Emmanuil Grinshpun

Co-operation with the Federal Security Service 

The 53-year-old Russian-Romanian-Latvian-American businessman of Moldovan origin, Emmanuil Grinshpun, who resides in Miami (with properties in Sunny Isles Beach and North Miami Beach), is known for being associated with criminal activity and has a long-standing dubious reputation.

One of the useful qualities for doing business that Emmanuil Grinshpun possesses is fantastic unscrupulousness. He does business wherever he gets income. This includes the USA, the EU, Moldova, Ukraine, and, of course, Russia (well, how can it be without it!) – it’s just a gold mine. 

As the Russians say, ‘war will wipe it all out’. And although the Jew Grinshpun is not at all a “Russian fellow”, but this expression was clearly to his liking when he decided to make money on the field, the harvest of which was gathered by the Russian military.  The company Oysters LLC, which, according to KPMG, is in the orbit of interests of the company E21, where Grinshpun is a shareholder (through a nominee, of course) together with Messrs. Voloshin and Zurabyan (please, see the relevant site section), has a license from the Federal Security Service for activities on technical protection of confidential information and a grant from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation for the development of special equipment and production of push-button mobile phones, which are used for special communications by Russian special services and officials.

Grinshpun’s Involvement in the Russian Laundromat

Grinshpun is piously convinced that if you take dirty Russian money and launder it diligently in Moldovan banks, it will be completely transformed and will be as good as new. Realising this, he was not lazy. As they say, Platon is my friend, but money is dearer. How clumsy this saying sounds, but there is a lot of truth in it, strange as it may seem. However, everything in order. 

The investigation into the “Laundromat” case began in 2016 and became the largest operation for laundering dirty Russian money through Moldovan banks between 2010 and 2014. Investigators cite a sum of $20 billion, but experts who have followed the case estimate it to be over $70 billion.

One of the main figures in the case is Emmanuil Grinshpun’s business partner, businessman and former Moldovan deputy, Veacheslav Platon. According to the investigation, he “created and led a criminal organization from 2010 to 2014,” consisting of several groups operating in Moldova, Ukraine, and Russia.

In 2016, he was extradited from Ukraine to Moldova and sentenced to 18 years in prison for embezzlement and money laundering related to the “Russian Laundromat” fraud case. In 2023, Platon was included in Canada’s sanctions list for his collaboration with Russia.

The partnership between Emmanuil Grinshpun and Veacheslav Platon received extensive coverage in the investigation by the OCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project). In 2013, Platon provided Grinshpun with a loan of $6.3 million, allegedly from the laundered money of the “Russian Laundromat.”

In 2015, Emmanuil Grinshpun and Veaceslav Platon were talking so “loudly and desperately” on the phone that the conversation was leaked online. The recording shows Grinshpun warning his business partner about a visit from high-ranking US officials to investigate his involvement in the Russian Laundry and block the flow of illicit funds from Moldova to Europe. It didn’t help Platon.

But how does Emmanuil Grinshpun manage to come out dry and clean even from dirty laundry water? Probably he knows how to choose partners who prefer a sedentary lifestyle. In prison. 

Riga Waterfront

Grinshpun approached the year 2024 with a wealth of experience in working with Moscow, with the Moldovan laundry, and with such wonderful people as Platon. It must be said that unscrupulousness did not let Grinshpun down here either. Emmanuil Grinshpun is a Jew by his religion. For the sake of his fellow believers he is not stingy on donations (probably because he spends borrowed money). Thanks to “his” financial investments three synagogues were built and repaired: in the promised land in Israel, in the land of his homeland in Moldavia and in the land that supposed to bring him a lot of income – in Latvia. 

The last one is especially nice to the first vice-president of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress and one can understand why, even if one does not think about it very much. And if you think about it, it becomes clear that this land is good for him because here everything is dictated by one faith – the belief in the Golden Taurus. And here the closest and most dear to him, a Jew, are the Arabs. Together with the respected Mohammad Ali Alabbar, a renowned investor-developer who built the Burj Khalifa, Dubai Mall and prestigious hotels in the UAE, they are united in a single impulse to develop the Riga Port City project. 

Thus, on 10 January 2024, Riga City Council Chairman Vilnis Kirsis and Mohammad Ali Alabbars, a businessman and head of the Eagle Hills development company from the United Arab Emirates, signed a memorandum on investing more than EUR 3 billion in the Riga Port City project (currently Riga Waterfront).

The founder of this project (according to numerous references in the media) is Emmanuil Grinshpun. As Grinshpun himself points out in his articles, he wants to turn Riga into a ‘northern Dubai’. In this regard, it is very likely that he played an active role in attracting an investor from the UAE. 

