paul: in the case of the russian laundromat, more than 20 billion u.s. dollars left russia, entered bank accounts in one bank in the republic of moldova, and from these bank accounts in the republic of moldova, they went sideways. they went--most of the money went to a bank in the european union in latvia called trasta komercbanka, and from there, through some of the world's largest banks, ended up everywhere, including in australia. sean: the leak revealed that some of that money was funneled to a company based in the tiny new south wales coastal town of umina beach. sean: this is the headquarters of gemini

packaging, a business established by a russian-born businesswoman to sell food and drink containers to russia, moldova, and other countries. sean: the leaked duments show gemini packaging received more than three-quarters of a million dollars from one bank and two shell companies central to the russian laundromat scheme. the payments were list as being for "construction materials," but when we asked gemini's australian director about the data, she said she didn't recognize the company names and had no record of the transactions. paul: quite a few of the companies that we spoke with said the same, that they were not aware of therigin of the money, that they didn't know who was making the payment. and, in fact, what we've seen is that sometimes they contracted services, but then the money would be paid by these offshore type of companies. at the receiving end, the company said, "well, we don't know why they chose to pay us in that particular way."

sean: there is an estimated one trillion dollars in "dark" russian money hidden offshore. part of ilya shumanov's job at transparency international is to track it down. four corners has been working with him to investigate the flow of some of this tainted cash into australia. ilya shumanov: a thousand russian officials and oligarchs, they kept their money not in russia but abroad for the safe reasons 'cause they are not sure about stability of russian political and economical system. that's why they would like to save their money in some

financial sectors not in russia but in other territories. sean: on march 5, 2013, five russians flew into brisbane airport. they said they were here for a holiday. they were part of a larger group of nine russians who had made multiple visits to queensland since 2010. ilya: there's these guys who came to australia a few times. they're not very higher-rank russian businessmen, yeah? it looks like that they have some businesses in russia, but it's not big business, let's say. sean: the russians were involved in two siberian businesses: an ice cream factory and a precious-gem company.

during their visits, there have been 24 accounts at this one surfers paradise branch, and over three years, more than $29 million was deposited into them. dr. david chaikin: the russians obtained debit cards on those bank accounts, and they used those debit cards to fund luxury holidays, designer clothes, expensive jewelry. the australian federal police carried out a six-month investigatio and with the materi they had, they sought successfully to freeze those bank accounts in queensland. sean: in court, the australian federal police said they believed the cash was the proceeds of crime, and the accounts were being used "as virtual piggy banks for very large amounts of money." a judge said the police evidence showed "a very clear inference

of money laundering," by the russians. ilya: the russian media asked these guys about the purpose of their visit to australia, and they answered that they would like to provide some sources for dairy goods for ice cream factory, and also they would like to start the gem business with some australian partners, but they have never opened any corporate in australia. th only deposited this money into the bank accounts-- nothing else. sean: the case w shrouded in secrecy aer the cou agreed to extraordinary suppression orders over most of the evidence. david: now, the normal case is that the court suppresses court documents because they're concerned that that may affect the integrity of a jury trial, in order to protect an accused

from unfair prejudicial information. now that's not the situation here because there's no prospect of a criminal trial, so other reasons for issuing suppression orders include safeguarding national security or protecting australia's relations with foreign countries. sean: our joint investigation led to the siberian city of irkutsk. sean: we uncovered new information linking the gem company at the center of the alleged scheme with a powerful figure in the putin government. documents show it is part-owned by the son of russia's deputy prosecutor general alexei zakharov. ilya: alexei zakharov, he's well known in russia.

he's a very, very powerful person with a big connection in the ministry of defense of russia, adviser of mr. putin, and so on, and so on. sean: zakharov's son dmitry became a shareholder in the gem company in 2015. ilya: he is big fan of the luxury cars, and he spent a lot of time in social media, in playing video games, and so on, and so on, and i think so he barely had an opportunity to visit irkutsk, and i think so this guy could be the nominee of his father or his family. paul: the australian authorities should really focus on this type of criminal behavior on this--because this is a pattern. you know, offshore type of companies, shell companies, wiring money into bank accounts in australia.

