Sasha duganov we join because of the bikes. You obviously cant join the club unless you own a bike. Thats the first thing. We all got common interest. So we dont do drugs, we dont do weapons, we dont do any of that stuff. We just wanna show the world russia, whatever you wanna call it, that russia had a massive history, and were trying to keep it up. Sean the night wolves are among an International Network of patriots determined to remind the world that Vladimir Putins russia is a force to be reckoned with. Kyle wilson putin sees such organizations as a significant asset in pursuing his particular goals, whether they be domestic goals or Foreign Policy goals. You can use the russian diaspora, the russian community, to seek to build your influence and then use that influence, tis to be hoped, to shift australias policies. Russia makes no bones about it. Sean in russia, putin has launched a brutal crackdown to crush prodemocracy protestors. While in australia, his supporters are determined to shout down putins critics. Simeon boikov were here with our president , Vladimir Putin, supporting the president , supporting Vladimir Putin against these opposition scum. Sean why would russia care about australia . Mark galeotti russia cares about australia because russia cares about everywhere. The fact of the matter is that russia is aware of whats going on in australia and certainly does not regard it as insignificant. Sean australia has also become a safe haven for rivers of dirty money flowing out of putins corrupt regime. Paul radu australia is a great place to keep money. Its a democracy with a stable banking system, and criminals love democracies with stable banking systems. This is why australia is a great destination for illicit funds. Sean tonight, on four corners, we investigate russian money and influence in australia. We track the tainted cash from russian criminals and politicians that has washed up on our shore. We reveal how one of putins closest allies lobbied australia to help lift u. S. Sanctions from his business interests and how a propaganda war is being waged right here to support the kremlins global agenda. Sean the New South Wales chapter of the night wolves is putting on a proud show of russian patriotism. Theyre heading for a cenotaph on sydneys northern beaches to celebrate a famous russian battle known as the attack of the dead. Vladimir simonian [speaking foreign language] Alexey Muraviev the night wolves are probably the most wellorganized and bestbranded russian biker organization. The current strength of the organization is about 5,000 active members. It has chapters all across russia but also spreading into the former soviet space as well as into europe as well as other parts of the world, which now includes australia. Sean the australian chapter was founded in 2015. There are now members in New South Wales, queensland, victoria, and western australia. Male yeah, boys, gather round. Alexey publicly, theyre doing a whole range of activities from organizing christmas shows for disadvantaged children, to joy bike rides, to what they describe as patriotic rides normally associated with commemorating major historical milestones. But more recently, certainly over the past seven or eight years, they began really positioning themselves as public supporters of the current course of the russian government. [honking] sean the clubs most famous supporter is Vladimir Putin. President Vladimir Putin [speaking foreign language] [shooting and shouting] sean the russian night wolves act as a proxy army for the kremlin. Male [speaking foreign language] sean they promote their expertise in military and combat tactics. Sean the night wolves are sanctioned by the United States for fighting with the prorussian forces in ukraine. Mark the kremlin have this concept of the russkiy mir, the russian world. Essentially, wherever there are ethnic russians, then moscow needs to have some kind of representation, and so what we tend to find is wherever you have any kind of flows of russians, whether individuals or rich russians, then with them move a whole variety of different organizations. Although, on the whole, this is meant to be essentially simply an expression of cultural identity more than anything else, it doesnt mean that it cannot then be activated at some point to precisely be used for some kind of influence operation or similar. Sean the shores of sydney harbor seem an unlikely setting for a celebration of Russian Nationalism. Todays event is organized by a proputin group called the doubleheaded Eagle Society. Among the guests is the russian consulategeneral in sydney. Simeon boikov in about three minutes, would you come and please take your seats. Sean the host is 31yearold sydneysider Simeon Boikov, the australianborn son of a Russian Orthodox priest. Hes also the leader of the australian cossack society, which styles itself as a military unit. Simeon todays ceremony is very significant, for its the hundredyear anniversary since the 1920 great russian exodus. Sean what are the cossacks in australia here to do and to achieve . Simeon the purpose of the cossacks in australia is to preserve cossack traditions, culture, values, and also to promote prorussian sentiment, and ive been accused of that, but ill say it on camera we have no problems of admitting that we are prorussian. [music in russian] sean boikov leads a small group of dedicated australian cossacks. Boikovs leadership has been controversial. At this meeting filmed by the cossacks and posted on youtube, he is reappointed for five years after fighting off an attempt to remove him. Male [speaking foreign language] simeon [speaking foreign language] simeon so our job as russian patriotsand this is what i call upon my compatriots to do all the time is to be mobilized and be active in defending russia. Some people, they think, oh, well, assimilation, and so forth, and we cant do much