One 12 months in the past, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides vowed a swift response to revelations that the European Union-member state had helped Russian oligarchs evade Western sanctions and fund President Vladimir Putin’s struggle machine.
“Every thing that has come to gentle might be investigated,” Christodoulides stated. “The status of our nation, the credibility of our nation, you perceive, is essential.”
The president’s pledge got here within the wake of Cyprus Confidential, a cross-border journalistic investigation led by the Worldwide Consortium of Investigative Journalists and Paper Path Media in collaboration with 67 media companions from around the globe. The probe, based mostly on leaked paperwork, discovered that Cyprus authorized and monetary providers corporations have been key cogs in Russia’s offshore monetary machine.
However whereas some reforms have been made, one outspoken authorities critic now says that Cyprus’ response over the previous 12 months has fallen wanting the president’s guarantees. “No prison investigations have been carried out and no arrests have taken place … as a result of the system of energy is simply as corrupt,” Makarios Drousiotis, a former presidential advisor turned investigative journalist, instructed ICIJ.
The investigation “confirmed what residents perceived: that Cyprus was a haven for worldwide criminals,” stated Drousiotis, who this 12 months ran for a seat within the European Parliament on an agenda crucial of Cypriot corruption.
Cyprus Confidential revealed greater than 650 firms and trusts registered in Cyprus that have been owned or managed by Russians who later got here underneath sanctions, together with some who have been sanctioned as early as 2014.
Probably the most important step taken by the Cyprus authorities, Drousiotis stated, was to invite United States investigators from the FBI and the Monetary Crimes Enforcement Community, or FinCEN, to Cyprus to supply knowledgeable help. The federal government then pledged to create a brand new unit to analyze and punish sanctions dodgers, and established a brand new partnership with the U.S. to assist counter monetary crimes. Cypriot media described these steps as serving to spur a broader warming of ties between Nicosia and Washington.
Elsewhere in Europe, Cyprus Confidential prompted a fast response from politicians, regulation enforcement officers, and main companies. European legislators described Cyprus as a “weak hyperlink” throughout the EU’s monetary system, and the European Parliament referred to as a session in response to the investigation on learn how to tighten anti-money laundering guidelines. “The European Union is popping right into a gangster’s paradise, as a result of there may be full impunity,” stated Sophie In’t Veld, then a outstanding European Parliament member from the Netherlands.
In Germany, in the meantime, a writer pulled two books by journalist Hubert Seipel from the cabinets after a Paper Path Media investigation revealed that Seipel acquired over $600,000 from a now-sanctioned Russian oligarch to put in writing a e-book finally titled “Putin’s Energy: Why Europe Wants Russia.” Seipel, an award-winning German journalist, had beforehand written a biography of Putin and stated that he had met Russia’s president practically 100 instances. He was subsequently expelled from Germany’s investigative journalism affiliation.
Cyprus Confidential additionally reportedly helped impel a prison probe of Seipel’s benefactor, Alexey Mordashov, who has a web value estimated at $25.5 billion in line with Forbes’ annual checklist. ICIJ’s investigation uncovered new particulars concerning the Russian oligarch’s makes an attempt to switch a $1.4 billion funding to his spouse in a bid to evade sanctions. Native media subsequently reported that Cyprus’ authorities had been conscious of the suspicious switch for months, however that authorities had dragged their ft in responding. “Now the ICIJ consortium and worldwide journalistic revelations have crushed all of them to it,” learn an article within the Cypriot newspaper Phileleftheros.
In Lithuania, Cyprus Confidential revelations led the nation to introduce new laws to permit the federal government to strip folks of Lithuanian citizenship. A report printed by Siena, a Lithuanian investigative media outlet and ICIJ associate, discovered that two of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich’s kids held Lithuanian passports once they got management of a few of his fortune, in an obvious bid to evade sanctions within the run-up to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
A British regulation enforcement company additionally compelled the true property supervisor for an additional oligarch, Petr Aven, to forfeit $1 million. Aven is the previous head of Russia’s largest privately-owned financial institution. The forfeiture marked the primary time that the UK’s Nationwide Crime Company had recovered cash in a sanctions violations case. Cyprus Confidential had beforehand revealed that Aven transferred hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from Austria to the U.Ok. on the day he was sanctioned by the EU. The NCA investigated subsequent transfers made between financial institution accounts within the U.Ok. on behalf of Aven after the billionaire had been sanctioned by the British authorities.
Cyprus Confidential went past exposing the underhanded dealings of Russian oligarchs and Putin cronies. It additionally confirmed how a former Israeli intelligence officer, Tal Dilian, had used the island to construct a infamous cyber-surveillance agency that had bought spyware and adware to among the world’s most brutal regimes, together with a paramilitary group in Sudan and the Egyptian intelligence providers. The U.S. subsequently sanctioned Dilian and his agency, Intellexa, for creating spyware and adware that had been used to focus on Individuals. Then in September, Washington slapped sanctions on extra people and companies, together with two Cyprus residents, related to Dilian’s cyber-surveillance community.
Information additionally confirmed {that a} financier of Hamas held a stake in a Cyprus firm. The investigation by ICIJ and Israeli information outlet Shomrim confirmed that Abdelbasit Hamza, who was sanctioned by the U.S. for transferring virtually $20 million to the Palestinian group, owned a stake in a Cyprus firm that holds concessions to use two gold mines in Egypt. The EU sanctioned him a month after ICIJ and Shomrim’s story was printed.
In Cyprus, too, some maintain out hope for additional reforms. Whereas former President Nicos Anastasiades was bedeviled by corruption allegations, Christodoulides has taken steps to burnish Cyprus’ worldwide status, together with by an Oval Workplace assembly with President Joe Biden in October by which he touted the “strategic partnership” between the 2 international locations.
Cyprus Confidential, Drousiotis stated, helped present the impetus for rising cooperation between the 2 international locations and no matter progress has been made in reforming Cyprus’s monetary system: “With out worldwide press studies and investigations akin to this one, Cyprus may nonetheless have been a middle of worldwide illegality and cash laundering.”
