Cyprus Used as Safe Haven for Russian Oligarchs, ICIJ Investigation Reveals

Leaked documents expose how 67 Russian billionaires used Cypriot financial firms to hide wealth and evade Western sanctions.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has revealed that Cyprus has been used as a safe haven for Russian oligarchs to hide their wealth and evade Western sanctions.
The investigation, named 'Cyprus Confidential', is based on 3.6 million leaked documents from six Cypriot financial firms, dating from the mid-1990s to April 2022.
The documents reveal that 67 of the 105 Russian billionaires on the 2023 Forbes World’s Billionaires List used financial services firms in Cyprus to obscure their wealth.
The investigation also reveals that Cyprus has been a gateway for dubious financial transactions within the European Union, despite warnings from anti-fraud watchdogs.
The Cypriot economic model, based on a hypertrophied financial sector largely dependent on Russia, is under scrutiny and risks dragging down the whole of the EU.