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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rode to ability on pledges to make clean up the Eastern European land, but the Pandora Papers reveal he and his close circumvolve were the beneficiaries of a network of offshore companies, including some that endemic expensive London property.

Key Findings

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his partners in comedy production owned a network of offshore companies related to their business organisation based in the British Virgin Islands, Republic of cyprus, and Belize.
• Zelensky's current chief adjutant, Serhiy Shefir, too as the caput of the country's Security Service, were part of the offshore network.
• Offshore companies were used by Shefir and another business concern partner to purchase pricey London existent manor.
• Around the fourth dimension of his 2019 election, Zelensky handed his shares in a primal offshore company over to Shefir, but the two appear to have fabricated an organization for Zelensky's family to continue receiving money from the offshore.

Player Volodymyr Zelensky stormed to the Ukrainian presidency in 2019 on a moving ridge of public anger against the state'south political course, including previous leaders who used secret companies to stash their wealth overseas.

Now, leaked documents prove that Zelensky and his inner circle have had their own network of offshore companies. 2 belonging to the president's partners were used to buy expensive property in London.

The revelations come up from documents in the Pandora Papers, millions of files from 14 offshore service providers leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and shared with partners around the world including OCCRP.

The documents prove that Zelensky and his partners in a tv product company, Kvartal 95, set up upward a network of offshore firms dating dorsum to at least 2012, the yr the company began making regular content for TV stations owned by Ihor Kolomoisky, an oligarch dogged by allegations of multi-billion-dollar fraud. The offshores were also used by Zelensky associates to purchase and ain three prime properties in the center of London.

The documents likewise prove that just before he was elected, he gifted his stake in a key offshore company, the British Virgin Islands-registered Maltex Multicapital Corp., to his business concern partner — presently to exist his peak presidential aide. And in spite of giving up his shares, the documents evidence that an arrangement was shortly made that would allow the offshore to keep paying dividends to a visitor that at present belongs to his wife.

A comedian and player who had been famous since the 2000s, Zelensky began his political ascent a few years after taking on a starring function in the political satire "Servant of the People," which began airing on the oligarch's network in 2015. The show starred Zelensky equally a humble history teacher whose anti-abuse rant in class is filmed past a student, goes viral online, and wins him national part.

In a example of life imitating art, Zelensky concluded up winning the real-globe Ukrainian presidency simply 3-and-a-half years after the evidence'southward launch, with more than 73 per centum of the vote.

Zelensky capitalized on widespread public anger at abuse, simply his 2019 campaign was dogged by doubts over his anti-graft bona fides, given that his campaign was boosted by media belonging to Kolomoisky — who is accused of stealing The states$5.five billion from his ain banking concern and funneling information technology offshore in concert with his partner, Hennadiy Boholiubov.

In the heat of the campaign, a political ally of incumbent President Petro Poroshenko published a chart on Facebook purporting to bear witness that Zelensky and his idiot box product partners were beneficiaries of a web of offshore firms that allegedly received $41 million in funds from Kolomoisky's Privatbank.

That ally, Volodymyr Ariev, didn't provide evidence, and his accusations take never been proven. Only the Pandora Papers show that at least some of the details in this alleged scheme represent to reality. The leaked documents show information on 10 companies in the network that match structures detailed in Ariev's chart.

The new documents prove that role of the network was managed with help from Fidelity Corporate Services, an offshore consultancy that was ane of 14 firms whose documents make up function of the Pandora Papers leak. The documents show that Zelensky and his partners used companies based in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Belize, and Republic of cyprus.

Two of Zelensky's assembly in the offshore network, who were too part of his TV production company, now agree powerful positions. Serhiy Shefir is Zelensky's height presidential aide, while Ivan Bakanov heads the Security Service of Ukraine.

These powerful positions also come with risks. Shefir narrowly escaped an credible assassination endeavor when his car was fired on outside Kyiv on September 22. He was unharmed, but his commuter was wounded.

Zelensky has repeatedly pledged to rein in oligarchs. The day afterwards the attack on Shefir, the state's parliament passed a bill that would create a register of oligarchs and bar them from financing political parties or taking part in privatizations. Zelensky said that the attempt on Shefir's life volition receive a potent response and will not influence his fight against vested interests.

A spokesman for Zelensky declined to comment. Shefir and Bakanov did not respond to questions.

Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photograph Serhiy Shefir (right) and Volodymyr Zelensky (left) at Zelensky's presidential entrada headquarters in 2019.

