Of those companies, 95 could be traced

Bank documents portray Cyprus as Russia’s favorite haven

NICOSIA (Reuters) When the Cyprus bank run began earlier this year, Russians set much of the pace. Documents moncler online store seen by Reuters show that as the Mediterranean island headed towards financial meltdown in March, most notable among companies transferring money from the country two main banks were Russians and East Europeans.

Anti Troika protesters hold a “Hands off Cyprus” banner during a demonstration outside the EU offices in Nicosia in this March 24, 2013 file picture. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis/Files

At moncler outlet store least 3.6 billion euros ($4.67 billion) was removed moncler outlet sale in two weeks by big depositors, according to the documents. Though many companies listed initially appear obscure, a Reuters analysis shows a significant proportion are vehicles for foreign investors more at home in Moscow or Kiev than Nicosia.

The lists give an insight into the March crisis and how the tax haven, with a population of just 1.1 million, had amassed bank deposits that peaked at 72 billion euros more than four times the island GDP.

Prepared in April by private sector lenders moncler outlet Bank of Cyprus and Laiki Bank, and passed to lawmakers by the island central bank, the documents list 5,323 transactions, most previously undisclosed. They detail transfers of 100,000 euros or more from Bank of Cyprus and Laiki Bank moncler outlet woodbury in the two weeks before Cyprus closed its banks on March 16 as it desperately negotiated an international rescue.

Reuters analyzed 129 companies that each transferred 5 million euros or more over the two week period, collectively accounting for 1.9 billion euros. Of those companies, 95 could be traced.

Out of that group, 34 have links to Russia, five have links to Ukraine and two to Kazakhstan. The remainder comprise companies from Cyprus and other countries including tax havens such moncler sale outlet as the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands and the Dutch Antilles. By value, more than half the moncler usa transactions were made in dollars.

list verifies as well founded Cyprus reputation as an offshore economy used cheap moncler jackets womens as a conduit for people, particularly Russians, to hold large sums of money, often to avoid paying tax and without too much scrutiny, said Michael McIntyre, professor of law and a tax expert at Wayne State cheap moncler coats mens University in the United States.

While the transfers appear mostly related to moving money out of Cyprus, Reuters could not establish where the funds went. It is possible some transfers were between banks within Cyprus.

Deposits that did flow best moncler jackets out of the country had to be funded by emergency liquidity assistance from the European Central Bank, according to analysts. In effect, the ECB was paying for depositors, many of them Russian, to remove money from Cyprus before those depositors could be compelled to contribute to the international rescue of the island.

BIGGEST TRANSFER As debts threatened to overwhelm Cyprus early this year, money began to flow out of the country in fluctuating cheap moncler sale amounts. In January 1.7 billion euros left the island and a further 900 million in February, according to Central Bank of Cyprus figures.

The run accelerated in March as Cyprus found it had few moncler sale online friends among international institutions suffering bail out moncler outlet online fatigue. Many of the biggest transfers were by firms linked to Russia.

One of the largest was moncler sale listed under the name of UCP Industrial Holdings, which is recorded as moving 80.2 million euros out of the Bank of Cyprus on March 7. UCP Industrial Holdings is part of United Capital Partners, a $3.5 billion Russian investment firm led by Ilya Sherbovich, a former head of investment at Deutsche Bank Russia and now a board director of the oil giant Rosneft.

Sherbovich, whose UCP fund recently acquired a stake in VKontakte, a fast growing social network known as the Facebook told Reuters: group has several dozen legal entities, and some of them have accounts at Bank of Cyprus, but we don use those as primary accounts.

A Laiki Bank manager tries to calm depositors waiting for the opening of the bank’s branch in Nicosia in this March 28, 2013 file picture. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis/Files

serious who works on financial markets wouldn have left any significant amounts in the moncler womens jackets Cyprus banks. Very simple reason: Look at the share price chart of the Bank of Cyprus. It went to zero many months before the freeze happened.

He could not confirm the transaction listed in the Cypriot documents and said his companies did not keep big deposits in Cyprus. A spokeswoman for UCP said the transaction be cheap moncler jackets a mistake or incorrect information

On March 16, the Cyprus government shut banks amid discussions over imposing losses on depositors as the price for an international rescue. On the day before, a company called Trellas Enterprises moved 2 billion roubles ($63.85 million) out of Bank of Cyprus. Trellas Enterprises is majority owned by Maxim Nogotkov, an entrepreneur who controls Svyaznoy, one of moncler outlet prices the biggest retailers of cell phones in Russia. Nogotkov, 36, is listed by Forbes as having a net worth of $1.3 billion.

Nogotkov confirmed that he controlled his mobile phone and banking interests in Russia through Trellas, but declined to comment on the transfer recorded in the bank list.

never comment on financial transfers or mergers and acquisitions activity, Nogotkov said by telephone.

Asked whether he was considering restructuring his business interests in light of Cyprus financial meltdown, Nogotkov said: actively. We don have any urgent decisions to restructure (the business).

Another company illustrating the Russia connection is O1 Properties Limited, which moved 10.1 million euros out of Bank of Cyprus. The company is controlled by Boris Mints, a Russian politician turned businessman, and this year bought cheap moncler jackets mens the White Square business center in Moscow for $1 billion. From 2004 until 2012 he was chairman moncler uk outlet of the board of Otkritie Financial Corporation, which describes itself as Russia largest independent financial linked site moncler outlet https://www.monclerdownjacket.biz group by assets. He is now president of the firm.

Mints was not available for comment. A spokesman for O1 Properties said: Properties keeps an account at the Bank of uk moncler sale Cyprus to use it for regular business activities. We didn know that Cyprus banks (would) shut. O1 Properties suffered losses. We do not comment (on the) total loss.

EXPENSIVE WORDS The troika of the European Commission, discount moncler jackets the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund insisted on tough terms for providing billions to stop Cyprus going bust. As talks progressed, speculation began to spread that any package for Cyprus would include levying money from bank depositors an unprecedented move that came to be known as a bail in, rather than a bail out.

The impact of what politicians and officials said and did not say is reflected in the pattern of fund outflows.

Slideshow (3 Images)

On March 4, depositors withdrew 261 million euros from the two banks, according to the transfer lists. Late that day, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, president of the Eurogroup of finance ministers in the euro zone, was asked whether the rescue of Cyprus would affect bank depositors. He did not give a clear answer. The next day depositors yanked 315 million euros out of the banks.

Account holders were further unnerved on March 5 when Panicos Demetriades, the island central uk moncler outlet bank governor, publicly acknowledged for the first time that depositors might lose some of their money. Over the next two days transfers leapt to 342 million euros and 491 million euros; the latter figure including the 80.2 million euros withdrawn by UCP Industrial Holdings.