Russian cigarette billionaire funneled millions via Netherlands just before sanctions

Russian billionaire Igor Kesaev funneled 8 million euros through the Netherlands over a month after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and just before Europe imposed sanctions on him. NOS found that in the annual report of his Dutch letterbox company recently submitted to the Chamber of Commerce.

Kesaev is known to have ties to the Kremlin and the Russian arms industry, according to NOS. He keeps his shares in Megapolis, the largest distributor of cigarettes in Russia, in the letterbox company registered in The Hague.

The Russian billionaire owns about 40 percent of Megapolis. In 2021, he got around 80 million euros in annual profit distribution from these shares. He transfers those millions every year through the Netherlands to a small company of his in Cyprus, NOS reports.

In March 2022, Kesaev’s Hague company received a profit distribution of almost 8 million euros. Almost all that money ended up in Cyprus afterward, according to the broadcaster.

Sixteen days later, on 8 April 2022, the European Union put Kesaev on its sanction list for having close ties with the Russian government and security services, and for being a major shareholder in an arms factory that supplies the Russian Army. The sanctions froze Kesaev’s assets in his Hague company, “trapping” some 650 million euros in assets in the Netherlands.