Ukrainian President allegedly used offshore scheme to benefit his close aides: Report

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has allegedly used an offshore scheme to provide benefit to his close circle, including family and friends, from ir unregistered businesses overseas, reported Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), citing Pandora Papers. Zelensky won Presidential elections in 2019 on a wave of public outrage against country's political establishment, including some former leers who used secret firms to store ir wealth overseas. Leaked documents now show that Zelensky and his immediate entourage have ir own offshore company network, and two of President's partners' money was used to purchase expensive properties in London, reported OCCRP. documents show that Zelensky and his partners in Kvartal 95, a television production company, established a network of offshore companies in 2012 when company began producing regular content for TV stations owned by Ihor Kolomoisky, who was facing multibillion-dollar fraud allegations. 

documents also show that shortly before Zelensky was elected president, he gave his ownership in a significant offshore company, British Virgin Islands-based Maltex Multicapital Corp., to a business partner who would later become his senior presidential assistant. Although he gave up his shares, documents show that an agreement was quickly reached to allow offshore to continue paying dividends to a business owned by his wife. Amid 2019 presidential campaign, Volodymyr Ariev, a close ally of n President Petro Poroshenko, posted a chart on Facebook purporting to show that Zelensky and his television production partners were beneficiaries of a web of offshore companies that allegedly received $41 million in funds from Kolomoisky's Privatbank. However, Ariev could never provide evidence to substantiate his claims, and his assertions have never been confirmed. 

'Pandora Papers based on a leak of 11.9 million data'

On or hand, Pandora Papers revealed that at least some parts of details in this purported conspiracy are accurate. released documents reveal details of at least ten companies in network that correspond to structures depicted in Ariev's diagram, reported OCCRP. new documents indicate that Fidelity Corporate Services, an offshore consultant that was one of 14 firms whose documents were leaked as part of Pandora Papers, assisted in managing a portion of network. Zelensky and his partners used corporations based in British Virgin Islands (BVI), Belize, and Cyprus reported OCCRP. It is worth mentioning here that on Sunday, October 3, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) released a new leak on purported financial secrets of over 35 current and former world leers, as well as over 330 politicians and bureaucrats from across world. publication, dubbed Pandora Papers after 2016 Panama Papers incident, was based on a leak of 11.9 million data, according to ICIJ. 

Image: AP