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Comment by SXX | Hacker News Reader

It's not the first story like this and not the last.

Right now there is still NASDAQ traded "Freedom Holding Corp" (FRHC) originated from Kazahstan with primary business of fueling sanctioned Russian money and doing other shady business in ex-USSR. Everyone knows they mass open accounts for Russia residents remotely and no one cares.

It's not like there are no other banks doing the same, but none of them are owned by US-based entity traded on NASDAQ. SEC certainly wont care until it implode on thousands of retail investors. Going after crypto is far more important.

And there are more financial institutions that have banking licenses around the globe (including US, EU and UK) with primary source of income from money laundering and again no one cares until they grow too big or scam all their customers and investors.

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Why helping to exfiltrate the money out of Russia is bad? Don't you think that this is much better for the goals of the western sanctions than preventing money from going out of the country?

I'm a Russian guy (with a Freedom bank KZ account), who publicly condemn the barbaric invasion and thus is threatened by the homeland's so called authorities. A guy who left Russia after the war has started in order to stop at least paying taxes that fuel this war (and to avoid being sent to the frontline as well). Who have been living, working and paying taxes in the EU since then. I want the war to stop ASAP from the very first day. As well as having the responsible maniacs to face the trial.

And I see many of the sanctions counter-productive.

Can you imagine what it took to get my savings (before calling it "blood money", keep in mind, that I always supported the opposition, never worked for the government-affilated entities and tried my best to prevent this war) to the European banks with all this witch-hunt and passport-based discrimination.

Would you really prefer my money to stay in Russia and work for the benefit of the war?

There is a whole industry of people helping russians evade sanctions. And guess what, each and every scheme includes Freedom Finance. There are innocent russians among Freedom's clientele, no doubt, but the number of sanction evaders is too damn high. Note that no other bank in Kazakhstan opens accounts for russians remotely without any proof of residence, proof of funds etc. It is only Freedom Finance doing this.

Why they are still being allowed to operate and have not been shutdown is a mystery to me.

I guess this needs a coordinated effort of complaints and letters to SEC, FED, congresspeople.

You really missed point of my post here. This is not about sanctions or getting money out of Russia. It's about the fact that one big piece of money laundering institution with very shady finances being owned by US holding company that is traded on NASDAQ. That's it.

SEC is going after everything related to crypto, but gives no damns about some bs money laundering operation being traded on NASDAQ. This is exactly what Wirecard was in EU, but on smaller scale.

I hate to break it for you but whatever you possessed whilst in Russia and you didn't take with you is gone. Your assets are gone; not yours anymore. You chose a new life here, in the EU, and... as you seem like a reasonable Russian, I'd like to welcome you to the EU and I want you to use your qualities contributing to (a free) society here.

The good news is, you're now living in a free society. You're paying taxes, you're probably following the law, too. You'll be fine here. Also, the Ruble will fall, it is just a question of when. Plus, you won't have to participate in a war economy making the useless war crap, or being cannon fodder. You made a brave, life changing decision, and part of that is saying farewell to your past.

Also, I don't know if it is possible for Russian people to use cryptocurrency but what I'd consider is go to China and buy some cryptocurrency there, then exfiltrate that to EU. Or something like that, I don't know. You'd be taxed either way (or have it not declared ...). The problem with stuff like this is, it can be used for good and bad. As such, you're collateral damage.

What do you think the money is used for abroad? Helping fight against climate change or feeding the hungry in Africa? No, Putin's regime needs that money outside of Russia to fund useful idiots who further his cause in the US and Europe.

You have a point. On the other hand, some actions can serve as a sort of surveillance. Where exactly goes the money? It is like a honeypot or observing your suspects.

Shutting down would undoubtedly help, on the other side, understanding systems and beneficiaries needs to be handled in a different manner.

That's all great until one day said banking group land on SDN sanctions list losing everything that retail investors who been dumb enough put into it. There are plenty of Turkish and UAE banks that do the same money laundering, but they are not traded on NASDAQ.

UPD: In any case my point is not talking about this situation specifically, but just pointing out US has it's own Wirecard and likely are there far more than one example. This is just one I know.

Any idea as to why they haven't been investigated and/or de-listed? Is it really just that no one cares? That seems insane to me but I don't know much about the financial services space

> Any idea as to why they haven't been investigated and/or de-listed?

I'm not SEC to know that.

> Is it really just that no one cares?

There was some investigation by Hindenburg Research, but since it's mostly OSINT with bunch of forum screenshots and public records it did not gain that much publicity:

https://hindenburgresearch.com/freedom/

PS: Just to be clear my source of information is not some journalist aricle or Hindenburg Research. I just opened said bank account for myself along with many many other people who never in their life been to Kazakhstan.

It actually gained a lot of publicity because Hindenburg has a pretty good track record and many people are paying attention to them. There is zero chance financial regulators didn't see it. FRHC got a law firm to review some of their allegations: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/freedom-holding-corp-announce.... (I have no position).

Yeah they hired some law firm to cover for them.

Except even last month they been opening bank accounts for anyone and everyone left and right including providing means for very-very-shady registration of Kazakhstan Tax-ID (SSN) remotely.

And until a week ago you could literally send money from a bank cards of some Russian sanctioned banks to them and it just worked. Now when Russia payment system provider itself been sanctioned it's no longer works, but fortunately now they'll gladly accept money transfers from their ex-subsidiary that they of course sold a year ago, etc.

Again it's very much possible that from legal standpoint everything they do is "legal". Just dont be surprised why Wirecard wasn't caught by EU authorities earlier. I pretty certain Wirecard also had great law firms working for them.

That's not how it works. It's a major independent law firm and there is no chance they'd risk their reputation to cover for FRHC. If there are problems with how FRHC operates (I have no idea), they'd just ask the law firm to investigate only specific legal things.

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