Rucriminal.info continues to publish an investigation about the oldest money laundering channel, through which Russian officials withdrew more than $ 1 billion from the Russian Federation to the United States.
According to the information we have, the "overseer" behind this channel is a man of difficult fate - Leonid Fedorovich Bilunov, better known as "Lenya Macintosh".
It is with him that the master of the Geneva Bar, Alexander Vikhlyaev, keeps in touch.
By the way, knowledgeable people say that it was with the help of Swiss lawyers that Sergey Mikhailov (Mikhas), the leader of the Solntsevskaya organized criminal group, radically changed his opinion about Bilunov.
Here is Mikhailov's own version of how it all happened:
“- Leonid Fedorovich Bilunov is an interesting personality. Once in one interview I criticized him, so after that publication he contacted me and provided me with documents. They convinced me that he is now engaged in charity work in France, helps the poor of the Church, and made a great contribution to the restoration of churches. Finally, the documents confirmed that he, Belunov, at one time helped the police to free the hostages, for which he was awarded orders from the French government. Well, having studied the materials, I revised my opinion about him - for the better. "
But back to Leonid Bilunov. "Lenya Mackintosh" has six previous convictions.
In the early 1990s, after a conflict with the banker Alexander Smolensky, he left Russia and lived in Cyprus and Hungary. Ultimately Bilunov settled in France. He currently lives a high life in Paris and Nice. He collects works of art, is a charitable foundation and regularly donates money for the construction of a church in Cannes.
On August 2, 1997 in Dagestan, French citizens, employees of the humanitarian organization Equilibre Andy Chevalier, Pascal Porcheron, Laurent Mol and Régis Greve-Viallon were abducted and taken to Chechnya. They demanded $ 3 million for them. On November 17, 1997, they were released without ransom.
There are different versions of the release of Equilibre employees
Leonid Bilunov claims that they were released precisely with his participation, and we will not dispute this assertion. We disagree with something else entirely.
Bilunov claims that in 1997, during his visit to the police commissariat, representatives of the French counterintelligence Direction de la surveillance du territoire (DST), now the Direction générale de la Sécurité intérieure (DGSI - General Directorate of Internal Security), both divisions are part of the Ministry of the Interior of the French Republic.
However, a completely different department is engaged in all the problems with the taken hostage citizens of France abroad of this glorious country - Direction générale de la Sécurité extérieure
(DGSE - General Directorate of Foreign Security), which is part of the Ministry of Defense and, as its name implies, is a foreign intelligence body.
So that Mr. Bilunov is being modest. And his connections have a very specific vector of interests, in which the connections and practical experience of Leonid Fedorovich can be useful to them.
Bilunov, over the years of his life in France, was able to create a whole network of informants there, these are the staff of hotels, casinos and restaurants on the Cote d'Azur where rich Russians "walk". Confidants constantly inform "Macintosh" about all major events, birthday celebrations and simply gorgeous drinking parties at which you can meet our rich compatriots. On the coast, these are the Eden Roc and Barrière Le Majestic Cannes hotels, located near the Palais des Festivals and Congresses, which hosts the Cannes Film Festival, and the famous Ritz and Four Seasons in Paris.
Bilunov's agent network also covers expensive tennis clubs, restaurants, prestigious ateliers and ski resorts such as Courchevel and Chamonix on the border with Switzerland. In all these iconic places, a tanned, confident man with a leisurely gait and aristocratic manners can appear.
Judging by the publications of the Russian press, Leonid Bilunov is a many and successfully working person, a law-abiding taxpayer, a high-class consultant on large international investment projects. And besides all this, a person closely monitors his reputation.
What exactly does Leonid Bilunov do? He advises Russian businessmen who have problems with French and Russian laws. And this is not necessarily outright crime. Someone wants to minimize the payment of taxes, someone wants to withdraw their capital from Russia, someone wants to launder money after illegal transactions, someone wants to buy French real estate with illegal income. Leonid Fedorovich Bilunov is engaged in consulting on all these issues.
And his closest partners are the Geneva lawyer Alexander Vikhlyaev and the broad-profile financial specialist Vadim Kebets.
To be continued
Alexey Ermakov
