Cyprus Confidential: At the height of the war, Russian oligarchs laundered millions through a Bulgarian company

A month after Russia launched its aggression against Ukraine and international sanctions rained down on the Kremlin regime, an offshore company of two Russian oligarchs – Alexander Abramov and Alexander Frolov, has bought a small Bulgarian company for 5.5 million euros: The only asset of the Bulgarian company is a plot of land on the island of Mykonos, Greece, which is valued at 600 € per sq.m. or five times more expensive than market prices. Before the deal, the Bulgarian company was owned by the same Russians, but through another offshore company and dummies.

The evidence comes from the documents of the international journalistic investigation “Cyprus Confidential”. The investigation by ICIJ and 68 media partners from around the world reveals how foreign capital has flowed to the small European country and fueled the booming financial secrets industry. Cyprus’ role in trafficking Russian wealth and circumventing sanctions is particularly important.

Industrial tycoons of great importance to Putin

Russian billionaires Alexander Abramov and Alexander Frolov are considered close to Roman Abramovich.
The origin of their wealth is the industrial empire Evraz, a steel producer and mining giant that produces 97% of the metal for Russia’s railway infrastructure.
Abramov and Frolov put their money into a global investment portfolio controlled through an opaque network of offshore companies.

Both were on the UK sanctions list. on November 2, 2022, because of “their participation in sectors that are of great importance to Putin’s war machine.” They are also on the sanctions lists of Ukraine, Australia and New Zealand. So far, Frolov and Abramov have not been subject to US or European sanctions.

A few months before they were awarded British sanctions and immediately after the start of the war, Abramov and Frolov began moving their assets with the help of PwC Cyprus.

The Cyprus Confidential investigation found that the local branch of the global audit firm provided services to 55 (out of 71) Cypriot firms and 5 (out of 7) Cypriot trusts controlled or owned by Abramov and Frolov, as well as two firms based in the British Virgin Islands.

Two of these companies, Nabile Company LTD and Grayalfa Holdings LTD , are linked to Bulgaria and 5.5 million euros have been laundered through them, according to the documenst seen by reporters.

Investors from Petrich in Mykonos

The company “DRD Invest” Ltd. was registered in September 2018 by Radoslav Trendov, owner of an accounting firm in Petrich on 11 Tsarigradsko shose Str. Liberty 3.
He paid the authorized capital of BGN 585,000. On March 12, 2019, the company was sold for the same amount to Dimitrios Kosmas Fintirikos. A few days later, “DRD Invest” was renamed to “FLF Invest“.

Fintirikos is a Greek citizen residing in Petrich.
His name is found in dozens of Bulgarian companies, with an address for correspondence on Tsarigradsko shose Str. Freedom 3 in Petrich.

On April 5, 2019, FLF Invest acquired two plots on the greek Mykonos Island with a total area of 9,204 square meters. 8.153 and No. 8.154. On April 12, Fintirikos raised the company’s capital, which became BGN 1,085,000.

BIRD does not have the title deed from which to see the price of the properties.
However, fixed assets worth BGN 1,025,000 appear in the company’s annual financial statements for 2019, and FLF Invest has not acquired other properties in Bulgaria.

On October 22, 2021, the Cypriot company Nabile Company Ltd.
acquired 45% of the shares in FLF Invest for EUR 380,500.
Nabile’s proxy for this deal was Georgi Trendov, a relative of Radoslav Trendov.

On March 24, 2022, exactly a month after the start of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, Dimitrios Fintirikos and Nabile Company Ltd.
sell their shares to Cypriot firm Grayalfa Holdings Ltd.
for EUR 5 500 000.
Fintirikos and Nabile have authorized with PoA Hristo Trendov, and Grayalfa uses the services of lawyers from the Bulgarian law firm Boyanov & Co.

After Grayalfa became 100% owner of the company “FLF Invest“, the obligation to declare its beneficial owner to the Bulgarian Registry Agency arose. Such an application has not been submitted by the Bulgarian lawyers so far. Meanwhile, the headquarters of FLF Invest was transfered from Petrich to the address of Boyanov & Co. in Sofia.

From the Cyprus Confidential documents, Grayalfa’s ownership is traced back to Abramov and Frolov through other Cypriot companies: Amicross Ltd and its shareholders AmanCo and Belgador. Nabile Company Ltd.
it is also owned by Abramov and Frolov.
So it turns out that the Russians have partially bought “FLF Invest” from themselves.

Five times more expensive property

From the facts known so far, it can be concluded that the Greek citizen from Petrich Dimitrios Fintirikos has made a very good deal with the two properties on Mykonos Island, Greece, by selling them to Russian oligarchs.

However, this would be true if the money for the acquisition of the properties were his.
It is very likely that Fintirikos is only a strawman for the deal, as Abramov and Frolov own a luxury complex on Mykonos Island, part of which are the properties in question.

Currently, in specialized real estate sites in Greece can be found similar plots at a price of up to 120 euros per square meter, or five times less than the price at which the offshore company of Abramov and Frolov has acquired the Bulgarian company with its two properties.

This indicates that the acquisition of FLF Invest by a company of the Russians is not a normal economic transaction, but rather a money laundering operation carried out with the kind assistance of Bulgarian and Greek intermediaries and proxies.

BIRD contacted the accounting company in Petrich by phone, but Radoslav Trendov was not in his office. We asked for feedback from him, which did not take place until the editorial end of the article. We were able to contact lawyer. Yordan Naydenov from Boyanov & Co., who explained that at the time of the deal, Frolov and Abramov were not under sanctions. He insisted that the law firm would not work with them if they were sanctioned. Naydenov also announced that Boyanov & Co has duly notified Grayalfa of the requirement to declare the beneficial owners, but the Cypriot company has not yet complied with this. The lawyer agreed that it was unpleasant that the company owned by Frolov and Abramov was registered at the address of the law firm, something that could not be changed quickly.

The global investigation “Confidential from Cyprus” is based on more than 3.6 million documents leaking from six different Cypriot service providers, as well as one firm from Latvia. BIRD is the Bulgarian partner in the investigation, which involves over 270 journalists from 68 media partners around the world. The Cypriot firms whose data leaked are DJC Accountants, ConnectedSky, Cypcodirect, MeritServus, MeritKapital and Kallias and Associates.
Additional data comes from a Latvian company, Dataset SIA, which sells documents from the Cypriot company register through a website called i-Cyprus. MeritServus and MeritKapital data were shared with OCCRP, ICIJ and other media outlets from the Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoS). ICIJ also shared the leaked recordings from Cypcodirect, ConnectedSky, i-Cyprus and Kallias and Associates, which were obtained from Paper Trail Media.

Leading photo: Alexander Abramov and Alexander Frolov, screenshot from the Commercial Register | Composition: ICIJ, BIRD

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