we've only seen the tip of the iceberg. there's a lot more going on, and this is very, very worrying. sean: it's not only criminals and politicians allegedly hiding "dark" money offshore. some of russia's most prominent business figures are accused of moving their dirty cash around the globe. one is an oligarch named oleg deripaska, who has a significant investment in australia. sean: oleg deripaska is a billionaire tycoon who made his fortune during a violent power struggle to take over russia's lucrative aluminium industry. mark: it was a time of extraordinary notoriety of gangsters being used as hit men as part of business disputes, and so forth. deripaska was not, shall we say, regarded as the dirtiest of those, but nonetheless, that's the environment in which he was operating, and so we've got allegations of people being

threatened or actually thrown out of helicopters. we have allegations of being in bed with gangsters, using them not just to pay them off for protection but actually using them to target business rivals. we have allegations of moving dirty money and essentially laundering it through this sector. now, it's important to stress, these have not been proven in a court of law. andrew michelmore: what i heard was, in terms of oleg, he would come out of the hotel, and there was six mercedes lined up, black mercedes. he would go in one of them, and they would drive as a convoy out to the smelter, and all the things behind that was because people were trying to kill him over the aluminium assets. they had to lock themselves in the smelter one day when they were under, literally, under fire, and his cfo was killed. he was shot in this war.

sean: deripaska's company, rusal, became one of the largest aluminium producers in the world. in 2004, rusal invested in australia, buying 20% of queensland alumina limited for $530 million dollars and partnering with mining giant rio tinto, which owns the remaining 80%. the australian refinery remains an important asset for rusal. andrew: they needed four million-plus ton of alumina, and they didn't have it in their own empire, and the quality of the material they made the aluminium from wasn't as good as the fantastic bauxite we have here in australia.

sean: deripaska is one of russia's most powerful oligarchs, who owes his position to vladimir putin. he's accused by the u.s. treasury of holding assets and laundering money for the russian president. putin hasn't hesitated to publicly remind deripaska who's boss. president putin: [speaking foreign language] oleg deripaska: [speaking foreign language] present putin: [speaking foreign language] catherine belt: tin essentially created a system in which he has compromising information on eve russian billionaire. indeed, all of them earned their wealth in a slightly dubious way

in the '90s, when, really, all the rules went out of the window, and it became a system in which, sort of, the russian billionaires understood very clearly that they own their assets through remaining in the good books of the kremlin, that they had to carry out strategic tasks for the kremlin. sean: in 2012, during a business dispute in the british high court, allegations emerged that deripaska had ordered the murder of a rival, bribed an official, and had russian mafia links. he's also been accused by the u.s. senate intelligence committee of involvement in murderous political conspiracies on behalf of the kremlin. catherine: according to the senate intelligence report, deripaska wound up funding and directly executing a russian

intelligence plan to overthrow the pro-western montenegrin government and try and assassinate its prime minister, and so these are pretty stark accusations, which, of course, deripaska would deny, but the senate intelligence committee obviously has enough evidence to make these allegations. sean: in 2018, after allegations of russian meddling in the u.s. election, deripaska was among the putin loyalists hit with financial sanctions by the united states. rusal and its parent company en+ were also targeted. anna massoglia: those sanctions prevented financial transactions largely in the united states. he, as well as his companies, primarily under the umbrella of rusal and en+, were prevented from continuing to expand their

businesses and exchange money in the united states. sean: deripaska hired top-ti washington loyists mercury public affairs to try to get the sanctions on rusal and en+ overturned. researcher anna massoglia began tracking the operation. anna: mercury public affairs was able to leverage their connections in d.c., with people in political positions of power in order to further this foreign influence operation. one way that they did this was by contacting ambassadors in a number of countries, including australia, to send letters that furthered the interest of the foreign influence operation. sean: the lobbyists targeted the then australian ambassador to washington, joe hockey, to pressure him to support the lifting of sanctions. they sent him a briefing note warning, "rusal owns 20% of

queensland alumina. therefore the jobs and critical economic activity of this company are at risk." serena lillywhite: the letter that was sent to the australian ambassador to the u.s., sought torovide assurances to the australian ambassador that the company had sufficiently restructed to warrant those sanctions against them being lifted, and those assurances t mr. deripaska had reduced his controlling ownership of rusal to less than 50%, so he no longer held a controlling share stake. sean: the lobbyists prepared a draft letter they wanted hockey to sign and deliver to key decision-makers. it read, "on behalf of the commonwealth of australia, i would like to express strong support for the plan to restructure the en+ group and rusal in order to lift the

threat of sanctions against the companies." serena: it is quite extraordinary that a lobbyist would actually provide a letter stating "we, the commonwealth of australia, support this request." it is quite an audacious approach to lobbying ands effectively spoon feeding the australian ambassador with information in order to get his signature on a letter that the company then planned to use for whatever purpose they want in the future. sean: joe hockey told four corners he couldn't recall the letter and would not have acted on it. documents obtained under foi show that, at the height of the lobbying campaign, senior australian embassy staff sent more than a dozen e-mails to key u.s. officials overseeing the sanctions regime. the australian diplomats met with u.s.

