The Moldovan NGO “PARTICIP”, with the support of the International Consortium for Investigative Journalism (ICIJ), made public desecretized information about Transnistrian businessmen who own offshore companies on the British Virgin Islands, IPN reports, quoting an article published by the newspaper “Panorama” in its June 14 issue.
According to the Center for Transparency and Civic Participation “PARTICIP”, which obtained the information from the transnational program OffshoreLeaks, the founders of the Transnistrian holding “Sheriff” - Victor Gusan and Ilia Kazmaly – became shareholders of offshore companies from the Caribbean for the first time in 2004.
“The documents of OffshoreLeaks show that Gusan and Kazmaly created four offshore companies on the Virgin Islands in 2004. Until then, none of them owned companies in the tax paradise of the Caribbean,” say the authors of the article.
In 2004, the first offshore company of the Transnistrian businessmen on the Virgin Islands was “Vanora Financial Ltd”. In several days from the debut in the Caribbean Sea, on April 20, 2004 Gusan and Kazmaly became co-founders of “Civilpark Limited”. In another three days, they founded two more companies in this area – “Finacial Ltd” and “Orion Intervest Ltd”.
During the next years, some of these offshore companies were among the suppliers of products for Transnistrian shop chains. These firms were registered through the agency of “Commonwealth Trust Limited”, which was often accused of breaking the legislation on money laundering.
“The authorities of many states admit that the taking out of capital from the national economy in the near future can create serious problems as regards the government’s capacity to ensure social safety. It is evident that owing to such international databases as OffshoreLeaks, the journalists have new possibilities of obtaining and analyzing information of public interest. According to the colleagues from “PARTICIP”, even Moldovan politicians ‘hide’ in the offshore areas of the Virgin Islands,” the editor-in-chief of “Panorama” Vladimir Thoric has told IPN’s reporter.
According to him, the publication of information about Moldovans with offshore property can give answers to many questions regarding the raider attacks of the last few years.
