By Joanna Demarco

Updated with a comment from Komunità Malta agency.

Alexander Kuksov, a Maltese passport holder and the brother of Semen Kuksov, is wanted by the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency. He is suspected of ‘proceeds of crime offences’ in relation to an operation investigating a Russian ‘billion-dollar money laundering network’.

Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) this month announced charges against Alexander Kuksov, 23, putting him on its “most wanted” list. The NCA alleged he was “involved with an organised crime group responsible for the transfer and movement of multi-millions of pounds of criminal cash”. The details have been revealed in a joint investigation between Amphora Media, OCCRP, and Times of Malta.

The agency lists the offences as including “entering into or being concerned in the acquisition, retention, use or control or criminal property [sic], in this case, cash.”

Amphora Media, OCCRP and Times of Malta previously revealed that Alexander Kuksov’s brother, Semen, was stripped of his Maltese citizenship in October last year, following his five-year sentence. Semen, 25, was convicted in the U.K. of involvement in a group the NCA called a “professional banking service for criminals across the world.” 

The brothers, together with their father Vladimir Anatolyevich Kuksov, appear on a list of people granted citizenship in 2022 by Malta. The Kuksovs appear to have been given Maltese citizenship just weeks before Russians were excluded from passport sales to wealthy investors in the wake of the Kremlin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

In July 2022 – about six months after receiving his Maltese citizenship – Semen began managing “couriers to collect criminal money and deliver the laundered money overseas,” according to a statement by the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service.

The NCA now alleges that Alexander Kusksov was also involved in the criminal money laundering operation.

Lawyers for the elder Kuksov told OCCRP in 2024 that he had “no comment to make but notes that he and his adult son have lived separate lives for some years.” 

Vladimir Kuksov did not respond to a request for comment about the new allegations against his younger son, Alexander, whose whereabouts are unknown.

The Kuksovs received Maltese passports through a controversial citizenship-by-investment program. The so-called “golden passport” scheme was eliminated this year, following a damning judgement by the Court of Justice of the European Union. 

The Komunità Malta Agency, which oversaw the citizenship-by-investment programme, responded by saying, “We can confirm that the name of the person in question has come to the attention of the national authorities, and we shall be following any developments in this case closely.”

Under Maltese law, passports can be revoked if an applicant is sentenced within seven years of becoming a citizen to a jail term of a year or longer.

The charges announced by the NCA against Alexander have not been tried in court, and the money laundering allegations against him are not proven.

When the NCA announced its “Operation Destabilise” investigation in December 2024, it said the money laundering bust was its biggest in a decade, OCCRP reported at the time. The agency said the ring run out of Moscow and Dubai had been moving billions in cryptocurrency and hard cash for criminal operations, ranging from Russian ransomware attacks to street-level drug deals in the U.K.

Several alleged members of the network were sanctioned, and the NCA said it had arrested 84 people. They included Semen Kuksov, who later pleaded guilty to laundering more than $15 million of “criminally obtained cash,” according to the UK prosecution service.

The operation uncovered a complex scheme in which the networks collect funds in one country and make the equivalent value available in another, often by swapping cryptocurrency for cash. The crime agency stated that the investigation exposed and disrupted Russian money laundering networks that support crime worldwide.

The Malta Police Force did not respond to a request for comment on the U.K. case against Alexander or whether it was investigating the allegations against him.

Previous reporting by Amphora Media had also highlighted the lag between the government initiating the passport revocation process and the citizenship being officially revoked.

Malta eliminated its citizenship-by-investment programme earlier this year following a damning judgement by the Court of Justice of the European Union, bringing anend to a long-winded saga.

Malta had tried to defend the scheme, claiming that it is being unfairly targeted despite similar schemes existing in other countries – a false claim. It has now expanded a discretionary citizenship scheme for individuals of ‘exceptional merit.

A €650,000 loan routed through a Maltese company linked to one of the country’s fish farm operators is now under scrutiny. This follows the seizure of approximately €50 million in assets tied to convicted mafia associate Emanuele Catania in Sicily.

Court documents analysed by Amphora Media and IrpiMedia reveal how Medina Ridge Holding Limited, a Malta-registered company now in dissolution, financed Emanuele Catania’s purchase of shares in Azzurra Pesca, a company that operated a tuna-farming vessel, named ‘Angelo Catania’, in 2012.

Medina Ridge Holding has had the same shareholders as Fish & Fish Limited, which holds 10 aquaculture permits and is one of Malta’s five fish farm operators, primarily dealing in bluefin tuna. 

