A Finnish court handed down three-year prison sentences to Sergejs Vasiljevs and Marina Putskova for their roles in laundering money from the now-defunct Recyclix Ponzi scheme. The scheme defrauded investors of nearly €39 million before its abrupt collapse in early 2017.
Vasiljevs, a resident of Finland, received €1.14 million in four wire transfers originating from his son in the United Kingdom. This money was channeled into a company account controlled by Vasiljevs. Court proceedings established that these funds were direct proceeds from Recyclix, a Polish investment operation that vanished after falsely claiming a fire destroyed its recycling facility.
The scheme’s end was marked by a dramatic announcement. Recyclix informed investors that a fire had wiped out its operations and all associated capital, effectively disappearing overnight.
Following the initial transfers into his company account, Vasiljevs’ accountant, Marina Putskova, orchestrated further movement of the funds. She transferred the money to his son's accounts in Latvia and to various other international banks. This process, known as layering, served to obscure the original source of the illicit money.
Investigators found no legitimate business justification for these transactions. The court concluded Vasiljevs knowingly handled stolen funds. Putskova’s complicity stemmed from her processing of these suspicious transactions without inquiry, despite the company account having been dormant before the funds arrived. Her inaction was deemed sufficient to make her a party to the laundering.
Both Vasiljevs and Putskova received identical three-year prison sentences. They are also prohibited from conducting business in Finland for five years. Putskova’s accounting firm incurred a separate fine of €9,000.
While Italy's financial regulator, CONSOB, took action against Recyclix by banning it nationwide in mid-2016, Polish authorities failed to intervene. Those behind the Recyclix scheme reportedly remain at large.