to help russia. We believe that its not enough just to be russian. You must support russia. You must actively support russia, and you should defend russia. Sean boikov has led groups of australian cossacks to russia where they fired guns and visited a military training facility. [gunshots] sean in 2018, Simeon Boikov told a Russian Media outlet, we have a unique opportunity to support russia from within an enemy state. He was referring to australia. He said cossacks in australia could pursue a prorussian position, lobby politicians and members of parliament, oppose anyone who lies about russia, attacks russia, or imposes sanctions. Basically, they can wage an information war. Sean why do you regard australia as an enemy state . Simeon no, australia, in this context, a state which is placing sanctions against russia and behaving in an antirussian manner, you know, in that way could be perceived that the activities are not the activities of an ally. The main thing to know is were not against australia at all. We love australia. We will defend australia, and well try to defend it, and we wanna facilitate the rehabilitation of australian relations with russia, which is very important. [gunshots] sean australias relationship with russia collapsed in 2014, after the Russian Military incursion into ukraine. Prorussian separatists shot down Malaysia Airlines flight mh17, killing 283 passengers. Thirtyeight were australians. Tony abbott look, im going to shirtfront mr. Putin. You bet you are. You bet i am. I am going to be saying to mr. Putin, australians were murdered. They were murdered by russianbacked rebels using russiansupplied equipment. We are very unhappy about this. Mark i mean, up to this point, russianaustralian relations had very much been about trade and cultural contact. Suddenly, it became much, much more conflictual, and suddenly we had the australian very much pushing for independent investigations for justice to be done, and that made, in a way, australia a problem for the kremlin, and the kremlins natural response is, when it sees a problem, it makes problems back in return. Sean when protestors condemned putin over mh17 during the 2014 g20 meeting in brisbane, australian cossack Simeon Boikov led a counter rally defending the russian president. Sean four corners has learned Australian Authorities were monitoring boikov over concerns he may have raised money for separatists in ukraine and may have traveled to the conflict himself. Sean do you deny it . Simeon of course, i deny traveling to ukraine. I havent been to ukraine since the beginning of the war. I went to ukraine before the war. Ive been to western ukraine, kiev. Sean in 2015, boikov went to russia to meet a notorious military separatist leader blamed for mh17, known as strelkov. At this time, strelkov was being accused of direct involvement in the downing of mh17. Why did you think it was appropriate to go and visit him . Simeon Igor Strelkov is a hero of novorossiya. Novorossiya. He didnt shoot down mh17, neither did anyone on the russian side. Mh17 was shot down by ukraine, over ukrainian territory, you know, in ukrainian airspace. Had nothing to do with russia. Very simple. Sean boikovs denial of russias guilt ignores the overwhelming evidence. Sean in fact, strelkov and three others, two russians, one ukrainian, are currently on trial in the netherlands for this very crime. Simeon in absentia. Well, you know, they can make whatever Kangaroo Court they like when, you know, if we shot the plane down, im sure we wouldve admitted it. Sean boikov and his fellow cossacks have also tried to silence the local ukrainian community. Simeon [speaking foreign language] female [speaking foreign language] sean in this video, boikov taunts parishioners and their priest outside a Ukrainian Church in sydney. Simeon i wanna ask you a question. Why do you have crimea is ukrainian on your church . Everyone knows its russian. Male everyone knows its russian [speaking foreign language] sean also present is vladimir simonian, the president of the night wolves australia motorcycle club. Simeon [speaking foreign language] sean some would see that as intimidation. Simeon well, theres a fine line. I mean, if we wanted to, we couldve done something much worse, but we wouldnt do that because we dont promote breaking the law. We dont promote radicalism. We dont promote anything like that, you know, thats unaustralian andbut its good to remind other people in our presence, our physical presence, just, you know, people seeing the fact that there are cossacks there, so forth, is enough to discourage antirussian activities, and ive noticed that. Sean boikov spreads his relentlessly prorussian views in the newspaper he founded called russian frontier. Simeon the russian frontier newspaper in australia is a newspaper which counters the antirussian hysteria. You know, people read the newspaper, and theyre shocked to realize, oh, theres a different side to the story. The western press is very antirussian, so this is a good alternative. Simeon putin has a lot of power in the kremlin. The russian government has a lot of power, and it has a very large armed forces, but they cant do certain things, which we can help them do, which is explain, for example, to local people in the west that russia, you know, is not involved in hacking, that russia didnt poison these people. Russia didnt shoot down this plane. Russia didnt, you knoweverything that they would accuse us of constantly. Sean russian frontier doesnt just deliver prorussian news. Its also used to settle scores. Sean last year, former australian diplomat and russia intelligence analyst, kyle wilson, become a target of russian frontier. Kyle wilson its content tends to be extremist. It makes a practice of identifying people who disagree with it as enemies. It calls them enemies of russia. Sean wilson had written about boikovs prorussian influence