Serhiy Shefir's brother Borys, who is a part-possessor of Maltex Multicapital Corp, said he may indeed exist an owner, but was unaware of the details of the offshore system, which was largely the piece of work of Ukraine'southward at present-Security Service chief, Bakanov.

"Bakanov was our financial managing director, he set upwardly the financial schemes of our company. Speaking honestly, I'one thousand not set to answer to you," he said.

Borys Shefir said such offshore arrangements were necessary because of the threat to the company of "authorities and bandits." Kvartal 95'south members were moving to divest themselves of offshores, merely it was a tedious and hard process, he said.

Mr. Holmes' New Neighbors

It is unclear what about of the offshore network was used for, but a fractional reply to the mystery can be constitute on London's Baker Street, near the residence of some other famous fictional character: Sherlock Holmes.

Pandora Papers documents show a network visitor was used to buy an apartment in London but a short walk from the museum that now stands at 221b Baker Street, the address of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle'southward legendary detective. The area is one of several pricey parts of London favored past strange investors using anonymous shell companies.

Credit: Aubrey Belford/OCCRP The Chalfont Court building on London's Bakery Street where Serhiy Shefir bought an apartment.

That apartment, a three-bedroom flat on Glentworth Street, was bought for 1.58 million pounds ($two.28 meg) in 2016 by a Belize visitor endemic by Shefir, SHSN Limited. A two-bedroom apartment nearby in Baker Street'south Chalfont Court building, which was bought by Shefir for two.2 1000000 pounds (The states$three.5 meg) in 2014, was also transferred to SHSN Limited in 2018.

The documents as well show that another Kvartal 95 shareholder, Andrii Iakovlev, obtained a roughly ane.5-million-pound ($2.3 million) apartment in the Westminster Palace Gardens building, a short walk from the Houses of Parliament, in 2015 after his BVI visitor purchased some other BVI company that endemic the property.

When contacted by a reporter, Iakovlev said: "Young lady, I don't speak with people I don't know. Contact our lawyers."

Iurii Azarov, a Ukrainian lawyer who has worked for Zelensky and his partners and whose name appears on some of the documents found in the Pandora Papers, as well declined to comment.

Mid-Ballot Maneuvering

There is no sign that Zelensky himself was a function of the London property deals. All the same, the documents show that he was a key player in other parts of the offshore network.

At the heart of the spider web of foreign firms is Maltex Multicapital Corp, which has never before been linked to Zelensky.

By 2017, Maltex was divided equally between shell companies belonging to Zelensky, Iakovlev, and brothers Serhiy Shefir and Borys Shefir. Ivan Bakanov, another Kvartal 95 partner who now serves equally Ukraine'southward secret police primary, was the beneficiary of some other company that acted as nominee and trustee for the four other men's ownership of Maltex.

Zelensky, together with his wife, owned a quarter of Maltex through a Belize-registered firm called Motion-picture show Heritage. Merely in 2019, in the estrus of Zelensky's election campaign, Film Heritage transferred its ownership of Maltex to some other company owned past Serhiy Shefir, the soon-to-be presidential chief assistant. The transfer documents were prepared by Iurii Azarov.

The deal provided Zelensky with a measure of distance from the offshore network, while costing him aught.

"The share document demonstrates that no money was paid by the receiving party. Therefore the buying was simply transferred from one proper name to another," said Martin Woods, a financial crime consultant who reviewed the documents for OCCRP.

Roughly 6 weeks later, the same lawyer, Azarov, signed some other certificate that stipulated that Maltex would proceed to pay dividends to Zelensky's Film Heritage — even though it no longer owned any stake in the company. The document, a client profile of Maltex prepared for Fidelity, disclosed that the visitor's five largest sources of revenue were Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Belize, and Cyprus.

The Pandora Papers documents practice non comprise details on the size of any dividend payments, or how many may have been made. Since 2019, Zelensky's wife, Olena Zelenska, has been the sole benign owner of Film Heritage, co-ordinate to the online registry of officials' nugget declarations, significant any subsequent payments would have flowed to her.

Fiscal crime consultant Woods said the share transfer was mayhap a "charade" aimed at hiding a stake in Maltex while still being able to make money off it. Zelensky has not mentioned Maltex in any of his public nugget declarations, including one filed for 2018, when he still owned 25 percent of the company.

