The research: is the British confidentiality profitable for Russian billionaires?

28.11.2012

The British magazine Guardian in conjunction with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ICIJ created a project to study the secrets of doing business in offshore jurisdictions.

This research was motivated by the desire to understand the secrets of UK Offshores. British regime of preferential treatment to offshore companies induces many millionaires from Russia and the CIS countries to come to London and to use the advantages of the regime.

There are many examples. The research describes the most vivid characters. For example, the Kazakh billionaire Abzyalov Mukhtar, who was allegedly seen last time departing from London to France, was sentenced to 22 months in prison for contempt of court. In addition, the Kazakh bank BTA Bank tried to sort out the huge number of his offshore companies that were great planned into well thought-tax scheme. Bank lawyers accuse Abzyalov that he left Britain and moved four billion pound with the help of a network of offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands and the Seychelles.

One of the "most colorful figures, who had profit from the British secrecy regime" the researchers call Ukraine's richest man Rinat Akhmetov, who has bought industrial assets over 11 million pounds in Donetsk region, and its business was also hidden in the shadow of the companies in the British Virgin Isles.

Billionaires themselves among the reasons to use offshore companies in the BVI called the need to have protection from corporate riders and from political enemies in their own country, as well as the difficulty in filing of lawsuits in the jurisdiction, which is beneficial for business.

On the basis of: http://www.guardian.co.uk/

The full series of articles devoted to offshore secret, you will find here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/series/offshore-secrets

Expert’s opinion

«It is not a secret that England is the country where everybody not only billionaires tend to escape. The reason of obvious: there is no extradition therefore you can peacefully live in Albion and do not about returning to your homeland.

As a rule “acquired by overwork” plants and ships are safely hidden in structure of trust and offshore companies. It does not matter how much enviers write about Berezovsky and Abramovich, both of them fell themselves well away from home.

Please notice how often you can find the mention of British Virgin Islands. Everybody know about them, write and speak, but can not get it! That is the beauty of using them in business structuring».

Irina Lomakina ( Director of Moscow office “Honest&Bright”)