A Belarusian businessman once closely associated with the regime of President Aleksandr Lukashenko has claimed that companies linked to the family of a former Cypriot president acted as nominal owners of his businesses while he was under European Union sanctions. The revelation emerged in a written statement by businessman Yury Chyzh, who said he relied on nominee shareholders to retain control over corporate assets registered in Cyprus.

The admission came in a notarized letter Chyzh sent in August 2024 to the Cyprus Registrar of Companies. The document surfaced as part of an ongoing legal dispute over ownership of assets tied to Chyzh’s business empire. Civil society organization Rabochy Ruch obtained the letter and shared it with the Belarusian Investigative Center, bringing the matter into public view.

According to Chyzh, two Cyprus-based firms – Welgro Services Limited and Profax Investments Limited – were effectively controlled by him despite being registered under the names of other individuals. He explained that nominee beneficiaries appeared on official documents to satisfy regulatory requirements, while the real control remained in his hands through trustees and intermediaries.

In the letter, Chyzh wrote that his three children eventually became the nominal beneficiaries of the companies. Starting in 2017, they were added one by one to the ownership records of the Cypriot firms. However, Chyzh stated that their role was purely symbolic and administrative.

“They have always performed only intermediary functions, acting on my behalf and under my instructions,” Chyzh wrote. “I have always been and remain the real beneficiary of Welgro Services Limited and Profax Investments Limited.”

Before his children were listed as beneficiaries, the companies were formally owned through Imperium Nominees Limited, a corporate services provider in Cyprus. Corporate filings indicate that Imperium Nominees is owned by the daughters and former business partners of Nicos Anastasiades, who served as the president of Cyprus from 2013 until 2023.

The timing of these arrangements has drawn particular attention because Chyzh was under European Union sanctions between 2012 and 2015. EU authorities imposed the sanctions after determining that he had financially supported the government of Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko, widely criticized by Western governments for corruption and authoritarian governance.

Nominee ownership structures are not illegal in themselves and are frequently used in international corporate services. However, they can raise concerns when they appear to conceal the identity of individuals subject to sanctions or regulatory restrictions.

Anastasiades has denied any personal involvement in the operations of the companies connected to the case. He has stated that before taking office as president in February 2013, he transferred his shares in the law firm bearing his name and in associated corporate service companies to his daughter and former business partners.

In response to questions from journalists at CIReN, the Cypriot member center of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Anastasiades said he had no knowledge of the specific companies mentioned in Chyzh’s statement.

“I am unaware and therefore unable to answer the questions,” he wrote in an email reply. Instead of providing further comment, he attached a copy of a letter he had sent to Cyprus’ parliament in 2021 explaining that he no longer had any connection with the firms after transferring his shares.

“Since the transfer of the shares I have had absolutely no relationship or connection with the firm that bears my name,” Anastasiades wrote in that earlier letter. He also rejected claims that the law firm could be described as belonging to his daughters simply because they were shareholders.

The law firm, Nicos Chr. Anastasiades and Partners, has also strongly denied any wrongdoing. Theophanis Th. Philippou, a managing partner of the firm and a shareholder in Imperium Nominees, rejected suggestions that the firm had engaged in improper conduct while providing corporate services.

“We definitely deny all allegations of unlawful or improper conduct on the part of our firm,” Philippou said in a written response to reporters’ questions. He did not elaborate on how often the company checked sanctions lists when servicing clients.

Chyzh’s claims surfaced during a complex legal struggle over assets tied to his former business empire in Belarus. Once considered one of the country’s most powerful businessmen, Chyzh built a sprawling conglomerate known as the Triple Group, with interests spanning construction, manufacturing, and pharmaceuticals.

However, his fortunes changed dramatically in 2020 when he was arrested on fraud and money laundering charges in Belarus. Reports at the time suggested that Chyzh had fallen out of favor with Lukashenko, ending a long period during which his companies had benefited from close ties to the government.

