Financial Times: How A7 routed more than $6.9 billion through international banks to circumvent sanctions against Russia

An investigation by the Financial Times, based on hundreds of thousands of documents obtained from inside the company, has uncovered a wide-ranging financial fraud scheme allegedly set up with the Kremlin’s backing. Through it, Russian fintech company A7 has channelled more than $6.9 billion through the international banking system, despite sanctions imposed on Russia after the war in Ukraine began.

According to the documents, A7 concealed the true nature of transactions by using shell companies, false data and forged documentation. Several of the largest international banks also appear to have been involved in these operations.

Materials analyzed by the Financial Times show that some payments were linked to sensitive war-related goods, including military equipment and purchases made in the interests of Russian security services.

A7 was established in Russia and Kyrgyzstan as an alternative route for international payments after Russian banks were excluded from the SWIFT system following the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The company was founded by Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor, with the backing of Promsvyazbank, a Russian state-owned bank with close ties to the defense industry. The Kremlin has portrayed A7 as one of Russia’s leading providers of cross-border payment services for imports.

But the investigation shows that sanctions evasion did not rely solely on financial technology. According to the documents, the scheme used fictitious companies, forged invoices and altered descriptions of goods in an effort to evade bank checks.

Data examined by the Financial Times show that accounts in Hong Kong received about $1.1 billion from entities linked to A7 between late 2024 and August 2025.

The investigation identified about 100 fictitious companies that made payments during the period covered by the leaked data. The documents also mention dozens of other similar entities in the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Kyrgyzstan and Indonesia.

According to the newspaper, these companies misrepresented products and transactions, making them appear to be something other than what they really were, using forged documents.

A7 is suspected of possessing thousands of company seals. Some were forged, while others had been copied from genuine documents of companies that were unaware they were being used.

The documents show that A7 employees explained to clients how they should describe products in order to pass sanctions checks. In some cases, the customs codes for sanctioned goods were replaced with similar codes that were not prohibited.

One example mentioned in the leaked materials is an order for 500 night-vision binoculars, worth about $510,000, for a Russian client in February 2025.

For this shipment, A7 employees drew up documents describing the equipment as “reinforced glass.” Discussions also considered declaring them as “shoes,” but it was ultimately decided to retain the initial description to avoid arousing suspicion.

The documents also reflect efforts to erase any Russian trace from transaction files. For this purpose, details of buyers, products and shipments were altered, while Cyrillic letters were also removed.