How did companies linked to foreign billionaires, like Russian oligarchs Oleg Deripaska & Igor Makarov, find a home in the US?
In our latest investigation with @washingtonpost, we take a look at a little-known player in the financial secrecy business. 🧵 bit.ly/3ubd230
US states like Wyoming, Delaware, and Nevada have become havens for hidden wealth largely through LLCs, business structures that offer owners privacy, legal benefits and tax breaks.
Representing every LLC is a registered agent. bit.ly/3ubd230
Registered agents provide perfunctory corporate services and often serve as the only point of contact for companies with anonymous owners.
Operating with no required training and little oversight, some agents have massive, globe-spanning client lists. bit.ly/3ubd230
In Wyoming, the number of LLCs has soared fiftyfold in the past decade.
This building in Sheridan, Wyoming, is the only publicly known address for hundreds of LLCs — including companies accused of international money laundering and fraud. bit.ly/3ubd230
Foreign court records show that companies established in Wyoming have been listed in overseas lawsuits alleging medical fraud in Russia, tax dodging in Hungary and bank theft in Zimbabwe, ICIJ and @washingtonpost found. bit.ly/3ubd230
Russian tycoon Igor Makarov secretly held real estate and a private jet via a Wyoming LLC and trust, #PandoraPapers show.
Another Wyoming LLC is linked to Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, accused of orchestrating one of the biggest ever bank heists. bit.ly/3ubd230
Registered agents know little or nothing about the function or people behind companies they are paid to front. And they can be as elusive as the owners they represent.
Stung by reports of anonymous companies financing arms dealers, human traffickers and other criminals, some states have tightened requirements for registered agents over the years.
But oversight and regulation has been inconsistent. bit.ly/3ubd230
The Enablers Act, a bill introduced to Congress in the aftermath of the #PandoraPapers, would require registered agents to not only identify company owners but also look for and report red flags. bit.ly/3ubd230
Interpol has asked governments worldwide to find and provisionally arrest Isabel dos Santos, yet the former Angolan billionaire isn't hiding. Instead, she often posts about her lavish lifestyle at a Dubai residence.
Newly leaked Dubai property data reviewed by ICIJ for #DubaiUnlocked reveal that dos Santos and her mother, Tatiana “Kukanova” Regan, co-own an apartment in a building called Sadaf, Arabic for “seashell,” overlooking Dubai Marina and the Persian Gulf. buff.ly/3ykHpIP
The eldest daughter of Angola’s former president, dos Santos came under scrutiny by authorities on three continents after ICIJ’s #LuandaLeaks revealed how lucrative deals obtained under her father’s rule helped her become Africa’s richest woman. buff.ly/3UY5DBE
Did you miss the launch of our #SwaziSecrets investigation?
Catch up with the stories our partners worked on in this thread!
@amaBhungane, @AJEnglish, @FinUncovered, @OpenSecretsZA, @jeune_afrique, @TheAfricaReport, @MakandayMedia, @PremiumTimesng buff.ly/4dBIMTK
A member of the Qatari royal family invested about $50 million in Newsmax, bolstering the conservative outlet at a time when Qatar was facing diplomatic pressure and seeking U.S. allies.
Sheikh Sultan bin Jassim Al Thani, a former Qatari government official and the owner of a London-based investment fund, Heritage Advisors, invested in Newsmax in 2019 and 2020.
The investment has not been previously reported. buff.ly/3ITH5mh
The documents were obtained by ICIJ from a trove of roughly 100,000 leaked files from Genesis Trust, a Cayman Islands-based financial services provider now called Highvern.
Newsmax and Heritage Advisors confirmed the investment. buff.ly/3ITH5mh
ICIJ's 2023 investigations stretched around the world, exposing greenwashing in the global sustainability industry, labor trafficking in the Middle East, and the sprawling financial networks that have powered the Putin regime.
ICIJ-led investigation #CyprusConfidential revealed how the EU member state has served as a hideaway for Russian wealth, with Cypriot firms moving vast sums for oligarchs, including after Russia’s 2022 Ukraine invasion.
Two wealthy Haitians sanctioned by Canada owned or had other links to almost 20 companies and trusts created in some of the world’s most secretive tax havens, according to documents from the #PandoraPapers.
1/8 #CyprusConfidential reveals the pivotal role the Mediterranean island plays in helping oligarchs move and hide their wealth. Here are six billionaires identified in the 3.6 million document leak: bit.ly/40GMmpy
2/8 #CyprusConfidential details how, just days before Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, more than $1.7 billion worth of shares from Russian steel giant Evraz were transferred from former Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich’s BVI-based company to himself.
3/8 ICIJ’s partners for #CyprusConfidential also report that Abramovich wielded significantly more influence in European professional football than was previously known: bit.ly/3sDwmIa
1/12 🧵 #CyprusConfidential, a new investigation from ICIJ, @paper_trail_m and nearly 70 media partners, exposes the sprawling financial networks that have powered the Putin regime as it dominates its neighbors — and undermines the West. bit.ly/473nACl
@paper_trail_m 2/12 A trove of 3.6 million leaked documents shows how Russian money flowed through Cyprus’ banking system over decades, under the watch of the European Union. bit.ly/49DkJSc
@paper_trail_m 3/12 As the West sought to block funding for President Vladimir Putin’s war machine after Russia’s 2022 Ukraine invasion, Cyprus firms scrambled to keep key backers of his regime a step ahead of looming sanctions. bit.ly/3MGbRl3