On Tuesday, Oct. 20th, federal agents arrested a man in Florida who allegedly was a member of a worldwide money laundering operation with couriers and brokers throughout the United States moving millions for drug cartels and helping Russians evade U.S. sanctions. The man, Pavel Alekseyevich Kulizhnikov, is accused of being a key conduit for the criminal organization and is now facing federal charges in the Eastern District of Virginia.
A 44-page affidavit, which has not previously been reported, details a sprawling money laundering operation with ongoing activity in the United States, Colombia, the United Kingdom, Spain, Belarus, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, and Russia. According to the affidavit, the operation helped facilitate illicit proceeds from a wide range of global criminal activity.
At the heart of it, federal agents accuse Kulizhnikov of having a hand in helping bankroll some of the most notorious criminal enterprises all while living in Miami, including the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels. The money laundering operation also allegedly helped clients move funds to avoid U.S. sanctions targeting Russia.
According to the affidavit, the conspiracy entailed multiple teams of money launderers, each focused on laundering illicit proceeds in specific regions. Kulizhnikov allegedly acted as the cryptocurrency reseller and broker for the organization’s “Just World Pro Crypto Team,” which was also known as the “Just Hollywood Stars.” The DEA stated that the Just Team specialized in laundering proceeds in the U.S., Colombia, Spain, and the UAE. Authorities say the Just Team is a tight-knit community of approximately ten principals, operating largely on private telegram channels, with teams of couriers throughout the world.
Kulizhnikov’s alleged role on the team was to dispatch cashiers and couriers to transfer bulk sums of money from clients, channeling the funds through bank wire or cryptocurrency accounts. A confidential source reportedly told federal agents that the JUST Team and its affiliates laundered approximately $50 million per day.
To infiltrate the sophisticated scheme, agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, IRS, Customs and Border Protection, and FBI conducted an elaborate series of undercover buys and employed multiple confidential informants, including several who had previously been sanctioned for violating U.S. sanctions on Russia or were looking for leniency in criminal and immigration cases. Starting in 2021 through this year, federal agents used hundreds of thousands of dollars for each undercover buy, totaling millions allegedly exchanged from undercover federal agents to the Just Team launderers.
According to the complaint, Kulizhnikov was the target of 11 undercover DEA transfers. Kulizhnikov allegedly created Telegram group chats between a client and his associates to arrange to launder the client’s money. The operation was reportedly extensive enough to have trusted couriers in multiple major U.S. cities, who delivered laundered cash to the conspiracy’s clients. Authorities say the Just Team would take a percentage cut of the money laundered, anywhere between 2% and 8% depending on the location of the operation, with New York having one of the highest laundering premiums.
When one of the organization’s money launderer teams couldn’t complete a contract, the DEA says another team would step in to fulfill it. The enterprise reportedly even had a review process for payment disputes or if one of the members or couriers stole the laundered money, in which case 10 to 15 organization members would convene something akin to a criminal-run tribunal to hear complaints and issue rulings. If dirty and then-cleaned money did not make it to its intended destination, the responsible Just Team member would be expected to cover the losses or face expulsion from the group. In at least one instance, a DEA informant says a former founder of the larger parent organization of Just Team stole 50 million dollars and was removed from the organization.
Among Kulizhnikov’s alleged clients named in the complaint is Sergei Rassokhin, whom Spanish authorities arrested in 2019 after a cocaine bust of nearly 800 kilos. The complaint states federal agents have identified at least two other major drug traffickers, including a New York-based OxyContin distributor and a third unindicted co-conspirator who authorities say recommended the Just Team to others for launder illicit drug proceeds until he was arrested following a dispute with an adult dancer and a shooting inside a California gentleman’s club. The man recently pleaded guilty in federal court to the criminal charge of being an alien with a firearm. Court Watch has identified the man but withholding his name at this time to provide his lawyer an opportunity for comment.
The criminal complaint dated Oct. 14 and unsealed yesterday also lists two other defendants, whose names are redacted. The complaint, however, states the two redacted defendants acted as Kulizhnikov’s broker and courier in the Miami area.
Kulizhnikov first appeared in federal court in Florida on Wednesday morning. His docket in the Eastern District of Virginia is still sealed on PACER, the online court filing database. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Virginia declined to comment on the charges. Kulizhnikov does not appear to have defense counsel assigned or retained yet, and efforts to contact him were unsuccessful.
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