A favourite of Russia and other post-Soviet countries, offshore accounts and companies have hidden the dealings by these businessmen, entrepreneurs and oligarchs

These ownership details are being published in the interests of transparency. It is not suggested that the setting-up of such offshore companies was in itself illegal
Evgeny Tikhonov

• Company: T Capital

• The London-based Shell trader hid $2.4m (£1.5m) commissions offshore in a Russian fuel deal. A Latvian, he was hired by Shell for £120,000 a year plus bonus to obtain Russian fuel supplies. Tikhonov allegedly overcharged freight costs and skimmed off the proceeds to his British Virgin Islands entity with its Swiss bank account. He had another offshore account with HSBC in Jersey, used to buy a €800,000 (£645,000) flat in Riga.

Shell had a UK high court judgment against him in 2009 for "dishonest" behaviour, by which time the BVI company account had been emptied. He was acquitted, however, of criminal charges over this.

• Company formation: Phil Burwell in Dublin, acting for Latvian affiliate, IOS, with a nominee director in Riga, Eriks Vanagels.

• Shell sources confirm that the high court judgment stands and some cash has been recovered.

Dimitry Sergeev

• Salazar Multimedia

• The Russian mobile phone games entrepreneur allegedly avoided litigation over some unpaid UK invoices. The Manchester phone games firm Mforma/Connect2Media claimed Sergeev's firm owed it $42,000 for a distribution contract. The firm was set up in 2004 with nominee Cypriot directors. They were replaced in February 2010 by nominee directors for Bonical Corp, registered in the Seychelles.

• Company formation: Appleton Company Services, of Hammersmith, London.

• Sergeev has not responded to requests for a comment. An Mforma source said: "We decided at the time it was too difficult to bring a legal action in the BVI."

Sean Quinn

• Soverint Holdings; Lyndhurst Development

• The bankrupt Irishman is alleged to use offshore entities to hide Russian activities and profits. The Quinn family, once lionised as "Ireland's richest", are being pursued after the collapse of the Allied Irish Bank, for alleged debts to the bank of more than £2bn. This follows a buying spree of Russian property, which began in 2007, including shopping malls in Moscow and Kiev bought via offshore companies. Since Quinn's bankruptcy, Irish courts have declared that assets have been shuffled away into other offshore companies in a dishonest "charade". As a result, Quinn is currently serving a nine-week prison sentence imposed by a Dublin court for contempt.

• Company formation: Unitrust, London and Canada.

• Quinn denies any wrongdoing.

Vladimir Antonov

• Danforth Ventures Inc; Paterson Association Inc; Griffon Properties [Jersey]; ... and others

• This major Russian oligarch and one-time Portsmouth FC owner is fighting extradition from London, following collapse of a Lithuanian bank and assassination attempts. The Danforth entity was used to buy a superyacht in 2007 in Antibes in the south of France. The 37-year-old Antonov also allegedly used offshore entities to hide property holdings. He moved to Notting Hill in west London after his father narrowly survived an assassination attempt in Moscow by Chechen hitmen. Antonov is now accused of looting the assets of the Snoras bank in Lithuania, which is trying to have him extradited on a European arrest warrant. Assets worth €492m (£397m) have been frozen. As director, he used his business associate Vladimir Oplanchuk, then nominee director Edward Petre-Mears in Nevis.

• Company formation: Unitrust, London and Canada

• Antonov's lawyers say the allegations are politically motivated, following articles criticising the government published by an Antonov media company.

Mukhtar Ablyazov
•

Roverfield Europe Corp; Forrell Real Estate Inc; Lafe Technology [Seychelles]; Mount Properties; Bensbourogh [sic] Trading

• This fugitive Kazakh banker is being sued for £4bn. Ablyazov fled Kazakhstan, obtained asylum in the UK, and allegedly fled the UK in turn on a coach to France, receiving a 22-month jail sentence for contempt of court for lying about his vast fortune, should he ever return. According to lawsuits by the crippled BTA Bank in Kazakhstan, he looted them of £4bn. He bought UK property in 2007 through BVI offshore vehicles, not only avoiding stamp duty, but allegedly using a Latvian nominee director, Eriks Vanagels, signing a power of attorney to his brother-in-law Syrym Shalabayev, posing in turn as the nominal beneficial owner. UK purchases included a Hampstead mansion in Bishops Avenue, a flat at Albert Court, London NW1 and a 40-hectare country estate, Oaklands Park near Windsor.

• Company formation: GWM (Global Wealth Management), Russia

• Ablyazov denies wrongdoing and says he was trying to protect assets from raids by the Kazakh president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, and his cronies.

Igor Tsukanov

• CentreInvest Capital Partners; Enid Investments; Dakoro; Boulivot Invetments; Peritas Holdings; Floros

• Tsukanov is a prominent Russian fund manager with offshore holdings. The founder of CentreInvest Group, he partially sold out in 2007 to Gleb Fetisov, owner of My Bank, Moscow, and bought a £5m Notting Hill house. The exit deal with Fetisov left him in charge of the BVI entity CentreInvest Capital Partners Inc. He held interests in Russian poultry farm, Enid Investments Ltd, incoporated in the BVI, 2007.

• Company formation: Hill Consulting, Moscow

• No response.

Eugene Jaffe

• Montana River Trust; Salford Capital Partners Inc

• The BVI entity Salford, with disguised ownership, managed £750m of investments in Georgia and Serbia for the Georgian oligarch Badri Patarkatsishvili. Jaffe originally worked in the Russian finance ministry, but acquired US nationality and a luxury central London flat in Hyde Park Gate. He managed Patarkatsishvili's investments, including a bank in Georgia, from an office in St James's Square. Patarkatsishvili was a partner of Boris Berezovsky and fled to London as Berezovsky did. He was said to be worth $12bn (£7.5bn), and suddenly died in 2008, aged 52, at Downside Manor, Leatherhead, the Surrey mansion where he was in exile. Until Patarkatsishvili's death, Jaffe kept his own assets at Salford Capital Partners hidden in a BVI trust called Montana, set up 2003 – of which 40% was for Jaffe and his son, and the other 60% for the benefit of various business employees.

• Company formation: London lawyers Salans

• No response

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