Once again, it is worth noting that Emmanuil Grinshpun has a very ambiguous reputation. Arbitration and criminal proceedings have been initiated against him (and his associates) in various jurisdictions. Grinshpun was spotted in 2017 at the inauguration of Donald Trump, surrounded by partners with a dubious reputation. But despite his overwhelming desire he was no longer invited to Trump’s 2025 inauguration. Grinshpun, in order not to lose face, even had to photoshop a picture and make a fake publication about the fact that he supposedly attended the event. Because deception is his style.

The families of former Prime Minister Andris Šķele and Seimas deputy Ainars Šlesers are also involved in the said project. Both of them were involved in a criminal case. In addition, they were in contact with Donald Trump, who considered (before he was nominated as a candidate for the US presidency) the possibility of investing in Latvia, but later abandoned the idea, having come under the scrutiny of Latvian law enforcement agencies. 

The Riga Port City/Riga Waterfront project managers are currently running an active advertising campaign in Latvia aimed at attracting investors. Thus it is obvious that Mohamed Ali Alabbars is not the only investor. Moreover, the Arab representative, who is well-known in business circles, could have been involved solely for the purpose of promoting the project and possibly as a general developer, while the investments will come from other sources. 

However, the involvement of Mr Grinshpun, who has been implicated in the Landromat case and a number of scandals related to the investment of large international projects, as well as maintaining close contacts with international fraudsters, may put a ‘cross’ on the implementation of this project. The main obstacle may be the questionable origin of the investments.

Emmanuil Grinshpun and the Stati Case

Grinshpun, along with Moldovan businessman Alexander Bilinkis, owns the company Eco Estate LLC, which holds real estate in Moldova. He is also a co-owner (including through nominal shareholders) of investment companies in Scotland, Panama, Romania, Georgia, and Kazakhstan. 

 Grinshpun has found himself in the crosshairs of two businessmen, also of Moldovan origin, Anatol Stati and Gabriel Stati, as part of their long-running legal battle with the government of Kazakhstan (IO, 31/07/24). The business duo suspected Grinshpun of having contributed to the expropriation of their natural gas plant in Kazakhstan.

In the United States, Grinshpun regularly receives notifications from the U.S. District Court in Florida and is accused of financial fraud. The case in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida involves the seizure of evidence from Emmanuil Grinshpun for use in legal proceedings in Moldova against several individuals (including Grinshpun himself) accused of abuse of office, extortion, and attempted blackmail. In the filing, Grinshpun is accused, among other things, of involvement in extortion and ultimately obtaining improper correspondence, which was passed from Moldovan President Voronin to Kazakh President Nazarbayev on October 6, 2008. Subsequently, Grinshpun actively participated in various meetings with the Statis, which were accompanied by threats from high-ranking officials of the Republic of Kazakhstan to expropriate the Statis’ assets in the country if the claimant did not voluntarily cede 50% of his oil interests in Kazakhstan.

If the New York and Florida courts agree to the discovery requests, Grinshpun will have to hand over all the information he has on Kazakhstan’s leading business and political figures, whom the Statis accuse of having contributed to the wrongful expropriation of their natural gas plant. Among those targeted are former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, his ex-prime minister and spymaster Karim Massimov (IO, 31/05/22), oil and gas barons Timur Kulibayev and Arvind Tiku, mining magnate Alexander Machkevich, and Justice Minister Marat Beketayev. Grinshpun is suspected of having been involved in organising meetings with high-ranking members of Kazakhstan’s business community, where the Statis are said to have been directly threatened with expulsion.

Fearing the possible confiscation of his property, Grinshpun began selling his assets in the United States. In particular, he sold a penthouse in New Jersey worth more than $500 million, which he co-owned with his cousin and business partner Izya Grinshpun.

Epilogue

People like Emmanuil Grinshpun are usually called sharks of modern business. This definition very accurately conveys the essence of our hero. A shark is a big, strong fish, with its toothy logic ready to devour everything that seems to be a tidbit to it. It does not even disdain carrion, it can also eat its fellow man, and there is no need to talk about moral principles and criteria.

Being a man of means, Emmanuil Grinshpun has the mind-boggling peculiarity of borrowing money and not paying it back. It has long been a business habit of his. Perhaps this is what gives him the opportunity to act as an investor in various profitable projects.

What is it that allows Grinshpun, who is regularly involved with his associates in the implementation of fraudulent schemes around the world, to remain at large? The patronage of the political elite, special sophistication in business and the nomination of his partners to dangerous areas, or hidden work for the Federal Security Service of Russia, which got him on the hook, having received a grant for the production of means of special communications?