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| Prime Minister Andrej Babiš - Czech Republic |
Andrej Babiš is the billionaire founder of agricultural conglomerate Agrofert. He later served as the Czech Republic’s finance minister, and in 2017, he was elected prime minister on a populist platform. Soon after he was sworn in, the European Commission’s anti-fraud office found “irregularities” in his company's use of subsidies worth more than $2 million. Babiš, who denied wrongdoing, is currently running for re-election.
Details in the Pandora Papers
In 2009, Babiš secretly paid $22 million for a villa named Chateau Bigaud in a French village near Cannes. He routed the money through shell companies in the British Virgin Islands and Washington, D.C., and a real estate management firm in Monaco called SCP Bigaud. The companies were still active when he entered politics in 2013, but the financial disclosure forms Babiš has submitted as a public official make no mention of the BVI company or the French property.
Alemán, Cordero, Galindo & Lee, a Panama-based law firm, helped Babiš set up the BVI shell company. In a 2014 client assessment form, Alcogal officers noted that there was a “high risk” that the company could be “engaging in money laundering and/or terrorist financing.” It was dissolved a few months later. In 2016, Alcogal filed a “suspicious activity report” with the BVI’s Financial Investigation Agency, noting that Babiš was being investigated in Europe.
Babiš did not respond to ICIJ’s repeated requests for comment.
Secrecy Broker
At the heart of the Pandora Papers are 14 offshore firms that help clients establish companies in secrecy jurisdictions. This profile draws on leaked data from these providers:
Alcogal
(Alemán, Cordero, Galindo & Lee, or Alcogal, is a go-to offshore provider for top politicians and elites in Latin America and beyond. Founded in Panama, the firm has ties to nearly half of all the politicians whose names appear in the Pandora Papers leak. Here are some of the top political figures involved.)
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