Consortium of Journalists Reveals How Putin-Friendly Oligarchs Flee Sanctions

Russian oligarchs Boris and Arkady Rotenberg, childhood friends of President Vladimir Putin and under international economic sanctions since 2014, managed to protect their wealth with the help of a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, it became known on Tuesday.

The information is contained in the so-called Rotenberg Documents, an investigation by the OCCRTP consortium of journalists based on the leak of more than 50,000 documents and emails between 2013 and 2020 obtained by the independent Russian media IStories and published by 15 other independent newspapers, television, radio and information agencies.

The two brothers, who grew up in Leningrad, met Putin when they attended martial arts classes together, and the relationship between them continued as the power of the former KGB agent (the former name for the Russian intelligence services) grew and he took the position. heads of state.

According to the consortium, the two brothers’ fortunes also grew thanks to lucrative contracts that, although sanctioned by Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, netted them a combined fortune of around $4,900 million (€4,450 million). according to Forbes magazine.

The wealth of Boris and Arkady Rotenberg, according to investigators, was guarded by a businessman and former Russian diplomat with ties to Prince Michael of Kent, cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, the British sovereign, who died on September 22, 2022 at the age of 96 years. years.

This wealth had to be protected, and with sanctions and huge foreign assets at risk, the brothers were eager to fend off the state of Western regulators. Released documents show that one figure was instrumental in helping the Rotenberg brothers protect their fortune.

This is 50-year-old Moscow businessman Maxim Viktorov, whose company and Russian law firm played a key role in saving the two brothers’ investments, such as shares in the Helsinki Halli stadium.

The Rotenberg family used a variety of methods to move their wealth “like chess pieces” around the world, opening bank accounts as others closed, and transforming ownership structures in response to new sanctions or questions raised by regulators, the investigation said.

Viktorov used trusted business service providers to move the Rotenberg companies to “less demanding jurisdictions” from the Virgin Islands to Cyprus.

In Russia, his company Evocorp Management managed part of the brothers’ assets after they were placed under the control of top-secret investment funds, which, according to investigators, Viktorov passed off as his own.

Abroad, the company ILS Legal Services, registered in Panama, is indicated as working with Viktorov.

The leak also shows how a group of third parties, including a man said to be Boris Rotenberg’s former bodyguard and a 36-year-old beautician “who appears to be Arkady Rotenberg’s secret romantic partner, took possession of the property of some of the most valuable brothers’ assets.

Viktorov said that neither he nor any of his companies violated any laws and called the investigation flawed.

Viktorov worked for the KGB in the 1990s and later began providing legal services to businessmen and civil servants. In 2012, he became an adviser to the Minister of Defense. By that time, I already knew Putin’s entourage. In his work for the Rotenbergs, Viktorov often relied on his foreign connections.

In 2018, the Viktorov Investment Programs Fund became a shareholder of the British technology company RemitRadar, where businessman Sergei Markov, a former Soviet diplomat, and Prince Michael of Kent, great-nephew of Russian Emperor Nicholas II, acted as the company’s “ambassador”. also had shares, according to investigators.

According to the consortium, the British prince “distanced himself from his ties to the Putin regime after the invasion of Ukraine” but remains linked to RemitRadar.