The United States has imposed sanctions on several legal entities and one individual involved in “illegal payment mechanisms between Russia and the DPRK.”
“These measures make it possible to expose and destroy networks that contribute to the financing of the DPRK’s illegal programs to create weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles,” the US Department of State noted.
These entities and an individual were sanctioned:
- “International Settlement Bank”, which operates in South Ossetia;
- Moscow “Timber Bank”;
- Moscow LLC “Stroytrade”;
- Dmitry Yuryevich Nikulin, Vice President of CMRBank LLC.
Dmitry Nikulin, according to the United States, “facilitated the transfer of cash from the North Korean bank Foreign Trade Bank to the International Settlement Bank. “Timber Bank” was sanctioned for transferring funds to the DPRK through Stroytrade.
The International Settlement Bank is a credit institution operating in the financial services market of the Republic of South Ossetia since 2015, according to the bank’s website. The EU and the UK have imposed sanctions against the bank.
Timber Bank has been operating in the Russian market for more than 30 years. In 2018, a subsidiary of Rostec state corporation, JSC RFK—Bank, bought out 99.9% of the shares of Timber Bank, which previously belonged to Robert Musin’s structure. Temirbank’s head office is currently located in Moscow.
