Ukraine

Cypriot corporate service provider MeritServus helped Konstantin Malofeev, an oligarch sanctioned for his support of Russian-backed separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, transfer debt worth tens of millions of dollars even after he was blacklisted, leaked documents show.

Their companies are under investigation for arranging fictitious marriages, falsifying documents to smuggle babies out of Ukraine, and trading children for profit.

Italian far-right politicians and businessmen accepted sponsored trips to Crimea arranged by a Russian influence group, effectively recognizing Moscow’s occupation of the Ukrainian region as legitimate.

The G20 leaders who convened in Bali earlier this week agreed on a number of points including condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, addressing food insecurity and adopting measures to mitigate the climate crisis but not on how to fight kleptocracy and transnational corruption, Transparency International’ told OCCRP on Wednesday.

According to the latest tabulations, the U.K. has now frozen over £18 billion (US$21.2 billion) in assets belonging to Russian businesses and oligarchs in response to the Kremlin’s ongoing war against Ukraine.