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Zachary Tvarozna

@shadyshores.bsky.social
139 followers 390 following 29 posts

Kleptocracy, Data, and Oxford commas. www.zachtvarozna.com

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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Busy couple of weeks for #A7 news, v exciting! The underlying hypothesis and first A7 paper came in December of 2024 and has been a wild ride. Appreciative of everyone who supported. Whilst a massive 1st step, there is work to be done. I wrote a short piece on substack about my method and data.
evidenceofabsence.substack.com
I May Have Been Early, But I’m Not Wrong
Or how is it that people so fundamentally misunderstood what A7 was actually all about?
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Reposted by Zachary Tvarozna
Chris Cook @chriscook.news · 21/09/2026
A big new story from us: a big new leak means that we can put numbers on the scale of A7 -- the Kremlin's huge money-laundering machine. $6.9bn laundered through the international banking system via SWIFT, with $1.1bn sent to StanChart alone. www.ft.com/content/3848...
ft.com
Kremlin-backed forgery scheme moved $6.9bn through global banks
FT finds thousands of Russian payments handled by Standard Chartered, Citigroup and other international groups in vast leak from inside fintech A7
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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Last week I wrote a little about #FirstAbuDhabi from the #A7 data. Whilst I don't see it getting #sanction'd anytime soon, it does raise a lot of questions. evidenceofabsence.substack.com/p/some-banks...
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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Everyone's dying to know who the US will #sanction tomorrow. I've no idea. But perhaps w/ Russia's payment data, we can get closer to an answer. Previously unpublished, v sketchy #A7 payments included. evidenceofabsence.substack.com/p/some-banks...
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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Reconstructed GPS data from misplaced #A7 #IlanShor server backup shows the network used frontier LLMs to verify paid protestors showed up and posted, down to a PM ambush aired on Shor's own TV channel to steer #Moldova 's elections: Pay2Plei: evidenceofabsence.substack.com/p/pay-to-ple...
evidenceofabsence.substack.com
Pay to PLEI
Reconstructed GPS logs from an A7 server prove Moldova's protestors were paid, and AI checked that they showed up and what they shared online.
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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Published a piece on 3 Kyrgyz banks with distinct roles within Ilan Shor's A7 Network. Also today, EU's sanctions package added designations unequipped to stop A7. The enforcement gaps that let A7 operate are the ones today's sanctions don't close. open.substack.com/pub/evidence...
open.substack.com
I Know What You Did Last Som-r
Three banks in Kyrgyzstan, and what their financial profiles teaches us about how Russian money moves through freely around the world.
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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
#A7 #sanctions from the new EU package feel particularly underwhelming. The gap between regulators and illicit actors continues to grow at an alarming rate with these designations targeting a portion of the network that is the least critical component.
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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Check out a documentary I was featured in demonstrating the ease through which you can anonymously buy and transfer ( #launder in any other description) #stablecoins within the EU and some findings from researching Russia’s #A7.
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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Russia's answer to a $2B US Army program and a £2.4B UK one is a $150 stack you can buy on AliExpress. Two of the parts are made in NATO countries. The router still has its factory defaults. New post on Substack: open.substack.com/pub/evidence...
open.substack.com
AliExpress Artillery
Russia's fires coordination system can run on an AliExpress shopping cart. Two of the technologies are sourced from NATO member states.
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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
2018: #McKinsey and #SWIFT publish a report flagging a cost cross-border payment’s high cost as compliance suggesting a model with reduced spend. Correspondent banking has kind-of been the wild west ever since. 8 years later, Russia shows the danger of these closed loop systems that were advocated.
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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Still cannot believe this is a real way that McKinsey / SWIFT opened their piece on the lucrative allure of correspondent banking. Later in the paper there is a push for reduced compliance spend. When will we hold SWIFT accountable? Check out the new piece for a bit more on correspondent banking.
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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
A #Kazakh bank just appointed #VTB's former SVP as chairman. Its #Kyrgyz correspondent is its own sister company. Its Chinese correspondents said they were done with Russia. Still connected. open.substack.com/pub/evidence...
open.substack.com
Every Steppe You Take
A Kazakh-owned Russian bank just got a new chairman that spent a career at VTB.
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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
#Rosatom's Tender DB reveals the details of what Russia's enduring nuclear relationships look like from procurement networks around the world. For access details, check out the new piece on evidenceofabsence.substack.com
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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
In 2023 Rosatom classified the delivery of an Iran nuclear tender as "commercial secret." The route used is outside of interdiction. What can we learn from the db of 400k tenders, check out the new post and get access to the custom tooling built: evidenceofabsence.substack.com/p/bonzo-goes...
evidenceofabsence.substack.com
Bonzo Goes to Bushehr
What Rosatom's Iranian procurement records reveal about the economies sanctions create.
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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
Why did #ilanshor’s #a7 “buy” 6 buses and 250 garmin watches from a luxury travel agency in the Maldives for his birthday? He didn’t, it was just to move money. That or the Maldives is hiding a lot of double decker buses and infrastructure…
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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
The buses were discontinued & the watches do not exist. The #SWIFT transfers cleared anyways. How #IlanShor financed his birthday in the Maldives using USD using #A7 evidenceofabsence.substack.com/p/pay-ving-p...
evidenceofabsence.substack.com
Pay-ving Paradise
Russia's A7 paid $1.5 million to a Maldivian luxury travel company (potentially) for Ilan Shor's birthday using products that didn't yet exist and multiple double-decker buses.
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Reposted by Zachary Tvarozna
Stephen Abbott Pugh @stephenabbottpugh.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
"I have spent the past several months ... reading and re-creating, line-by-line, the underlying infrastructure of A7 across their operational production databases, over 70,000 source files, complete backend repositories of core applications, and 3,543 SWIFT transactions" - @shadyshores.bsky.social
evidenceofabsence.substack.com
Chat KGB
How OpenAI Found Itself (Unknowingly) Supporting Russia in Evading Sanctions
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Reposted by Zachary Tvarozna
derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
RIP Mark Rothko. You would have loved how the hydrogen peroxide bleach is only turning the Reflecting Pool blue around the perimeter
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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
The entire US economy is currently running on the hope of #OpenAI. It turns out parts of Russia’s #A7 sanctions-evasion ecosystem may be running on OpenAI too. evidenceofabsence.substack.com/p/chat-kgb
evidenceofabsence.substack.com
Chat KGB
How OpenAI Found Itself (Unknowingly) Supporting Russia in Evading Sanctions
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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
💅
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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
18 months in the making! My conclusion forever will be Russia's A7 was never entirely a cryptocurrency network and relied on captured states. Thanks 2 everyone who supported and hugest s/o to the OSC for turning this hypothesis into an investigation. www.opensourcecentre.org/research/the...
opensourcecentre.org
The Big Shor
OSC and TRM Labs reveal how the Kremlin-backed A7 Network used the international correspondent banking system and Kyrgyzstan to likely move billions of dollars of Russian payments through the global f...
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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
#Fujairah customs hacked by an Iranian-linked group in May 2026.containing records 2018-2026 Amongst the records: - #Russian #VGO consigned to an entity that promised to stop buying Russian oil. - Over #price-cap fuel oil New piece: evidenceofabsence.substack.com/p/show-me-a-...
evidenceofabsence.substack.com
Show Me a Word that Rhymes with Fujairah
What a UAE Data Leak [Sourced to Iran] Teaches Us About How Russia Sells Oil
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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
After spending far too much time, lately, thinking about correspondent banking and sanctions, I've finally started writing some of it down publicly. First piece below on the case of a bank in Russia and a bank in Laos. evidenceofabsence.substack.com/p/laos-in-tr...
evidenceofabsence.substack.com
Laos in Translation
How Russia found a bank in Laos, and what it tells us about the next generation of sanctions evasion
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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
Sanctions hit one Kyrgyz bank, another is positioned to take its place. That’s not coincidence, it’s adaptation. Watching the shifts as they happen is the only way to keep up. Good to see the UK government pushing hard on these networks. www.gov.uk/government/n...
gov.uk
UK targets sanctions circumvention and crypto networks exploited by Russia
Financial networks utilised by Russia to soften the blow of western sanctions are today being targeted by the UK.
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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
Encouraging to see UK sanctions working. #2Rivers ex #CoralEnergy, called a "key lynchpin in enabling the trading of Putin's precious oil" by UK authorities, has ceased operations after December sanctions. Shows targeted sanctions can disrupt sophisticated networks. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
Sanctioned Oil Merchant 2Rivers Says It Has Ceased Trading
An energy trading house sanctioned in December by the UK for handling Russian oil said Friday it ceased trading operations at the end of 2024.
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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
An investigation I supported, together with the great team at Nieuwsuur, led to prosecution of Damen shipbuilders for sanctions violations. Understanding how to perform investigations with data, across intentionally opaque systems, makes the difference. nos.nl/l/2564914 #sanctions #netherlands
nos.nl
OM vervolgt scheepsbouwer Damen voor corruptie en overtreden sancties Rusland
Ook aan aantal leidinggevenden en oud-leidinggevenden wordt vervolgd. Volgens de Volkskrant is onder hen bestuursvoorzitter Arnout Damen.
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Reposted by Zachary Tvarozna
Reuters @reuters.com · 15/04/2025
North Korean soldiers lacked armored vehicles and drone warfare experience, and they took heavy casualties after joining Russia in its war against Ukraine. But they adapted quickly reut.rs/4j9Izt8
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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
The team exposes how Russia's sanctions evasion has evolved beyond cash-for-gold to include Brazilian law firms acting on behalf of sanctioned entities. Three years into the Ukraine invasion, evidence points to BRICS building a parallel financial system. Read more: sayari.com/resources/rp...
sayari.com
Three Years On: Russia’s Evolving Tactics to Bolster its War Economy
Read this report to learn what tactics facilitated the survival of Russia’s war machine and prolonged the conflict through Sayari corporate and trade data.
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Reposted by Zachary Tvarozna
Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 18/02/2025
Russian ship under sanction for carrying N Korea arms sails for European waters www.ft.com/content/3e9aca73-a968-4e…
ft.com
Russian ship under sanction for carrying N Korea arms sails for European waters
Entry of notorious Maia-1 into European territory waters would pose fresh challenge to western sanctions system
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Zachary Tvarozna @shadyshores.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Really proud to have led the team to some pretty impactful findings uncovering professional facilitators in Brazil, seemingly, evading US sanctions. Take a look and reach out! sayari.com/resources/wb...
sayari.com
Emerging Typologies in Russia’s Evolving Sanctions Evasion Schemes
Join us as we discuss this evolution in Russian sanctions evasion typologies and how one can leverage public data to identify and disrupt these schemes.
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