Nicosia law firm among companies Pandora Papers based report on

A Nicosia-based law firm is apparently one of the offshore service providers from where the Pandora Papers’ records derive, it has emerged.

Under the heading ‘Who are the firms at the heart of the Pandora Papers?’, the Demetrios A. Demetriades LLC appears among 14 offshore service providers around the world.

“The leaked files come from 14 offshore service providers that help clients establish companies in secrecy jurisdictions,” reads the website of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (Icij) – the organisation that released the Pandora Papers days ago.

There follows a table listing the 14 companies.

According to the consortium, a total of 469,184 records or files come from or relate to the Cypriot law firm.

Demetrios A. Demetriades LLC – also referred to as ‘DadLaw’ – declined comment when contacted by Cypriot media.

The Icij claims the Cypriot law firm’s records cover the period 1993 to the present. It also states that the firm in question served 17 of the 336 politicians identified in the Pandora Papers investigation.

A massive document dump, the Pandora Papers allegedly link world leaders to secret stores of wealth.

Overall they comprise 11.9 million confidential records – electronic (and some paper) files, emails and images.

The Icij states that the leaked records “come from 14 offshore services firms from around the world that set up shell companies and other offshore nooks for clients often seeking to keep their financial activities in the shadows. The records include information about the dealings of nearly three times as many current and former country leaders as any previous leak of documents from offshore havens.”

The Icij said its “analysis of the secret documents identified 956 companies in offshore havens tied to 336 high-level politicians and public officials, including country leaders, cabinet ministers, ambassadors and others. More than two-thirds of those companies were set up in the British Virgin Islands, a jurisdiction long known as a key cog in the offshore system.”

In relation to Cyprus, an extensive report published by The Guardian – a media partner in the Icij – alleged that the law firm founded by President Nicos Anastasiades hid the assets of a former Russian senator behind fake beneficial owners in a secret report filed with financial regulators in the British Virgin Islands.

The Nicos Chr. Anastasiades law firm, as well as Anastasiades – who left the firm just before assuming office in 2013 – have denied any wrongdoing.

A US-based non-profit, the Icij lists among its supporters/donors the following: the Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations, the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, as well as Hollywood celebrities Barbara Streisand and Meryl Streep.