state department and treasury representatives and raised "the importance of an early consideration by the u.s. of an australian company's proposal to meet the terms of the sanctions. serena: well, certainly, lobbying is not new. it's not illegal. lobbying takes place regularly in australia. i guess what is interesting with this particular case is the fact that efforts were made to actually secure the support of the australian government to have these sanctions against the company overturned. sean: in 2019, the u.s. lifted sanctions against rusal after deripaska agreed to reduce his stake in the company, but deripaska remains personally sanctioned. anna: the sanctions were controversial, and lifting the sanctions were very controversial. therwas a lot of discussion in congress, as well as among

administration officials, about whether these steps taken by en+ and rusal were sufficient to remove sanctions on the company since oleg deripaska was still such a divisive and controversial figure himself. sean: last august, the senate intelligence committee stated that "deripaska conducts influence operations, frequently in countries where he has a significant economic interest. the russian government coordinates with and directs deripaska on many of his influence operations." critically, it found that "deripaska's companies, including rusal, are proxies for the kremlin, including for russian government influence efforts, economic measures, and diplomatic relations." serena: no individual or company that is sanctioned as is the case with mr. deripaska--there are personal

sanctions against him--should be allowed to do business in australia. and equally, no individual or company that is accused of serious crime, corruption, money laundering, and misconduct, should be able to conduct business in australia. so it's certainly an area where australia can improve its corporate governance, its corporate oversight, to ensure that we have investment in australia by individuals that are fit and proper to be doing business in australia. [crowd chanting in foreign language] sean: in russia, putin is under pressure from his own people. tens of thousands have clashed with police at protests against the russian president, demanding the release of opposition leader alexey navalny.

navalny was jailed after surviving a poisoning attempt by russian agents. all: free navalny, free navalny, free navalny, free navalny. sean: at an anti-putin march in central sydney, australian cossacks and their leader simeon boikov turned up to confront the protestors. simeon: we're here with our president, vladimir putin, supporting the president, supporting vladimir putin against these opposition scum. sean: the protestors saw boikov and his cronies as the embodiment of putin's repressive regime. female: it's a good representation of people who are for him. so you will see they're all a bit older men, like military, i

mean, and you see young people, happy, smiling, and dancing, and we want free russian. sean: how can you support a regime that has just tried to murder the opposition leader alexey navalny? simeon: look, if it really was them, then i have one comment i can make: they should've done it properly. novichok is very potent, and if it was novichok, he would be dead. putin said that, if it was them, if someone wanted to kill him, they would've liquidated him. it would be very easy to do so. in fact, he's in jail now, and we can get him in jail. sean: so you support the idea of murdering political opponents? simeon: i wouldn't say "murdering." i would say "liquidating." "murdering" is a bad word. all: russia will be free. russia will be free. sean: around the world, opposition to vladimir putin's rule is getting louder. here in australia, his loyal supporters are emboldened and growing ever more strident in defending their president and his ruthless regime.

♪♪♪ simeon: australian laws are very, very relaxed. i could never imagine doing this in other countries, what we're allowed to do here. australia is a very good place if you wanna promote a foreign agenda. my colleagues in russia, when they hear about what we do here, they're shocked. i mean, yeah, we walk through canberra, middle of canberra, you know, 30 cossacks in uniform with a russian flag, marching to russian military march, and when the russians in russia hear about this, they say, "could you imagine if, you know, an australian detachment was to march down red square, you know, unauthorized to some american military march or something like that? impossible, heh-heh-heh. but that's what makes australia unique. ♪♪♪

(sophie fouron) it's such a small plane. it's not your first flight, is it? (pilot) first flight of the day. (sophie fouron) first flight of the day! o.k. good enough. we're off to great barrier island this morning. it's a 30-minute flight from auckland, new zealand. they have incredible fauna and flora over there, as well as secluded and quiet bays and beaches. i think i could get used to this. great barrier is quite isolated.