Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle members and others were helped by an offshore firm, Alpha Consulting, to create companies which concealed their true ownership identities, according to an investigation by the BBC, Finance Uncovered, and the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation. Internal documents from the company revealed that it catered to Putin’s circle, besides being one of the most prolific organizations taking advantage of the UK law loophole. An offshore firm based in Seychelles, Alpha Consulting created more than 900 partnerships in the UK which used the secrecy loophole to hide their owner identities. Some of these partnerships have been involved in alleged fraud, sanctions-busting oil tankers, illegal essay mills, and interfering in a foreign election.
Leaked documents obtained as part of the 2021 Pandora Papers’ investigation reveal that Alpha helped set up Beratex Group Ltd for Yevgeny Prigozhin, the former boss of the Wagner Group. Prigozhin’s company, which concealed ownership of his private jet and yacht, was sanctioned by the United States in 2019. Alpha helped create Beratex as a front company in Seychelles, with the mercenary boss’s elderly mother-in-law being recorded as the hidden beneficial owner. Alpha said it had never been involved in any business activities with Beratex.
Leonid Reiman, a close friend and associate of President Putin, was another client of Alpha. The company provided a director to one of Reiman’s companies who failed to declare the Russian businessman as a “politically exposed person” despite his well-documented relationships with the President. Anti-money laundering expert Geoff Barrow said that this was not really an oversight and it was a breach of the rules if Alpha was knowingly doing business with somebody who was politically exposed. Alpha said that it had carried out all the required checks on Reiman and not found information to suggest that he was a politically exposed person or involved in money-laundering.
Alpha helped create 927 limited partnerships in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland since 2017, of which one in five was registered by the organization. The issue with such partnerships is that they can sidestep transparency policies and be used to acquire assets and hide their owners, as evidenced by an oil tanker, Delfi, which Alpha helped capture and conceal. The tanker, which was bought through Cardiff-based limited partnership Mister Drake PC, polluted the coast of Ukraine after wrecking in 2019. The firm used Seychelles resident Luther Denis as a general partner, who seemed like a prolific entrepreneur on paper but signed over all his powers to the beneficial owner. The fine imposed by the court on Mister Drake PC remains unpaid because the owner’s identity has not been identified
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