Russian Oligarchs: What we don’t know about what the rich own
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Undermining Putin’s regime by tracking Russian oligarchs
Since the war in Ukraine started, countries have confiscated millions in Russian oligarchs’ assets. But this is just the tip of the iceberg compared to the millions of euros that they own offshore and that have been crucial in sustaining Putin's regime for decades.
However, there is no real way to find how much money these oligarchs have. The lack of transparency both in and outside of the EU have enabled these obscure strategies that only favour the rich and corrupt.
On March 21, OCCRP launched the Russian Asset Tracker with media outlets that have also helped unveil scandals like the Pandora or the Panama papers. In just a few weeks, the project has already unveiled $17.5 billion in offshore assets. If this has happened in such a short space of time, imagine what we could do to stop fraudsters and corrupt oligarchs if we had an EU-wide system to know who owns what.
MEPs Kira Peter-Hansen and Ernest Urtasun invited some leading experts as guests to discuss the topic of the hidden assets and what we can do in the EU to stop the oligarchies from hiding their wealth offshore. More transparency means fairer taxation and more justice for all.
Programme
- 12:00-12:05 Introductory speech - Kira Peter-Hansen MEP
- 12:05-12:40 Discussion on the Russian Asset Tracker and what can be done at EU level
- 12:40-12:55 Q&A Session
- 12:55-13:00 Concluding remarks - Ernest Urtasun MEP
Moderator:
Ernest Urtasun MEP
Speaker:
- Ilya Lozovsky - Staff writer and senior editor at OCCRP
- Helen Darbishire - Executive Director of Access Info Europe
- Maíra Martini - Research and Policy Expert in Corrupt Money Flows of Transparency International
- Claude Bocqueraz - Deputy head of Unit, FISMA D2 responsible for Anti Money Laundering matters, European Commission
- Panayiotis Nicolaides - Research Director at the EU Tax Observatory
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