Leaked archive reveals Latvian national's involvement in Russian oligarchs' schemes to hide their fortunes

RIGA - A Latvian national who is allegedly the secret lover of sanctioned Russian oligarch Arkady Rotenberg and the mother of his two daughters is reportedly involved in schemes to hide the assets of the Rotenberg brothers, according to leaked emails obtained by investigative journalists from the international investigative journalism association OCCRP.

The Rotenbergs were sanctioned after Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014. Almost a decade on, they are still not poor and, according to Forbes magazine, this year their assets were estimated at USD 4.9 billion.

Now, recently leaked emails have given an insight into the schemes the Rotenbergs employed to hide their assets, and reveal the role Western lawyers, bankers and corporate service providers played in these schemes. 

The leaked archive, obtained by the independent Russian website Vazhnye Istorii (iStories) and the OCCRP, contains more than 50,000 documents and emails sent between 2013 and 2020.

A series of publications, contributed by 15 other media companies, reveal how this was possible.

Moscow-born businessman Maxim Viktorov and his law firm were central to the schemes, but no details of his work for the Rotenbergs had emerged until recently. 

The documents also reveal how some of the Rotenbergs' assets were taken over by fictitious holders, including Boris Rotenberg's former bodyguard and a 36-year-old Latvian national, Maria Borodunova, who was Arkady Rotenbergs' mistress and allegedly the mother of his two daughters.