Beneficial Ownership Data is Critical in the Fight Against Corruption

Transparency activists revealed that Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš was in a conflict of interest, because he secretly controlled a conglomerate that received E.U. subsidies. The discovery was only possible because of a UBO registry in neighboring Slovakia, where Babiš had two trusts that owned shares in the Czech Republic-based company Agrofert.

An investigative center dedicated to the memory of a murdered Slovak journalist reveals the oligarchs behind several mysterious companies that won a shadowy tender process to build solar power plants in the country.

This investigative series delves into the corporate empire and financial dealings of Norbert Bödör, a notorious Slovak oligarch accused of money laundering and criminal ties.

Hungarian journalists found the minister of foreign affairs and other top officials using a luxury yacht, but hit a wall when trying to trace the ship’s owner — until Malta opened its beneficial ownership registry. The information helped them trace a path to Lazlo Szijj, a wealthy construction tycoon who made a fortune on government contracts.

OCCRP’s partners in Latvia, Estonia, and Belarus showed how a cluster of companies linked to sanctioned tycoon Mikalai Varabei was exploiting a loophole in EU trade sanctions against Belarus. UBO data was essential in showing how the corporate network came together and started moving record amounts of Belarusian oil into Estonia.

With the help of UBO data, journalists found over 145 properties worth around $17 billion owned by Alisher Usmanov, Roman Abramovich, and other sanctioned Russian businessmen.

Forbes uncovered several previously unreported yachts owned by Alekperov, using beneficial ownership data from Malta and Cyprus.

Reporters at IStories drew on beneficial ownership data to track down French real estate belonging to Vladimir Putin’s ex-son-in-law Kirill Shamalov and billionaire oligarch Suleiman Kerimov. “It was the only way to prove real ownership, because there are totally random people in the official documents,” said reporter Roman Romanovskiy.

Drawing on beneficial ownership data from Cyprus and the Isle of Man, this story also identified another yacht owned by the family of a sanctioned oligarch, the Begham.

Forbes drew on UBO data from various countries to identify dozens of yachts owned by Russian oligarchs. This story was cited in the U.S. Department of Justice’s seizure warrant for Viktor Vekselberg’s yacht, the Tango.

While in a relationship with Russia’s defense minister, former flight attendant Elena Kaminskas made a fortune from government contracts. Corporate records helped reporters trace some of the money — now invested in Lithuania by her new husband.

Russian legislators voted unanimously to support Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. But despite their patriotic rhetoric, some have family members with assets and businesses in the West — which European corporate registries helped journalists reveal.

UBO registers enabled Russian journalists to trace offshore companies that held invaluable privatized assets from state gas giant Gazprom. They were associated with a Russian intelligence officer, his backers, and his nephew.

OCCRP’s Italian partners used corporate ownership data to shed light on the companies still importing Russian oil and petroleum products into Europe.

Using UBO data from Cyprus, Malta, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, reporters revealed that Eduard Khudainatov is the proxy owner of yachts belonging to Vladimir Putin, Igor Sechin, and Suleiman Kerimov.

Through accessing public beneficial ownership data, Italian reporters learned that the controversial company managing Parma’s airport has ties to a major player in the Odebrecht corruption scandal.

Reporters used data from the Cypriot beneficial ownership registry to prove that the spyware vendor Intellexa had a second, previously undisclosed shareholder: a politically-connected Greek entrepreneur at the center of a surveillance scandal.

In the last few years, wealthy Hungarians with ties to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán or other elites have begun to use private equity funds to store billions in assets. Some of these secretive corporate vehicles have received state concessions or properties — and only the EU-mandated beneficial ownership registry allowed reporters to uncover who was behind them.