In 2023, Chyzh was convicted in Belarus, further complicating the fate of his business holdings. Earlier, in July 2021, the Minsk Economic Court declared the Triple Group bankrupt after creditors filed claims against the conglomerate. The bankruptcy process continued for several years before being terminated in 2024, though details about the final resolution remain unclear.

Among the companies involved in the bankruptcy proceedings was TriplePharm, a pharmaceutical firm that had been a key part of Chyzh’s business network. Corporate records indicate that TriplePharm remains active today and is majority-owned by the two Cypriot firms mentioned in Chyzh’s letter – Welgro Services Limited and Profax Investments Limited.

In September 2025, Chyzh filed a lawsuit in a Belarusian court seeking to regain control over those Cypriot companies and the assets linked to them. The case is ongoing. Interestingly, his own children – who had served as nominal beneficiaries – have been listed as third parties in the lawsuit on the side of the companies being sued.

Corporate filings show that Welgro and Profax also received services from other companies connected to Anastasiades’ family and business partners. Until the end of 2015, Imperium Services Ltd acted as company secretary for the firms, while the Anastasiades law firm provided legal advice.

Before becoming president, Anastasiades had owned a majority stake in both Imperium Services and his law firm. Shortly before assuming office in 2013, he transferred his shares to his daughter Elsa and to two longtime business associates, Philippou and Stathis Lemis. Another daughter, Ino Anastasiades, became a shareholder in 2015.

The overlapping roles of the law firm and corporate service companies have prompted scrutiny from investigators examining the broader financial network surrounding Chyzh.

Chyzh’s letter also raised questions about the origins of the Cypriot firms. He pointed out that his children, born in 1988, 1990, and 1996, were very young when the companies were first established in 2008.

“They did not have the financial or other capabilities to establish the companies,” he wrote, suggesting that the businesses had always been controlled by him despite their nominal ownership structure.

Financial records linked to the firms reveal the scale of operations associated with the network. In 2011, a subsidiary of Profax called Bertament Limited received a loan of $222 million from another Cypriot entity, Mabor Co Ltd.

Corporate reports described Mabor as a “related party” to Bertament, meaning the two companies shared some form of ownership or control. Documents indicate that Mabor was also registered through Imperium Nominees, the same service provider previously linked to the Anastasiades family.

Philippou signed documents related to Mabor’s financial transfers, though it remains unclear whether the loan was ever repaid. When contacted by reporters, Philippou said he remembered the company but declined to discuss the details.

Financial filings show that Mabor recorded approximately $4.3 billion in turnover in 2011 through the re-export of Russian petroleum products from Belarus – a business that had long been a major source of revenue for companies connected to Chyzh.

Mabor was ultimately dissolved in July 2024, just one month before Chyzh submitted his letter to Cypriot authorities acknowledging his control over the other companies.

Additional records linked to the network reveal more personal connections between Chyzh and the companies’ administrators. In January 2012, Bertament Limited signed a contract for a 16-day stay at a Russian ski resort for a group of Belarusian guests. The $25,000 invoice for the trip was issued to Philippou.

The guest list reportedly included Chyzh, two businessmen currently under EU sanctions, several athletes and beauty pageant winners, and the personal priest of Belarusian president Lukashenko.

The timing of the holiday coincided with a visit by Lukashenko to the same resort, where he met then-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.

As the legal battle over the Cypriot firms continues, Chyzh’s letter has raised fresh questions about the use of nominee ownership structures and the role of corporate service providers in jurisdictions known for hosting international financial networks. The case highlights how such arrangements can complicate efforts to enforce sanctions and track the real beneficiaries behind multinational business operations.

Whether Chyzh will ultimately succeed in reclaiming control of the companies he says he always owned remains uncertain. For now, the dispute continues to unfold in Belarusian courts while drawing international attention to the financial relationships linking businessmen, political figures, and offshore corporate structures.

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Source: Weekly Blitz :: Writings