Medina Ridge was founded in 2012, the same year it lent money to Emanuele Catania. At the time, it was owned by Emanuel Azzopardi and Joseph Caruana. Both men have since died, with their heirs now serving as the shareholders. David Azzopardi, now a minor shareholder, was the company secretary at the time of the deal and has been serving as the company’s director since 2018. 

David Azzopardi confirmed the transactions when responding to questions from journalists. He said that “any funds lent to the representative of the company for the purpose of acquiring additional shares in Azzurra Pesca Srl have either been repaid or settled through services rendered”.

“The companies I represent have a quota to manage aquaculture farms in Malta, and the business has always been conducted in compliance with legal requirements,” he said.

He stressed that neither he nor the companies he represents were aware “of any investigations or allegations against the company [Azzurra Pesca]”.

How €650,000 From Malta Ended Up in Mafia-Linked Fishing Firm

Azzopardi and Caruana took over Fish and Fish in 1996 and remained the primary shareholders until their deaths. Azzopardi and Caruana’s shares were transferred to their heirs in 2019 and 2021, respectively.

According to official documents, the €650,000 “loan” was transferred from Malta in two tranches via Bank of Valletta. A €400,000 transfer was made on 19 April 2012, followed by a €250,000 transfer on 27 July; Medina Ridge ordered both.

These sums were used to purchase the full shareholding of Azzurra Pesca for €643,000. The exact source of the €650,000 remains unknown to investigators.

Azzurra Pesca and Catania himself would later come under investigation by Italian anti-mafia prosecutors. 

Catania was convicted of mafia association for his role in helping the Rinzivillo faction of Cosa Nostra infiltrate Sicily’s legal economy and launder illicit proceeds through the seafood trade.

He was ruled to be an active member of the Rinzivillo mafia clan. He was found to have played a key entrepreneurial role in supporting the group’s infiltration of the legal economy, using legitimate businesses to launder illicit funds.

Court records describe the Catania family as long-standing operators in the fishing industry in the Southern Sicilian town of Gela, beginning with the launch of the seafood business ‘Fratelli Catania’ in 1978, represented legally by the same Emanuele Catania.

In court documents, Catania is also described as having allegedly acted as a trusted man for the Rinzivillo mafia clan, including expansions into Morocco.

A Guardia di Finanza press release has revealed that Italian police have seized assets worth approximately €50 million. This includes real estate, fishing vessels, company shares, and business complexes with operations spanning Sicily, Italy, and Morocco.

Azzurra Pesca, Fish & Fish and The ‘Angelo Catania’ Vessel

The document also names the ‘Angelo Catania’, the fishing vessel purchased with funds transferred through Medina Ridge.

David Azzopardi confirmed that Fish & Fish purchased fish from “quotas assigned annually to the fishing vessel ‘Angelo Catania’ by the Ministero dell’Agricoltura, della Sovranità Alimentare e delle Foreste and registered with ICCAT, the international governing body regulating the conservation of bluefin tuna.”

He added that the fish purchases from Azzurra Pesca Srl  “were carried out in compliance with all regulatory requirements.”

“These transactions were registered in the e-BCD system and monitored by both ICCAT observers and regional observers appointed by the Italian Government. Official documents will show that fish were purchased as part of a quota both when the assets of the company were under management and during the period when a court-appointed curator managed the company’s assets between 2007 and 2014, and then again from 2019 to 2021.”

He stressed that neither he nor the companies he represents were aware “of any investigations or allegations against the company”. 

Azzopardi says Italian or Maltese authorities have never contacted him or the companies he represents. 

Medina Ridge Holding’s corporate accounts for 2012, published around seven years late in 2019, following Catania’s 2017 arrest, appear to reflect the loan, with a €650,000 entry under “other receivables”.

There is scant record of the €650,000 beyond that year, and it could have been absorbed into a growing line of “Loans to third parties”, which ballooned over subsequent years to €4 million by 2016 and remained at that level until being fully repaid in one single year in 2020.

Meanwhile, borrowings “due to shareholders” hit €5.33 million by 2023, and were entirely waived in 2023.

Malta’s Police said it was not in a position to confirm or otherwise when asked for a response on the court documents.

Who Is Behind Medina Ridge?

At the time of the 2012 loan, Medina Ridge Holding Limited was owned by two Maltese nationals: Joseph Caruana and Emanuel Azzopardi. Both are now deceased.

The two men were the owners of Fish and Fish, one of Malta’s main fish farm operators, from 1996 until their deaths. Their shares in Medina Ridge were transferred to their heirs in May 2024.

Medina Ridge is currently in dissolution, which was announced after the heirs took over in June 2024.

The company did not publish audited financial statements for the first seven years of its operations. Accounts for 2012 were published in 2019, while accounts from 2013 to 2024 were published in 2024.