Glamorous Cyprus Resort’s Investors Linked to Infamous ‘Magnitsky Affair’
A glitzy development built on an environmentally sensitive Cypriot coast was partly financed by companies owned by figures connected to the notorious Russian tax fraud.
Prosecutors in the case of a murdered journalist in Croatia suspected a 780,000-euro payment to one of the assassins was payment for the hit, but never established who sent the money. Leaked records reveal the name of the owner of the company behind the payment, and his business connections to the convicted killer.
In a first-of-its-kind legal challenge to overturn his sanctioning in the U.K., businessman Eugene Shvidler argued he did not financially benefit from his relationship with Kremlin-linked oligarch Roman Abramovich. But leaked files show Shvidler received hundreds of millions of dollars in loans from the former Chelsea FC owner via offshore companies.
Roman Abramovich acquired the economic rights to multiple young football players via contracts that have since been banned by FIFA. Experts said the FIFA ban may have been breached in two cases. One of these players said he felt he was treated as a commodity and lost control over his career.
Former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich’s offshore companies made backchannel payments worth tens of millions of dollars to football agents, clubs, scouts and directors, leaked documents reveal.
Leaked documents show staff at PwC Cyprus hurried to restructure companies belonging to Russian oligarchs as the prospect of sanctions loomed. Now Cyprus says it is investigating one case in which PwC staff appeared to work on the transfer of an oligarch’s assets in the days after he was sanctioned by the EU.
Documents leaked from Cyprus show that, just before Russia invaded Ukraine and Abramovich was sanctioned last year, the billionaire passed the massive collection to his ex-wife.
Cypriot corporate service provider MeritServus helped Konstantin Malofeev, an oligarch sanctioned for his support of Russian-backed separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, transfer debt worth tens of millions of dollars even after he was blacklisted, leaked documents show.
Credit Suisse loaned hundreds of millions of dollars to Abramovich’s offshore companies, which used U.S. stocks as collateral, two new leaks reveal. The secretly-owned firms loaned each other massive sums that were mysteriously returned or written off, in what experts said could be a scheme to obscure the origin of the funds.
RCB Bank was set up and owned by a Russian bank dubbed Putin’s “piggy bank." Despite making moves to obscure its Russian ties following the invasion of Ukraine, current and former RCB executives have ties to the Kremlin and acquired Cypriot passports under dubious circumstances.
Longstanding questions about the president’s relationship with a Saudi billionaire who received a controversial golden passport continue to swirl.
Despite public denials, well-known citizenship broker Henley & Partners helped disgraced financier Jho Low, who stands accused of stealing billions from Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, obtain a passport from Cyprus.
Portuguese construction firm Armando Cunha is accused of paying more than 10 million euros to companies linked to Gabriel Mbega Obiang Lima.
A law firm Nicos Anastasiades founded — and left just before assuming the presidency — moved millions of dollars among shell companies that were deeply entwined with the secretive global money transfer system.
Ihor Kolomoisky and Hennadiy Boholiubov stand accused of stealing $5.5 billion from PrivatBank, which held the deposits of a third of Ukrainians. Now we know how they did it.