Ahmetov and companies: journalists published a new investigation on Cypriot offshores of oligarchs

A new major investigation has been released concerning Cypriot offshore accounts where businessmen and politicians from all over the world are channeling their funds.

The investigation was conducted by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

The latest leak primarily focuses on how Russian oligarchs began moving their assets to offshore accounts to evade Western sanctions. However, the materials also mention the wealthiest Ukrainian, Rinat Akhmetov. The investigation identifies sixty companies associated with him, with the majority registered in Cyprus.

According to the documents, in July 2021, Akhmetov intended to purchase a luxurious two-story penthouse for £87.5 million (approximately $122 million) in the premium-class residential complex, Chelsea Barracks, located in London. The property was being acquired through Akhmetov’s controlled company, Gelion Properties Ltd., based in the British Virgin Islands.

The inference of the Ukrainian businessman’s involvement in the purchase is drawn from correspondence between auditing firms Cypcodirect and PwC, stating that Gelion would be used to purchase the penthouse to ensure Akhmetov’s ‘confidentiality’ and prevent his name from being included in the United Kingdom’s registry of state ownership.

“Confidentiality is the main purpose of the property purchase by Gelion,” explained an email from a PwC employee.

Official documents indicate that the transaction took place in the following year, 2022.

The documents also shed light on ‘Akhmetov’s involvement in the coal industry in Russia after the annexation of Crimea in 2014’.

“In 2016, Akhmetov’s energy company, DTEK, transferred ownership rights to several coal mines it had acquired in the Rostov region in southwest Russia four years earlier to the Cypriot subsidiary company, Fabcell Ltd. DTEK also transferred responsibility for a significant loan of around $400 million from Sberbank, Russia’s largest state-owned bank,” the investigation stated.

“In January 2017, Fabcell transferred its ‘golden share’ under the control of Sberbank of Russia.”

Akhmetov has already commented on this investigation, stating that the financing provided by Sberbank and other creditors before the annexation of Crimea in 2014 was “standard practice for Ukrainian borrowers.”

The statement further added that after the annexation, the situation “changed dramatically,” and DTEK attempted to sell the Rostov coal mines. When a buyer could not be found, the ownership rights to the mines were transferred to Fabcell as a means to “limit [DTEK’s] exposure to Sberbank’s demands as a creditor and pave the way for DTEK’s exit from investments in the Rostov coal mines.”

However, Akhmetov declined to comment on the topic of the London penthouse.”