Days Before EU Sanctions, Belarusian Oligarch’s Family Sells its Firm and Bank
Days before the European Union imposed sanctions on Belarusian oligarch Aliaksei Aleksin over his links to Alexander Lukashenko’s regime, his family sold its Cyprus-based company along with a bank to a Lebanese businessman, this way saving both entities from the sanctions-related asset freeze.
Aleksin was among dozens of Belarusian tycoons and officials
hit by sanctions in response to the grounding of a Ryanair plane flying from
Greece to Lithuania. Once the plane was diverted to Minsk, Belarusian
authorities arrested a dissident journalist and his girlfriend who were on
board.
The Aleksin family sold MTB Investments Holdings, the
Cyprus-based company that according to a press release held “more than 99%” of
MTBank on June 16. The EU announced its sanctions five days later.
According to its annual report for 2019, the Cyprus company
held assets worth 61.81 million euro (US$73.35 million). After the change in
ownership, it will most likely avoid the asset freeze.
In a short telephone interview Aleksin told OCCRP that the
sale was not related to the sanctions and it was “planned a long time ago.”
The new owner of MTB Investments Holdings is Stoneva
Limited, a company based in Dubai, a jurisdiction which has attracted
significant Belarusian capital. According to MTBank’s official statement,
Stoneva Limited belongs to Abdo Romeo Abdo,
a Lebanese businessman who is the owner and director of BNK-Engineering
and BNK-Holding, businesses with a major presence in Belarus.
In 2007, Romeo Abdo joined forces with Nepalese investors
and has done several construction projects in Belarus, including a shopping
center and business centers - Rubin Plaza and Silver Tower.
Their BNK-Holding also built a water park, the Hyatt Regency
Hotel and several large residential areas in Minsk. The total value of the
group’s projects in real estate in Belarus is estimated at $1 billion.
Some Belarusian media suggested that Romeo Abdo might be
affiliated with two more sanctioned individuals - Aliaksandr Shakutsin and
Mikalai Varabei. He was also mentioned in a major money laundering scandal in
Nepal.
In its statement released two days after the EU blacklisted
Aleksin, MTBank stated that the sale was the “result of more than a year of
work in search of a potential investor.”
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