Russia begins treasure hunt for Chubais' mountain of embezzled rubles

The modern El Dorado

Chubais (left) and his secret Swiss bank account (right). Load up Yandex Maps. Gotta find that treasure.

Russian law enforcement agencies are trying to sniff out Anatoly Chubais’ collection of sequestered European bank accounts, TASS has revealed:

“Power structures will check the information about the hidden accounts of Chubais, which may be in European banks. The amount of foreign currency in them can reach several billion,” the agency’s interlocutor specified. In the interests of the investigation, the sources did not specify in which banks “impressive amounts may be stored, possibly obtained illegally.”

Possibly?

According to TASS, Russian authorities are also interrogating Chubais’ connections on LinkedIn.

In late March, the incorrigible scam artist quit his job as Putin’s climate change envoy (reportedly the position did not even come with a salary, which makes one wonder what kind of under-the-table shenanigans it may have involved) and left Russia for Istanbul, where Chubais immediately sought out the nearest ATM. The SWIFT cut-off was clearly a heavy blow for poor Anatoly.

Kevin Rothrock @KevinRothrock

lol @kommersant has shared a photo purportedly showing Chubais in Istanbul and of course he’s at an ATM

Chubais later did some chillin’ in Italy, and then he was spotted in Tel Aviv with his face-diapered wife.

Gross.

We should stress for the sake of Journalistic Integrity that Anatoly’s whereabouts have never been 100% confirmed; so this is more like a game of Where’s Waldo involving rumors and unverified photographs. Welcome to the internet.

Reports emerged in late April that Chubais had stepped down from the board of directors of AFK Sistema. In February 2021, the Russian conglomerate teamed up with the Kremlin’s sovereign wealth fund (operated by a WEF Young Global Leader) to create Binnopharm Group. The pharmaceutical holding company manufactures a range of drugs for the Russian market, including Sputnik V:

Moscow’s Sistema, an investment company, has launched a new pharmaceutical holding company, Binnopharm Group, together with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). […]

Binnopharm companies produce a wide range of drugs across various therapeutic areas and collectively have the largest portfolio of drugs among Russian manufacturers, including the COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V.

Sistema’s majority owner is Davos-friendly oligarch Vladimir Evtushenkov.

Gross.

We’ve written before about Chubais’ clot-shot profiteering. And also his deep love for Bill Gates. So if you want, you can read about that. We also recently stumbled upon this excellent article documenting Anatoly’s Greatest Scams.

Anyway. Is Chubais going to get mysteriously hacked to death with an icepick?

Eh.

In early May, the Kremlin was rather flippant when asked about the location of this famous crook:

“You know, we have neither the ability nor the desire to follow the fate of Chubais,” said the Kremlin spokesman in response to a request for comment on the information that Chubais was seen at the Tel Aviv airport in Israel. “It is known that he is abroad. He does not work for us,” Peskov added.

Around the same time, a “representative” of the Chubais Crime Family claimed his boss had no property in Italy, and politely asked people to stop making fake Anatoly Chubais Telegram channels. Those salacious internet rumor mills are neither operated nor endorsed by Anatoly, the representative insisted.

The hunt for Chubais’ hidden treasure hoard is excellent news. But there’s just one problem: assuming the stash is located, how does Russia intend to recover these (presumably) stolen funds?

Stay tuned.