Bank of Italy Reports Potentially Illegal Transfers to Russia Amid Sanctions

The Bank of Italy has reported potentially illegal bank transfers from Italian accounts to Russia last year, routed through other countries to circumvent Western sanctions, according to a document released on Wednesday. Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Western powers imposed extensive sanctions on Moscow, which have been progressively tightened since then. This week, European Union countries adopted a 14th package of sanctions against Moscow.

“The results (of the yearly investigation) led to the identification of some unusual flows,” stated the 2023 report by the central bank’s Financial Intelligence Unit. The report did not provide additional details about the suspected transfers or the countries involved in sending them to Russia.

The annual report compiles information on potential cases of money laundering and terrorism financing, determining whether the information should be forwarded to investigative authorities. It noted that the overall number of suspicious transaction reports (STRs) in 2023 slightly decreased compared to the previous year. However, the number of reports increased after the Hamas-led attack on Israel last October.

“About a third of last year’s reports were sent after mid-October, following the Hamas-led attack,” the central bank added.

By fLEXI tEAM