Hacked off with the $almafia - follow the $almoney to 'Lopatinsky's Laundromat'

Last Summer I received one of those phone calls which stick in your memory and get your heart racing. "Don, we have received documentary evidence leaked by a whistleblower inside a hacking company proving that you were illegally targeted," said the award-winning investigative reporter. "The whistleblower leaked files on ca. 150 people around the world - including ca. 40 in the UK - who were the subject of illegal computer surveillance. You were the only environmentalist on the list. Do you have any thoughts on who might be behind the attack?"

As I stood in the queue at the chemists (I was picking up a prescription for my Dad), the first and last thought that leapt into my head was: Yuri Lopatinsky and Craig Anderson. The timing of the hack certainly pointed to The Scottish Salmon Company who, according to a front-page report in The Herald in November 2021 and a Channel 4 News report in December 2021, had hired a private investigator in 2018 to carry out surveillance of Corin Smith and another unnamed activist (that would be me).

Almost a year after the tip-off from the investigative journalist, it is still not known with full legal certainty who ordered a hack on my computer (apparently each client would pay ca. £10,000 to a hacker in India via an intermediary to carry out the illegal surveillance). If you're reading this blog and have any information which could finger the hacker and lead to a prosecution please email me via: [email protected]

An 'Insight Investigation' by The Sunday Times published in November 2022 exposed a global hacking network that targeted VIPs including the BBC's Chris Mason; Michel Platini, the former head of European football; Philip Hammond, then chancellor; and the president of Switzerland (if I was also targeted by hackers then I was in exalted company). The Sunday Times article comes with this warning: "This article is the subject of legal complaints from each of the following: Jonas Rey; Athena Intelligence SA; Athena Intelligence & Risk Management Sarl, Aditya Jain; Diligence Global Business Intelligence; and Diligence International LLC, Diligence Intl Ltd, Diligence International Limited and Trefor Williams".

🔺 EXCLUSIVE: Private investigators linked to the City of London are using an India-based computer hacking gang to target British businesses, government officials and journalists https://t.co/AoWnqefNvk
— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) November 5, 2022

From the timing of emails leaked by the whistleblower it seems highly likely that my hacker was hired by The Scottish Salmon Company - then owned by shady 'Moscow broker' Yuri Lopatinsky - in conjunction with the private investigation of Corin Smith and myself. The 51-page 'Intelligence Report' disclosed to Corin Smith by The Scottish Salmon Company (now named Bakkafrost Scotland) includes reference to the Dark Web as "today's playground for hackers and threat actors trading information on corporate targets for personal or espionage purposes":

The 'Intelligence Report' concluded by recommending further surveillance, intelligence on 'the lodge' and a "deep dive financial investigation" of both subjects (Corin Smith and myself):

Frustratingly, whilst Corin Smith was successful in obtaining his personal information as detailed in the 51-page 'Intelligence Report' by the time I requested the same information in December 2022 it has been deleted by Bakkafrost (The Scottish Salmon Company). As Bakkafrost explained in March 2023:

From: Communications <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, Mar 21, 2023 at 10:51 AM
Subject: RE: Data Subject Access Request
To: Don Staniford <[email protected]>

Good morning,

We have disclosed all personal information we hold about you.

To the extent there may have been any of your personal information collected between 1 January 2018 and late 2022, we no longer hold this information, and we can confirm the information has been deleted in line with our internal policies.

Kind regards

Earlier this year (in February, April and May) I visited various properties and businesses owned by Yuri Lopatinsky who in January 2022 was outed by Liam Byrne MP in the House of Commons (under parliamentary privilege) as having "close connections to the SVR and FSB" (the Russian security services/KGB) and an "an associate and business partner" of Mohamed Amersi, Ernst Stauffer and Aleksandr Barunin.

Here's a front page story published in The Sunday Mail in March 2022:

Liam Byrne MP told me via email in March 2022 that he had 'full dossiers' on Yuri Lopatinsky but has not shared them:

From: BYRNE, Liam <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, Mar 25, 2022 at 11:03 PM
Subject: Re: Yuriy Lopatinsky
To: Don Staniford <[email protected]>

Dear Don

With apologies for delay. Source clearance now secured for the following:

Liam Byrne said

"As Britain throws wide it's sanctions net, it's now vital Yuri Lopatinsky explains any and every relationship with Russian intelligence agencies along with any and every connection to a web of Russian linked tycoons like Aleksandr Barunin, Leonard Bogdan and Ernst Stauffer. Parliament will be ruthless is demanding our Foreign Secretary sanctions every single profiteer from Putin's regime. So now is the time for Mr Lopatinsky to put his cards on the table or face MP's using Parliamentary privilege to lay out the full dossiers of what we've received".

In July 2022 Liam Byrne MP mysteriously backtracked on the Russian intelligence claims when he told the House of Commons:

"During a debate on 17 January, for instance, I said that Yuriy Lopatynskyy had questions to answer. I am glad that he has now answered those questions, and has given me reassurances that he has never had links with the Russian intelligence services. I am glad to be able to accept those assurances, and to apologise to him for any distress caused. However, it is not a good situation when we do not have regulators, intelligence agencies and police services that are able to tackle this kind of dirty money".

Yuri Lopatinsky's instrumental involvement in an 'immense' money laundering scheme in Russia is the stuff of legend - with Lopatinsky named as the 'Moscow broker' in the first edition of Bill Browder's book 'Red Notice' (his name was changed in subsequent editions). $camon $cotland reported in April 2022:

Here's video footage of Yuri Lopatinsky in the cellar of his French 'organic' vinyard and outside amongst the vines with Angus MacMillan (former owner of 'organic' salmon farmer West Minch - bought out by Yuri Lopatinsky's The Scottish Salmon Company):

Back in 2019, I visited Charlotte Square in Edinburgh to show how close the First Minister of Scotland is to the 'Moscow broker' Yuri Lopatinsky:

In April 2023, I once again visited Charlotte Square in Edinburgh but could not see Yuri Lopatinsky:

I have history with Yuri Lopatinsky - back in 2019 (a few months after I published an investigation of 'Scottish Scamon' which was featured in The Ferret and The Sunday National) lawyers representing Yuri Lopatinsky threatened legal action (a legal threat which four years later appears dead in the water).

It seems that the 'Moscow broker' has been cut adrift by his former $almoney men at Associated Seafoods. Undercurrent News reported in January 2023:

As flattering as it is to think that a salmon farming company would consider it worth £10,000 to hire an illegal hacker on the Dark Web to see what was inside my computer and consider myself worthy of hiring a private investigator (who, as far as I am led to believe, is a former Royal Marine living in London), it is unnerving and does make me look in the car mirror when I am driving around Scotland. And it makes me look under the car before turning on the ignition. As the West Highland Free Press reported in December 2021: