Information about over 1,500 Ukrainians, including President Volodymyr Zelensky and his colleagues from previous work, Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko, businessmen Oleksandr Yaroslavsky, Ihor Voronin and Rinat Akhmetov, former owners of PrivatBank Ihor Kolomoisky and Hennadiy Boholiubov, MP Oleksandr Hereha is mentioned in the Pandora Papers new global leak of offshore documents, the Slidstvo.Info publication said.
“There were also Ukrainian oligarchs, former and current officials, deputies and even sports and pop stars in the documents. In total, there are over 1,500 Ukrainians in Pandora Papers,” Slidstvo.Info said, which along with over 600 journalists from 117 countries of the world, members of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), worked on the Pandora Papers project.
According to the data, in particular, the offshore companies of Zelensky and his team have allegedly received $40 million from offshore companies associated with Kolomoisky since 2012, when the Kvartal 95 studio started cooperating with the businessman’s 1 + 1 television channel. “Along with Zelensky, Head of the State Security Service of Ukraine Ivan Bakanov, as well as First Assistant to the president Serhiy Shefir, appear in the offshore papers,” the investigators said.
It is indicated that before being elected president in 2019, Zelensky transferred his share in the offshore company to Shefir.
Much of Slidstvo.Info’s information is devoted to buying real estate in the UK through offshore companies. In particular, the daughter of former head of the presidential administration Borys Lozhkin and the daughter of former head of the Central Election Commission Serhiy Kivalov, as well as Yaroslavsky, Voronov and Boholiubov are also mentioned. However, Lozhkin denied any violations in this purchase, specifying that he had given a loan to his daughter, which he hopes to return within ten years.
After all, within the Pandora Papers project, over 680 previously anonymous owners of more than 1,500 real estate facilities in the UK were identified, including more than ten Ukrainians.
Culture Minister Tkachenko was mentioned due to the purchase of a stake in Odesa Film Studio, in respect of which he has repeatedly denied accusations of any violations.
In the case of Akhmetov, the material provides information on the rather urgent purchase of a business jet through an offshore company. However, the businessman’s SCM spokesperson noted the absence of any accusations or investigations against any of its companies in the British Virgin Islands.
Hereha, who founded the Epicenter hypermarket chain, also rejected the suspicions put forward in the article of an alleged attitude towards the trade in building materials in Crimea after its occupation by Russia.
