Thread by @ICIJorg

1/ As Western governments target Russian oligarch assets hidden abroad, it’s worth remembering: money doesn’t just hide itself in offshore accounts and shell companies. It takes a village of enablers. 🧵bit.ly/3hviIxN

2/ Here are a few of the many lawyers, offshore agents & banks that have helped Russia’s elite move, hide and invest their money — identified by ICIJ over nearly a decade of reporting on offshore finance. bit.ly/3hviIxN

3/ London lawyer Alastair Tulloch. His firm set up companies for Russia’s former Deputy Finance Minister Andrey Vavilov; billionaire oligarch Alexander Mamut; and Vitaly Zhogin, a banker wanted in Russia for alleged fraud. bit.ly/3hviIxN

4/ Demetrios A. Demetriades, also a lawyer. He promoted Cyprus as the offshore center of choice for money flowing out of Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Clients include sanctioned businesspeople from Russia and other former Soviet republics. bit.ly/3hviIxN

5/ Alpha Consulting Limited, an offshore service provider with offices in the Seychelles, UAE and Belize. Alpha’s customer base is 75% Russian.

Clients include Roman Avdeev, a Russian billionaire considered close to Putin. bit.ly/3hviIxN

6/ Frontier Registered Agency Services, a service provider in Jackson, Wyoming. It acts as the representative of a secretive company and trust for Igor Makarov, a Russian billionaire. bit.ly/3e7mLPd

7/ On the banking front, Deutsche Bank played an important role in the so-called Russian mirror trading scandal – a vast money moving network that used complex securities swaps to move billions outside the country … bit.ly/3hviIxN

8/ … and HSBC banked a shell company that was a major node in the “Russian Laundromat,” a sprawling network that moved tainted money from former Soviet states to the West. #FinCENFiles bit.ly/33MgItI

9/ Often when a Russian oligarch buys something abroad, they do so with the help of multiple professional firms, ICIJ investigations show.

Leaked records reveal how they've purchased jets, yachts, real estate and more offshore. bit.ly/3hviIxN

10/ In 2011, billionaire Arkady Rotenberg, Putin’s friend, bought a jet. He purchased it through a secretive shell company in the British Virgin Islands set up by Appleby, a global offshore law firm at the center of ICIJ’s #ParadisePapers investigation. bit.ly/3Kptx0G

11/ Bombardier in Canada made the jet for Rotenberg, EY advised on taxes. Swiss attorneys at Meyer Avocats offered legal advice, Avcon Jet in Austria managed the jet’s upkeep. #ParadisePapers bit.ly/3hviIxN

12/ Avon Jet and EY didn’t reply to our questions, Appleby didn’t comment when we first reported on the jet.

Meyer Avocats, in Switzerland, sent us the following reply when we asked what due diligence they performed before working for Rotenberg. bit.ly/3hviIxN

13/ Here’s a draft loan agreement for Rotenberg’s jet, prepared by Vedder Price LLP in the United Kingdom. The law firm did not reply to a request for comment. #ParadisePapers bit.ly/3hviIxN

14/ It was the Canadian firm, Bombardier, that sold the jet to Rotenberg. Bombardier didn’t reply to our questions. bit.ly/3hviIxN

15/ The pervasive use of offshore companies with shadowy ownership to buy everything from private jets to luxury homes to yachts can make it difficult for services firms to know who they are really dealing with. bit.ly/3hviIxN

16/ Experts have long called for more transparency, and more requirements that potential enablers identify their customers. But the same authorities now vowing to find every last yacht have often given enablers a pass. bit.ly/3hviIxN

17/ Even now, the “Enablers Act,” which would require more U.S. professionals to vet their clients, remains stalled in Congress. bit.ly/3hviIxN