SCM transfers ownership of One Hyde Park property to Akhmetov

Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man, made the decision to
transfer the three-story apartment at the London complex from the company to
personal ownership last week, according to a SCM statement released on April
30.

Akhmetov’s SCM is a holding company that owns and
controls assets in an array of sectors, including steel and mining company
Metinvest and energy firm DTEK, among others.

The apartment – the most expensive in the One Hyde
Park development – was bought for $217 million in 2007 by British Virgin
Islands-registered Water Property Holdings, a subsidiary of SCM, according to
the Financial Times. SCM’s April 30 statement called the original purchase a
portfolio investment.

Last year Akhmetov’s spokesperson, Olena Dovzhenko,
told the Kyiv Post that Water Property Holdings paid $8.7 million in government
duties to the British government when it purchased the property and added that
“if Akhmetov’s family decides to move and live in the One Hyde Park complex,
Mr. Akhmetov will finance this move from his own pocket.”

It appears the oligarch kept his promise, as SCM
stressed that all taxes and charges in connection with the acquisition of the
property were paid as required by applicable laws and that Akhmetov had paid
all the costs associated with the re-registration and maintenance of the
property out of personal funds.

Apartments in One Hyde Park are owned by the global
elite. Besides Akhmetov, there are Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim
bin Jaber Al Thani, oil baroness Folorunsho
Alakija and Russian real estate tycoon Vladislav Doronin, to name a few.
Prices of apartments in the complex range from about $5 million to $217 million.

In a joint report published last November, The
Guardian newspaper and the International Consortium of Investigative
Journalists called the One Hyde Park complex, which occupies a single city
block in central London, “the most blatant case of British Virgin Islands
secrecy in Britain.”

Most One Hyde Park apartment owners are registered in
offshore jurisdictions notorious for their secrecy, such as Liechtenstein, St.
Vincent and Liberia. A majority are registered in the British Virgin Islands,
according to the ICIJ.

One owner turned out to be bankrupt Irish property developer Ray Grehan, who was identified during an
investigation and accused of attempting to cheat his creditors. Grehan
maintains the apartment is owned by a family trust and is not his. The Irish
bank Nama is going after him in court.

In a story published in Vanity Fair in April, offshore
expert Nicholas Shaxson wrote of One Hyde Park: “We can conclude at least two
things with certainty about the tenants of One Hyde Park. They are extremely
wealthy, and most of them don’t want you to know who they are and how they got
their money.”

Kyiv Post staff writer Christopher J. Miller can be
reached at [email protected], or on Twitter
at @ChristopherJM.