Journalists of Schemy (Schemes) investigative project revealed that Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko has been using the offshore companies for over 15 years.
This shows that the Prime Assets Limited, registered in Cyprus at Poroshenko’s name, which became known thanks to a massive leak of the financial document, the Panama Papers, wasn’t a rare exception for Poroshenko’s business. Poroshenko claimed he registered an offshore in Cyprus just to sell his confectionary business, a promise he made before being elected the president.
But the findings show Poroshenko that was using the offshores over years of his political and business career. “The offshore companies are the integral part of Poroshenko’s business,” the journalists of Skhemy said.
These companies were even probed by the Ukrainian police looking into massive tax evasion. The journalists reported about a criminal probe opened in 2003 regarding Poroshenko’s offshore businesses. Police detectives suspected these firms of tax evasion in some Hr 25 million thanks to using the offshores; the investigatio was closed in autumn 2004.
Poroshenko’s press service could not be immediately reached for comment and there was no response to the Skhemy program on the official presidential website.
The journalists found that back in 1998, when Porohsenko was elected in parliament for the first time, the company Agroprodimpex Corp in Delaware, the United States, was registered as one of the co-founders of his Ukrprominvest Corporation.
In 2003, when Poroshenko was the head of the budget committee in parliament, his Ukrprominvest received another co-founder — Agropromimpex Cyprus Limited, registered in Cyprus, and Panama-based Ukrprominvest Holding Limited.
In 2012, when Poroshenko worked as a minister of economy in times of his predecessor Viktor Yanukovych, the two other offshore companies, registered at the Isle of Man, were added to his corporation Ukrprominvest. They were Fairbrook Enterprises Limited and Willenhall Trading Limited.
Agropromimpex Cyprus Limited is still functioning, the journalists found. In a registry of the Ukrainian companies, this offshore firm is mentioned as a co-founder of Krokhmalproduct, which is linked to Poroshenko’s Prime Assets Capital company.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be found at [email protected]
