UK imposes sanctions on ‘enablers’ accused of helping oligarchs hide assets
The UK government has imposed sanctions on the “financial fixers” who have allegedly helped the Russian oligarchs Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov hide their assets.
The new sanctions, announced by the Foreign Office on Wednesday, are targeted at what officials describe as “oligarch enablers”, whom they accuse of knowingly assisting the billionaire businessmen to shield their wealth.
The latest round of restrictions include asset freezes and travel bans on two Cyprus-based individuals alleged to have provided services to Abramovich and Usmanov.
The measures come after the Guardian’s Oligarch Files project revealed in January that trusts holding billions of dollars of assets for Abramovich, the former owner of Chelsea football club, were rapidly reorganised shortly before sanctions were imposed on him.
They are the latest round of asset freezes and travel bans that the UK has imposed on close associates of Abramovich and Usmanov, both of whom were hit with sanctions last year shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Officials have said that in response to an unprecedented package of international sanctions, oligarchs “scrambled to shield their wealth with the help of financial fixers, offshore trusts, shell companies, and even using their family members”.
According to leaked files seen by the Guardian, 10 of Abramovich’s secretive offshore trusts were amended to transfer beneficial ownership to his seven children in the weeks leading up to the invasion, raising questions about whether the changes were made to shield the oligarch’s vast fortune from the threat of asset freezes.
Documents suggest the sweeping reorganisation was executed by Demetris Ioannides and his company, who has helped manage Abramovich’s financial interests
Read more on theguardian.com
