Four global banks suspect former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko of using offshore companies to conduct allegedly fraudulent financial transactions amounting to $65 million, the Slidstvo.Info investigative journalism agency reported based upon documents leaked through the FinCEN Files.
The FinCEN Files are a leak of confidential suspicious activity reports (SARs) filed by banks to the U.S. Treasury Department’s intelligence unit, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN.
According to these SARs, then-President Poroshenko may have been involved in the creation of offshore companies and failed to openly report this in his income and asset declarations, Slidstvo.Info wrote.
The press service of Poroshenko’s European Solidarity party responded to Slidstvo that “Poroshenko doesn’t personally own any offshore companies, especially the ones you allege he owns.”
According to Slidstvo.Info, some of these offshore companies have been under scrutiny by Ukrainian law enforcement for several years since 2015.
Poroshenko is among a number of top-level Ukrainian politicians and oligarchs exposed by the FinCEN Files for alleged financial misconduct.
Forbes estimates that Poroshenko’s net worth now stands at $1.4 billion, almost twice as much as he had at the beginning of his presidency in 2014.
The FinCEN Files are not the first documents’ leak that points to Poroshenko’s suspicious business dealings.
In 2017, the Panama Papers revealed that the then-president had created a number of shell companies in Cyprus, the Netherlands and the British Virgin Islands when restructuring his Roshen confectionery company. Then, the Paradise Papers investigation added to the suspicions that Poroshenko was offshoring his assets to avoid taxes.
Poroshenko has always denied allegations of tax avoidance.
Bogus owner
Genesis Local Ventures LP (GLP) is one of the companies mentioned in the FinCEN Files that is allegedly linked to Poroshenko.
It was Deutsche Bank that filed a report to alert FinCEN about a possible connection between the British offshore company and Ukraine’s president. The bank reported that around $60 million went through GLP in 2016-2017. The bank later closed the company’s accounts due to a lack of transparency.
In the British business registry, Companies House, GLP is registered to Taras Tarasovych, a Ukrainian taxi driver from Zakarpattia Oblast, Slidstvo.Info discovered.
According to the media outlet, in 2016, Tarasovych accepted the offer to become a bogus owner of four offshore companies — including GLP — for money. He was paid Hr 5,000 ($200) monthly for two years, according to him.
In 2018, Ukrainian law enforcers summoned Tarasovych for questioning about his offshore business.
The Prosecutor General’s Office has been investigating the case involving GLP since late 2017. It has found that a group of yet unidentified people used 45 offshore companies based overseas in a grain export scheme. The investigation, however, has not succeeded in naming the real owners of GLP.
The company was dissolved a week before the end of Poroshenko’s presidency in 2019.
Sweet millions
According to Slidstvo, one bank reported to FinCen that Poroshenko opened new companies during his presidency and failed to disclose this in his declaration, which is illegal.
This suspicious activity report alleged that his Roshen company received a payment amounting $1.8 million to its account in the International Investment Bank, which Poroshenko also owns. The money was sent by Goldwest Investment, a British offshore company.
Goldwest Investment was registered in 2014 as a company that sells sweets and provides transportation services. Goldwest Investment only declared real income at the end of 2016, reporting transactions amounting $8.6 million and $240,000 in net profit.
A bank flagged the Goldwest Investment transactions as suspicious.
Another suspicious activity report that mentions Poroshenko was filed by Bank of New York Mellon. The financial institution put together the report after checking correspondent accounts of Estonian Versobank.
According to the report, Roshen received $145,000 from Furoleks Services LP with its account in Versobank in 2016.
Furoleks Services LP was another British offshore company. During two months in 2016, it transferred $23 million.
Panama Papers connection
Some companies that the global banks linked to Poroshenko were previously mentioned in the Panama Papers, an unprecedented data leak of the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca.
According to Standard Chartered Bank’s report to FinCEN, Poroshenko owns Intraco Management and has ties to Linquist Services Limited. In 2013, the latter company transferred $30,000 in money that raised suspicions in Standard Chartered. The bank believes that Poroshenko used this company for receiving loans from banks.
These corporate relationships also appear in the Panama Papers. In 2010, Raiffeisen Bank transferred $115 million to Roshen as a loan, which was secured by Linquist Services Limited.
Poroshenko used secured assets of Linquist Services Limited and his “power over Raiffeisen (bank)” for receiving loans for his confectionery company Roshen, Slidstvo.info reported, citing Standard Chartered’s suspicious activity report filed to FinCEN.
Standard Chartered alerted FinCEN of suspicious activities by another company linked to Poroshenko, Intraco Management.
According to the bank’s report, from January 2013 to September 2014, the company transferred $5.4 million.
In a year, the Financial Investigation Agency of the British Virgin Islands launched an investigation of alleged money laundering involving Intraco Management. Detectives were trying to find out who was behind this company.
As of 2015, Ukrainian law enforcement was aware of the alleged fraud and the links Intraco Management had to Poroshenko, but decided against opening a case, according to Slidstvo.Info.
Roshen told the media outlet that the company had nothing to do with the offshore businesses in question.
“Roshen has no information as to who owns these companies,” it said.
However, Roshen acknowledged that it had had some business relations with them.
“Goldwest Investment and Furoleks Services LP paid for confectioneries, such as chocolate and jelly candies, caramel, chocolate, cookies, etc. that were exported to Turkmenistan and Algeria,” the company added.
