So too are reports of champagne parties livening up the bars and restaurants of Russian-favoured resorts. Stories of local lawyers getting rich overnight are legion. The files were mostly created between the mid-90s and 2022.Ī sign with Russian-language advertising luxury car rentals in Iskele/Trikomo, northern Cyprus. Holding assets in offshore havens such as Cyprus, sometimes via trusts, is not in or of itself illegal, and there are legitimate reasons why some people do it.

Clients of the companies in the leak include Russian oligarchs who are now under sanctions. They total 1.31 terabytes of confidential financial files, amounting to more than 3.6m documents and other records, and originate from six offshore service providers that set up, manage and list shell companies and trusts in Cyprus – as well as a company that sells access to Cypriot company data.Īccess to records from the leak was shared by the ICIJ, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and Paper Trail Media with the Guardian and other media outlets.Ĭyprus, an EU member state, has long served as an important offshore financial centre for wealthy Russians who have favoured the Mediterranean island as a gateway to move their fortunes out of their home country and into Europe. The Cyprus Confidential files are a cache of leaked documents containing emails, banking records, company filings, trust paperwork and compliance reports.

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