Cyprus Confidential: Island in spotlight after accused of side-stepping sanctions against Russia

20:25 - 14 November 2023

Current Affairs

Cyprus is, unsurprisingly, back in the international news following the publication of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists' (ICIJ) investigation titled "Cyprus Confidential".
The investigation is the product of 3.6 million files that were leaked and came from six financial services providers and one website company.

The ICIJ report basically accuses Cyprus, and more specifically the country's professional services' sector, of side-stepping the sanctions against Russian oligarchs and offering facilities.

PwC Cyprus is at the centre of the report, accused of restructuring Russian oligarchs' companies, as well as transferring assets owned by Alexey Mordashov in TUI Group over to his partner, after the EU had imposed the sanctions.

ICIJ also says PwC helped a company move assets belonging to tycoons Alexander Abramov and Alexander Frolov, prior to the UK's sanctions.

The reports were published by OCCRP and The Guardian. The OCCRP report said that PwC Cyprus may have breached the EU's sanctions by selling Alexey Mordashov's shares on 28 February 2022.

EU officials told OCCRP and The Guardian that the sanctions come into force from the very first day they are published.

This means that Mordashov was technically subject to the sanctions throughout 28 February 2022, though it is possible that neither he nor PwC were aware that he had been included in the list until later in the day when it was announced.

Cyprus Confidential: Island in spotlight after accused of side-stepping sanctions against Russia

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