Editor’s Note: This investigation was published on Oct. 3, 2021, by the Organized Crime & Corruption Reporting Project, a Kyiv Post partner.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rode to power on pledges to clean up the Eastern European country, but the Pandora Papers reveal he and his close circle were the beneficiaries of a network of offshore companies, including some that owned expensive London property.
Key findings:
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his partners in comedy production owned a network of offshore companies related to their business based in the British Virgin Islands, Cyprus, and Belize.
- Zelensky’s current chief aide, Serhiy Shefir, as well as the head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Ivan Bakanov, were part of the offshore network.
- Offshore companies were used by Shefir and another business partner to buy pricey London real estate.
- Around the time of his 2019 election, Zelensky handed his shares in a key offshore company over to Shefir, but the two appear to have made an arrangement for Zelensky’s family to continue receiving money from the offshore.
