After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, many countries like the USA, UK, and EU imposed sanctions on wealthy individuals close to Putin. But these rich folks, known as oligarchs, seem to dodge these punishments like pros. How? It's all about the secretive experts who help them hide their money offshore. We're talking about lawyers, accountants, and other financial gurus. Using data from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), we looked at how these experts are linked to the super-rich from Russia, China, the USA, and Hong Kong.
Here's what we found: these networks of wealth managers have a special structure. They're like a web where some people are much more connected than others. This makes them strong, but also fragile. If you hit the most connected parts hard enough, the whole web can fall apart.
Interesting fact: Russian oligarchs tend to use a small group of these expert firms. So, targeting these key wealth managers could be a smart way to disrupt the oligarchs' finances.
In short, to really hit oligarchs where it hurts, we might need to go after their secret money managers. This could change how we think about sanctions and the hidden world of dark finance.
