Vladimir Smirnov
St. Petersburg Immobilien und Beteiligungs AG or SPAG is a real estate company registered in Germany under Vladimir Putin's control in 1992 and suspected by German police of facilitating Saint Petersburg mobsters, Colombian drug lords, and transcontinental money laundering. Kumarin-Barsukov, of the Tambov Russian mafia was a partner in Znamenskaya, a subsidiary of SPAG. Vladimir Smirnov was the general director of Znamenskaya and Kumarin-Barsukov was his deputy. Through his 200 shares or 20% control, Vladimir Smirnov was Putin's voting proxy in SPAG. Jalol Khaidarov () stated that the final destination of the funds was to the "Operator Trade Center" in Liechtenstein but also said that the Bank of New York was a participant. In the early 2000s, the company's co-founder Rudolf Ritter was arrested in Liechtenstein for laundering cocaine cash for the Cali cartel. Robert Walner was the chief prosecutor in Liechtenstein's capital Vaduz.