Cypriot brokerage caught up in French probe denies Prigozhin ties

A Cypriot brokerage firm caught up in an investigation by French prosecutors probing financial transfers possibly tied to Yevgeny Prigozhin on Wednesday denied it had ever had direct relations with the late Wagner mercenary chief.

The Paris prosecutor on Tuesday confirmed that in June it opened a preliminary probe into the origins of money flows worth hundreds of millions of dollars and euros after an alert from the French Finance Ministry's anti-money laundering unit TRACFIN over transfers TCR International Ltd made between 2019-2021.

The transfers, deemed suspicious by TRACFIN, were made at a time when TCR International worked with BNP Paribas' custodian unit. The probe was first reported by French daily Le Monde.

TCR International categorically denied to Reuters handling any financial transfers on behalf of Prigozhin, who was killed in a plane crash in...