The Cyprus Confidential investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Paper Trail Media and 67 media partners claims to have found that professional services firms in Cyprus were working on behalf of 25 Russians who came under Western or Ukrainian sanctions after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and war in Donbas, the consortium announced on Tuesday.

According to ICIJ, data analysis, which matches names found among millions of documents against public records and private databases, found an additional 71 Russian clients who have come under sanctions since February 2022, bringing the total to 96 sanctioned individuals.

It is added that the Cypriot Ministry of Finance is aware of the share transfers, and a criminal investigation is underway, as a ministry official told ICIJ in November.

Moreover, the Cyprus Confidential investigation claims that another Cyprus firm is at the center of a legal dispute involving a Russian billionaire accused of evading sanctions by using the said firm and European banks to shunt wealth beyond the reach of Western sanctions.

The ICIJ data analysis also claims to show that the above-mentioned firm handled the day-to-day business of more than 100 Cyprus companies and trusts owned or controlled by Russian oligarchs, including Kremlin propagandist Konstantin Malofeyev, who was already the subject of Western sanctions.

ICIJ’s analysis also claims to have found that the said firm helped administer no fewer than 14 Cyprus-registered trusts owned or controlled by one of Russia’s most prominent oligarchs, Roman Abramovich, sometimes in tandem with the Cyprus branch of a prominent accounting company, providing services to Abramovich companies registered in secrecy jurisdictions including the Isle of Man, Jersey and, mostly, the British Virgin Islands, where the bulk of Abramovich-owned companies — nearly 100 — were registered.

Furthermore, the investigation claims to expose detailed discussions between Syria’s state-owned oil company and a Cyprus-registered intermediary about buying drilling equipment made by a Houston-based manufacturer.

In particular, it claims to present evidence that the company and a Cyprus intermediary prepared to conduct at least five transactions between 2014 and 2019 to obtain equipment, noting that the company is owned by Syria and controlled by the government of Bashar al-Assad. 

Among other revelations, the Cyprus Confidential documents show clients exposed in the investigation include a lawyer involved in selling spyware to some of the world’s most brutal regimes; a former senior European politician who went to work for a now-sanctioned Russian oligarch, the digital magazine Reporter.lu reported; and a sanctioned Russian oligarch who secretly helped finance a Holocaust movie alongside European taxpayers, report news outlets Reporter.lu, Knack, Le Soir and De Tijd.