Robert Mercer is not the principal owner of Renaissance Technologies. That would be Jim Simons, a former code cracker for the NSA. They make most of their money from the Medallion Fund, a fund for employees only. Outside of the Medallion Fund, they offer two funds to outside investors—Renaissance Institutional Equities Fund (RIEF) and Renaissance Institutional Diversified Alpha (RIDA). I highly doubt this a money laundering operation, although I can't say confidently that no Russians are investors. This place only hires the best of the best of PhDs. Mercer and Brown run the show but Jim Simons makes the most money every year because he is the principal owner.