Businessman Anatoly Kazachkov is being investigated after £7m suspicious transfer from Hungary to Royal Bank of Scotland. Prosecutors have seized £6.5m from a Russian businessman who allegedly tried to use a Scottish bank to launder money, it emerged today.

The cash confiscated from Anatoly Kazachkov, 64, a Moscow-based businessman linked to several British financiers, is the largest single seizure of money so far by Scottish prosecutors using proceeds of crime legislation and comes after a three-year inquiry that uncovered a trail of false documents and stolen identities.

Kazachkov has been under investigation by the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency and money-laundering unit after a tip-off about a suspicious transfer of $10m (£7m) from a bank in Hungary to the Royal Bank of Scotland in 2004.

The Crown Office, Scotland’s prosecution authority, said its investigators “carried out extensive international inquiries” to trace the source of the funds. The trail led to Russia where, with the assistance of the Russian authorities, further evidence of false documents and stolen identities was uncovered.

“Anatoly Kazachkov and others provided an audit trail for the source of the funds, but this was discredited after Scottish and Russian investigators connected the funds to a Russian bank, which was bankrupted in 2004 in relation to money-laundering offences.”

Press reports in 2005 said Kazachkov was under investigation for his links to a Scottish financier and his associates, and their attempts to transfer funds through accounts in Latvia, Hungary, Russia, the US and the UK.

The businessmen claimed the funds were needed for an oil refinery project in Iran, but instead their account in the UK was frozen.

The seized money, which was released to the Crown Office today, is expected to be spent on community projects.

Confiscations of criminal assets have so far totalled £14m in Scotland – mostly through much smaller seizures – which has been invested in community programmes for young people.

Gordon Meldrum, the director general of the SCDEA, said: “This three-year investigation led our officers to make inquiries in a number of countries across Europe and beyond, and collaborative working practices with a range of law enforcement partners at home and abroad have undoubtedly contributed to this successful outcome.

“We are committed to making best use of the Proceeds of Crime Act legislation, and as an agency we will continue to use whatever means we have at our disposal to make it harder for criminals to hide their illegal earnings.”

Elish Angiolini, the lord advocate, said: “Financial crime undermines legitimate hardworking businesses and threatens the future stability of our economic growth. The dedicated specialists in our civil recovery unit will continue to use the Proceeds of Crime Act legislation to ensure that unlawfully obtained assets are recovered and the proceeds used directly to benefit our communities across Scotland.

“Just as important as the recovery of the funds is the disruption that the POCA legislation allows us to cause to those who would seek to profit from organised crime.”

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