The businessman Suleiman Kerimov, a member of the close circle of the Russian president, Vladimir Putinused a figurehead to hide transfers worth 300 million dollars (275 million euros), according to confidential documents to which the British network BBC had access.
Those writings, part of the Pandora Papers obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), suggest that Kerimov appointed a Swiss accountant as the owner of some of his companies and properties to hide his capital movements.
They also reveal that between 2010 and 2015, US authorities marked as suspicious transfers linked to Kerimov and his associates worth 700 million dollars (640 million euros), although they did not prove that they were linked to the oligarch.
The former parliamentarian, about whom sanctions weighed on USA since 2018was included in the list of Russian businessmen sanctioned in the United Kingdom and the European Union in March, after the invasion of Ukraine ordered by the Kremlin.
The BBC has aired that the oligarch was the “secret owner” of luxury real estate on the Côte d’Azur and in Londonincluding a London mansion overlooking Regent’s Park that was sold in 2013 for 80 million pounds (95 million euros).
Kerimov is a economist who made his fortune acquiring assets in the energy sector and shares of Russian banks after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Related news
His name is one of 4,000 that appear in the papers linked to an ICIJ investigation focused on Russian oligarchs and people close to Putin.
Last week, the EU also imposed sanctions on Said Kerimov, son of businessman Suleiman Kerimov, who a few days earlier had sold his 29.99% stake in the gold-producing firm Polyus and resigned from his board positions.