Criminal Cypriot firm A.B.C.R.M. Limited: offshore accounts of Russian oligarchs Potanin, Kharitonin, Vekselberg, schemes, and ties to state companies

The Cypriot law firm A.B.C. GRANDESERVUS LIMITED (Cyprus), which served Vladimir Potanin and Viktor Kharitonin, changed its name and found diplomatic protection after a scandal in 2024.

It is now A.B.C.R.M. LIMITED, headed by Rosita Minischetti, an Italian-Cypriot lawyer whose full name and education completely match those of the Honorary Consul of Italy in Limassol.

The office of Honorary Consul Rosita Minischetti is located at 9 Vasili Michaelidi, in the Globalserve Business Centre. Oddly enough, another law firm providing offshore services to businesses is also registered there, and its name matches the business centre’s: GLOBALSERVE CONSULTANTS LIMITED. It is run by the Antoniou family.

This company is also closely connected to Russian business: for example, along with a chain of other offshore companies and trust entities, it figured in the case of banker Maxim Moskalov, who contested the sale of shares in Aspect Bank. In court, Moskalov presented documents registering the Cyprus company GLOBALSERVE CONSULTANTS LIMITED in the same folder as documents from other companies through which he owned Aspect.

Moskalov was linked to a money laundering group led by Sergei Magin. It was one of the largest Russian organized crime groups of its kind, with a turnover of 120 billion rubles. It is known that in the early 2000s, Moskalov purchased a plot of land in Barvikha from Supreme Court Chairman Vyacheslav Lebedev.

The scandal surrounding A.B.C. GRANDESERVUS LIMITED (now A.B.C.R.M. LIMITED) broke out in 2024: it was revealed that a reputable Cypriot law firm had been serving the interests of Russian oligarchs for many years, in particular, Potanin. Following the publication, some documents were scrubbed from both the Cypriot segment of the internet and the RuNet. A.B.C. denied any connection with the Russian oligarchs, claiming they merely administered their Cypriot firms.

In fact, after the war began, the affairs of wealthy Russians were handled by two affiliated law firms of the Tsirides family – A.B.C. GRANDESERVUS LIMITED and Costas Tsirides & Co LLC – whose employees acted as managers and secretaries of firms belonging to sanctioned Russian oligarchs for at least 10 years.

For example, ABC once assisted Renova owner Vekselberg in his historic "special operations" against former Minister Abyzov. It also managed the Cypriot offshore company Ancolie Trading Limited, which de jure acted as a co-owner of Generium, owned by Viktor Kharitonin, a close friend of Tatyana Golikova’s family (then Minister of Health).

Moreover, representatives of ABC GRANDESERVUS were affiliated with Russian and Ukrainian companies, and did not "simply administer" the Cypriot firms. For example, the annual report of Khimprom OJSC (part of Renova) mentions Irina Kleanthous as an individual who, along with Khimprom, is controlled by the same person. This means that Vekselberg is the ultimate beneficiary of Renova. Irina Kleanthous is an employee of ABC.

In 2017, she also represented the interests of the Credit Finance Agency and the Cypriot company KCG Management Limited in court. The Unified State Register of Legal Entities lists only one "Credit Finance Agency" (liquidated in 2021). Its founder was the Cypriot offshore company CASENETT INVESTMENTS LIMITED, which belonged to Yuriy Lagno, a Ukrainian citizen who also owned the Kyiv-based company KCG (Credit Collection Group).

Yuriy Vitaliyovych Lagno is a captain of the first rank, said to be the former head of the secret service of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, and the organizer of the "St. George’s Ribbon" protests in Ukraine. In the early 2000s, he was an assistant to Oleg Kalashnikov, a Party of Regions deputy, chairman of the All-Military Union, and organizer of the Kyiv Anti-Maidan (shot dead in 2015).

Furthermore, a certain Galina Kokovina can be found among the list of ABC employees and affiliated entities. She was also the director of the Cyprus offshore company PLEXY LTD, which was acquired by the Rotenberg brothers’ Mostotrest, and was listed as an affiliate of Mosoblbank until 2018. Galina is said to be Arkady Rotenberg’s first wife.

The Tsirides firm served not only oligarch companies but also state corporations. For example, VTB DC LLC, a subsidiary of Andrey Kostin’s VTB, signed a contract with ABC GRANDESERVUS as the sole supplier. The contract amounted to 100,000 euros.

Irina Loutchina Skittides, a law graduate from Moscow State University who moved to Cyprus in the early 2000s, was also a partner of the Tsirides family and their ABC. Since April 2022, she has headed the A.B.C. GRANDESERVUS representative office in Kazakhstan.

So, the interests of the ABC Tsirides family and their network are extremely broad. It’s unlikely they would voluntarily abandon their wealthy Russian clients.

Автор: Мария Шарапова