It was 'just' €4m.
It paid for a flat in the Belgian city of Antwerp, some 10 carats' worth of diamonds, designer clothes, a lot of fruit, and a mixed bag of construction and engineering equipment.
The money was part of a €200m fortune which was stolen by a Russian group in Moscow, moved out via Danish and Cypriot banks, and spent in similar ways all over Europe.
The method is called "Smurfing" by money-laundering experts - using minions, like the little blue men in the po...
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.