As it turns out, the wealth of Russian billionaires can also be found in Poland. The sanctioned oligarch Alexei Mordashov is the Real Beneficiary of the company from Sosnowiec. The steel tycoon lost a lot of fortune, including a luxury yacht, after Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine.
For the sake of clarity, a Real Beneficiary is always a natural person or persons who, by virtue of their legal or factual powers, directly or indirectly exercises control over the economic operator required to be entered in the Central Register of Beneficial Owners.
The Niezależna Portal reported that the name of Alexei Mordashov is in this register. The Russian billionaire – an oligarch who works closely with Vladimir Putin – is a beneficiary of Severstal Distribution sp. z o.o. based in Sosnowiec.
Mordashov, born on September 26, 1965, is the president of Severstal, Russia’s largest steel company. Bloomberg estimated his fortune at $21.2 billion, making him the second richest person in Russia. According to media reports, Mordashov’s company worked closely with Vladimir Putin to pay for some of the dictator’s “favourite projects.”
On February 28, 2022, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the European Union blacklisted Mordashov and froze his assets. At the beginning of March, the Italian police seized one of his yachts, the Lady M. At that time, his other yacht, the North, was outside the jurisdiction of the European Union – in Seychelles.