The Anti-Corruption Foundation is launching a campaign for transparency of the legal entities' beneficiary registers. Such registers allow finding out the real owner of a company, even if they are hidden behind a long chain of firms. This information has formed the basis of many anti-corruption investigations and allows us to name specific corrupt officials who support the war in Ukraine while laundering stolen money in Europe.
Back in 2018, European countries opened up access to beneficiary registries to everyone. These rules also applied to the Republic of Cyprus, where Russian oligarchs and officials often siphon off their money.
However, in November 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that free access to this data violated the right to privacy. The court ruled that only those with a proven "legitimate interest" to do so can obtain information about beneficiaries. Most European countries left the registries open, but some, including Cyprus, rushed to close them.
The court's ruling explicitly states that the press and public organizations that work on preventing money laundering and terrorist financing do have a legitimate interest in accessing the registries. However, after three months, Cyprus is yet to establish a procedure for journalists to gain access to this information.
We made a request to the Cyprus register about the beneficiary of a particular company, explaining the nature of our activities. We explained that we were ready to provide all the relevant information confirming our legitimate interest. However, the response we received was that the Cyprus registry does not stipulate any procedure for granting access to such information to non-profit organizations. In essence, the register became closed to civil society, thus encouraging corrupt Russian officials and businessmen to exploit the country for their own interests.
Investigating illicit enrichment and money laundering has always been an important part of the Anti-Corruption Foundation's work. We know from the experience of our own investigations that behind every corruption crime there are specific people with specific names, bank account numbers and companies in offshore jurisdictions. Every corrupt individual must be named and exposed.
To achieve this, we will push countries that close their beneficiary registers to establish procedures for journalists and civil society representatives to access them. We are starting with Cyprus as it is the jurisdiction favored by Russian kleptocrats. For this purpose, we have filed a complaint to the Ministry of Energy, Trade and Industry of the Republic of Cyprus, which is in charge of the beneficiary register. We are also considering the possibility of challenging the register's refusal to provide us with the requested information in court. We are convinced that the Government of the Republic of Cyprus should remove obstacles for journalists and public organizations to access the beneficiary register, as required by the decision of the European Court of Justice.