In the database published by the International consortium of investigative journalists (ICIJ), there are records with names namesakes 16 of 77 Russian billionaires. Their companies were registered in offshore jurisdictions via the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, whose database in early April, came at the disposal of journalists.
According to the data from the database, a total of namesake Russian billionaires were 50 beneficiaries of offshore companies, most of which (47) are registered in the British virgin Islands. Two more were registered offshore in the Bahamas, one in the Seychelles. Most of these offshore companies in 2013-2015 acquired the status of “inactive” or closed, only 20 continue its work until now.
Among caught in the base of the namesakes of Russian billionaires is most common name is the namesake of founder and main shareholder of USM Holdings Alisher Usmanov. The namesake of the last of Russia’s richest man according to Forbes in files opened 11 cards, which show his connection with the 15 offshore companies.
Usmanov followed by the number of offshore companies is the namesake of the investor Svetakov Alexander, who owned at different times by 11 firms. Five of these companies registered in the British virgin Islands, are closed or are preparing for liquidation.
For namesakes, the brothers Arkady and Boris Rotenberg were registered by three offshore companies. While Boris continues to function registered in the British virgin Islands company Kenrick Overseas, Arkady located in the same company and Baker Global Consulting Causeway.
The namesake of the head of “RUSAL” Oleg Deripaska in the British virgin Islands offshore company worked in 2003-2015. Our database also mentioned the namesake of the shareholder of the Bank of Cyprus is Dmitry Rybolovlev, who was registered in one offshore company.
In the database also featured the namesakes of the co-owner of Promsvyazbank Dmitry Ananiev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Pipe metallurgical company Dmitry Pumpyansky, a partner of Usmanov’s “metalloinvest” Vasily Anisimov (was listed as Vladimir Anisimov, head of Russian copper company Igor Altushkin.
On the evening of may 9, ICIJ released information about 214 thousand the companies registered in offshore jurisdictions through Mossack Fonseca. ICIJ called the publication database “the largest in history by publishing classified information about offshore companies and their owners”. The array data was added to the existing three-year database, which contained information about more than 100 thousand offshore companies. While ICIJ notes that the ownership of offshore companies and trusts is not in itself evidence of a violation of law. “We don’t want to give the impression that any of the aforementioned persons, companies or entities included in the database ICIJ Offshore Leaks violated the law or acted in a reprehensible manner”, — reads the statement of the consortium.
