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Comment by michalu | Hacker News Reader

> it got it's money from DST Global

So does Facebook, DoorDash, FlipKart and hundred+ other Silicon Valley companies. Revolut also has money from Seedcamp, Balderton, Index and tons of other VCs.

> Revolut is Russian owned and Russian managed pseudo-bank

Since when being a Russian is a crime? Besides if a company is London based it is regulated by UK authorities.

You make it sound like the guy being Russian, DST being Russian (and allegedly having "ties" to Kremlin) is somewhat a red flag. I would like to hear more on the reasoning behind how all that is negative?

Don't Silicon Valley CEOs have ties to White House? Should I not use their products? :)

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> I would like to hear more on the reasoning behind how all that is negative?

There is outsized demand for money laundering from Russia, in large part owing to its endemic and unchecked corruption. This is why most recent European money laundering scandals have involved Russian money [1][2][3].

So when you see an AML deficient operation with multiple Russian ties based out of Lithuania, it raises legitimate questions.

[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-danske-bank-eu-regulator/...

[2] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/18/deutsche-bank-shares-slip-am...

[3] https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2019/03/...

Interestingly, all the banks in your sources involved in money laundering of "Russian money" are big non-Russian (Dutch, German, Estonian, UK, Swedish, French and so on) banks.

> all the banks in your sources involved in money laundering of "Russian money" are big non-Russian (Dutch, German, Estonian, UK, Swedish, French and so on) banks

And Revolut is a non-Russian service. Hence the comparison.

(Money laundering has three steps [1]. Dirty Russian money is typically placed with Russian banks. It is then layered between Russian and non-Russian banks before being integrated by a non-Russian bank, thereby masking its origins. Given the amount of dirty money flowing out of Russia, a Russian account tends to gather more scrutiny than e.g. a Danish one in the same way a Colombian account garners more scrutiny than a Miami one.)

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_laundering

We have unchecked corruption from the 2nd most powerful politician in the country, no one cares

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/us/politics/elaine-chao-c...

> We have unchecked corruption from the 2nd most powerful politician in the country

Chao is being investigated by the House [1]. Worst case, we’re talking single-digit millions of suspected malfeasance versus billions in Russia of cut-and-dry graft.

And most importantly, a wrong here doesn’t excuse a wrong there.

[1] https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/24/house-chao-rules-t...

I thought that she had steered some $78,000,000 in Federal projects to her husband's state and then there were also some questions about the business interests of her family members in China[0]. Also Deripaska[1] just announced he's funding an aluminum plant in Mitch McConnell's state so I suppose it does involve billions in Russian graft. [0]https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/06/elaine-chao-china-tr... [1]https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/15/business/rusal-russia-kentuck...

financial services company accused of money laundering with ties to russian oligarchs in London is a little bit different from minority stake in a large american corporation, or even the American government, which at least as of today is still a liberal democracy.

I don’t think the problem is that it has ties to a political entity.

The problem is that that entity is a de-facto dictatorship that is well known for being corrupt.

The fact that CEOs father works as a deputy executive in a government owned company qualifies does not qualify as "ties," in any meaningful way.

Most shareholders and the regulator in control are western based and run by people whose parents aren't employed in Russia's public sector, as far as I know.

Show me a government that's not known to be corrupt.

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