Times has uncovered a massive money laundering operation conducted by Kremlin-controlled fintech A7, which successfully tricked international banks into handling more than $6.9 billion in sanction-busting payments to Russian state companies despite sanctions imposed on Russia.
Set up as an alternative to the western payments system, A7 funnelled billions through the international banking system by depending on a network of front companies and existing businesses to access the Swift system. The fintech obscured the use of these agents through an industrial-scale forgery operation to produce counterfeit invoices.
The company exploited controls in Swift that depend on the sending bank performing adequate checks on customers. By beating the controls of any member bank, A7 cleared the way to send payments through the system.
Major Banks Unwittingly Processed Payments
Accounts held at Standard Chartered in Hong Kong alone received $1.1 billion from A7-linked entities between late 2024, when A7 was established, and August 2025. Over the same period, DBS in Hong Kong was sent $273 million and Citigroup clients received $74 million. Clients of Deutsche Bank in Europe were sent approximately $18 million.
A7 opened accounts at First Abu Dhabi, the largest bank in the United Arab Emirates, for 17 different entities, which made more than $1.8 billion of outbound payments. The fintech also had use of accounts at JPMorgan Chase and DBS.
Bank Responses
The UAE bank told the FT that all A7-linked accounts had already been identified and closed, adding that it seeks to apply US, UK, EU and UN sanctions.
Standard Chartered, Citigroup, JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank all noted their strong commitment to anti-money laundering reporting but otherwise declined to comment.
The Kremlin has touted A7 as the country’s flagship provider of cross-border payments for imports since Russian banks were cut off from the Swift system after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
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