What is Cyprus Confidential?
afr.comCyprus Confidential is an eight-month collaboration by more than 270 journalists and 69 media organisations in 55 countries, to investigate a huge trove of leaked documents from companies that administer shell companies, in Cyprus and other jurisdictions typically used by companies wanting secrecy.
Cyprus Confidential is an international investigation based on 3.6 million leaked documents ICIJ
Media partners include The Washington Post, Le Monde, the Guardian, the BBC, Der Spiegel and The Australian Financial Review.
The documents show how Cyprus-based global networks shielded Russian business figures from scrutiny, including 91 who have come under sanctions.
Along with respectable clients the documents also show arms dealers, cyber espionage firms, the Syrian government’s attempt to obtain equipment for its oil industry from Houston despite US bans, how a Russian oligarch secretly funded a fawning biography of President Vladimir Putin by a German journalist, payments to European soccer players that may have violated English Premier League rules; and even a company allegedly used to pay the killer of Croatian journalist Ivo Pukanic in 2008.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, headed by Australian Gerard Ryle and known for overseeing the Panama Papers, LuxLeaks and Pandora Papers, structured, stored, and translated the documents from several languages before sharing them with the wider partnership.
The documents, which range from the 1990s up to April 2022, are from seven Cyprus firms that administer shell companies by providing services including nominee directors and audits. The firms pay registration fees and maintain a register of the Ultimate Beneficial Owners. They also authorise loans and
Read more on afr.com
