While Zurich lawyer Benno Hafner was fending off Offset Alpine investigators, he was helping Russian oligarchs set up offshore funds to hide money
Novitsky’s ownership of Altera, via Evolution Trust in the Cook Islands, was obscured by an “insurance wrapper” – a Swiss company insured his life for $US460 million in an arrangement that made Novitsky’s link to Altera difficult to trace.
But offshore investing became more challenging after Russia helped Crimean separatists secede from Ukraine in March 2014 and the US and the EU began imposing asset freezes on Russian officials.
Altera had assets of $US390 million but the sale price was written down to $US113.8 million because of illiquid assets – and Androsov would only need to pay $US20 million upfront, and he was then paid $US16 million as profit participation. By the time MAS finished the inspection on March 23, they were focused on what Asiaciti called its “Russian cases”. Their report found Asiaciti’s governance practices “poor”, the lowest possible rating, citing what appeared to be circular money flows in the structures, and eventually fined Asiaciti $1.1 million.