activities in australia, infuriating boikov. Simeon [speaking foreign language] sean the next edition of russian frontier branded wilsons article racist and called him an antirussian conspiracy theorist. In a video posted to social media, boikov joked about a meme hed published of putin with the line, funny guy, i kill you last, next to a photo of wilson. Simeon funny guy, i kill you last. Hahahaha. [speaking foreign language] kyle the abuse, the vituperation, the questioning of my motives, the impugning of my integrity by implying that i had been commissioned to write the article and had been paid by someone, well, these are familiar tactics. As you know, protestors in russia, who are sometimes set upon by cossacks with their whips simeon im not going to tolerate people like kyle wilson bashing our community, writing hysterical articles against russia. You know, we have a newspaper, and well use that to defend russian interests and to publicly criticize and rebuff the outrageous allegations that kyle wilson makes. Sean Simeon Boikovs partner in the newspaper is Russian National valeriy malinovskiy. Malinovskiy is also the chairman of the Australian Branch of the doubleheaded Eagle Society, a proputin, Russian Nationalist group. Boikov is his deputy. Valeriy malinovskiy the agenda of our branch is to promote russian culture, to educate people, to dismay this misconception about russia. Thirty million russians live overseas. Its 20 of the whole population, and if somehow we can talk to them, educate them again, to promote our culture, it will be very valuable for the country. Kyle so, the twoheaded Eagle Society, we are told, is also about the propagation of russian values, but its particularly about reeducating russians abroad so that they have what they call the correct view of russian history, that is, righting the wrong, which is the distortion of russian history outside russia but also inside russia. Sean last year, boikov and malinovskiy were appointed to their positions by the then head of the doubleheaded Eagle Society in russia, Leonid Reshetnikov, a former russian spy. Reshetnikov and the Russian Branch of the society have been accused of involvement in espionage activities in eastern europe. Kyle now, Leonid Reshetnikov was a general in the kgb. Hes now purported to be retired, but mr. Putin has said that theres no such thing as a retired kgb officer. Now, thats the context, it seems to me, in which one should view what were seeing in australia, the prosecution of that information war in australia, clearly designed to try to get the Australian Government to change its policies towards reforming those policies so that they would be perceived as serving russias interests and not being hostile to russia. Alexey we need to recognize that russia doesnt look at australia as a friendly country. Russia looks at australia through the prism of our security and Defense Alliance with the United States. By ignoring russias weight, russias influence, and russias international status, we allow ourselves to be caught off guard every time russia can pull the card out of its sleeve and wants to play a game against australia. Sean russias interest in australia is not just political. Australia has become an attractive destination for large sums of russian cash. Sean four corners has been working with International Anticorruption organizations to investigate millions of dollars in allegedly dirty russian money stashed here and laundered through australian banks and businesses. Paul australia is a great place to keep money. Its a democracy with a stable banking system, and criminals love democracies with stable banking systems. This is why australia is a great destination for illicit funds. Sean paul radu is the cofounder of the organized crime and corruption reporting project, a group of investigators based in eastern europe. In 2014, his organization used an enormous leak of banking and Company Records to expose one of the largestever global Money Laundering schemes. They dubbed it the russian laundromat. 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 wentmost of the money went to a bank in the European Union in latvia called trasta komercbanka, and from there, through some of the Worlds 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 russianborn businesswoman to sell food and drink containers to russia, moldova, and other countries. Sean the leaked documents show gemini packaging received more than threequarters of a Million Dollars from one bank and two Shell Companies central to the russian laundromat scheme. The payments were listed as being for construction materials, but when we asked geminis australian director about the data, she said she didnt 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 the origin of the money, that they didnt know who was making the payment. And, in fact, what weve 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 dont 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 shumanovs 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. Thats 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 theres these guys who came to australia a few times. Theyre not very higherrank russian businessmen, yeah . It looks like that they have some businesses in russia, but its not big business, lets say. Sean the russians were involved in two siberian businesses an Ice Cream Factory and a preciousgem 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 sixmonth investigation, and with the material 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. They only deposited this money into the Bank Accounts nothing else. Sean the case was shrouded in secrecy after the court agreed to extraordinary suppression orders over most of the evidence. David now, the normal case is that the court suppresses Court Documents because theyre concerned that that may affect the integrity of a jury trial, in order to protect an accused