How Reputation Laundering Works For Putin's Former Ally

What do you do if you are one of the most corrupt men in Russia, but you want to spend your later years in peace, ideally away from your own countrymen, and especially the president who has way too much "kompromat" on you? What if, in building your career, you were ambitious enough to get very close to Putin, and end up on the US Congress's sanctions list? After all, don't you want your children to have a happy, peaceful life abroad as well? There is nothing impossible - if you've got enough money. And this is exactly what Vladimir Yakunin, the ex-head of Russian Rail, did.

The way into the respectable European elite starts with getting your money and family out of the country. After laundering that, your reputation will need some cleaning. And this is exactly where Yakunin was caught, when an employee from GPW+Co, the law firm he hired last year, talked to the press. 

The resulting story, which involves a glamorous London lawyer (number 256 in Tatler magazine's list of People Who Really Matter), and "more layers of shell companies" for Yakunin's accounts, is nothing but proof of the fact that in the internet age, investigations really matter, and reputations come with a price.