In such an arrangement, "the real owner has placed another person to act as his or her proxy to pretend to be the shareholder," Woods said.

"The person making the transfer wants to retain the shares and the benefit of the shares, just doesn't want other people to know that that is the state of affairs."

In response to questions sent by Pandora Papers reporters, Fidelity confirmed it was the registered amanuensis for Maltex Multicapital Corp, but it said that Zelensky was not currently an possessor or beneficiary of whatsoever company nether its administration.

"The present Ukrainian president is not our client, nor does he have any ownership or any other position in whatever entity under our administration," Fidelity said.

The company also argued that there would accept been nothing wrong to have worked for Zelensky prior to his rising to political office in 2019. "We don't see any valid reason why such a private citizen should exist precluded from venturing to deport his business internationally, including through a BVI [British Virgin Islands] business Company, if so accounted fit."

The company did not respond to follow-up questions well-nigh Zelensky's other partners, as well equally the transfer of his shareholding in Maltex Multicapital Corp to Shefir'south partners.

A Wider Web

The documents in the Pandora Papers also contain details that dovetail with broader allegations of offshore machinations leveled confronting Zelensky and his partners during the 2019 election.

During the campaign, the pro-Poroshenko member of parliament Ariev claimed that Zelensky and his partners were the beneficiaries of an offshore network of companies that received $41 1000000 in payments that originated from Privatbank, the Ukrainian financial establishment that the oligarch Kolomoisky is alleged to take looted.

Ariev'southward allegations were detailed in a nautical chart he publicized on Facebook showing a complex web of transactions betwixt layers of companies based in offshore havens including the BVI, Cyprus, and Belize. The nautical chart showed money flowing from the banking concern via a series of apparent vanquish entities to companies alleged to have been endemic by Zelensky and assembly.

Ariev has not provided documentation to back up his claims.

Even so, the Pandora Papers documents do provide the commencement corroboration for elements of his allegation: that 10 of the companies that allegedly received the money really did belong to Zelensky and his partners. Such information has not previously been publicly available.

The new documents do not, nevertheless, corroborate Ariev's claims that the offshores received funds from Kolomoisky'due south Privatbank. They provide but fragmentary data well-nigh how money moved through Zelensky and his partners' offshore network. The fiscal flows that are visible from the documents appear to exist connected to their television set production business, of which Kolomoisky was a client.

The leaked documents show the offshore network was set by individuals behind Kvartal 95 in 2012, the aforementioned year in which local media reported that Kvartal 95 entered into a production bargain with Kolomoisky's i+1 Group.

The Pandora Papers bear witness that SVT Films Ltd, a company that was as of May 2013 half-owned by the BVI holding company Maltex, was to exist paid $one.ii million in licensing fees by January 2013 by an offshore company linked to Kolomoisky's 1+1 network for the television program "Make a Comedian Express mirth."

In 2015, a company chosen Gimentiano Holdings Ltd, which was ultimately owned past Zelensky'south friend Andriy Iakovlev, also received $750,000 into its account at the Cyprus branch of Kolomoisky's Privatbank. The money came from SVT Films Ltd. for "payment of interim dividends."

OCCRP has previously reported that the Cyprus branch played a fundamental role in Kolomoisky and his partner's alleged multi-billion-dollar theft from the bank. Kolomoisky's partner, Boholiubov, declined to respond to questions sent by reporters that were addressed to both men.

Even as Zelensky pushes his anti-oligarch campaign, some continue to doubt his sincerity. Among them is Ruslan Ryaboshapka, who was picked by Zelensky as the state's top prosecutor in 2019, but ousted from the role in early 2020. He told OCCRP he believes this was due to force per unit area from the oligarch Kolomoisky.

"A president shouldn't own offshore companies. In general offshore companies are bad, whether they're owned by a president or not," Ryaboshapka said.

He called moving money offshore "an erstwhile tradition" in Ukraine, because the state was perceived as a dangerous place with "no rule of police force." Only still, the utilise of such companies today raises red flags of "tax evasion or the legalization of muddied coin," he said.

"That'southward the essence of offshore companies."

Aubrey Belford (OCCRP), Margot Gibbs (ICIJ), Luke Harding (The Guardian), and Simon Goodley (The Guardian) contributed reporting.

Source: https://www.occrp.org/en/the-pandora-papers/pandora-papers-reveal-offshore-holdings-of-ukrainian-president-and-his-inner-circle

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