Offshores and loans of Alexander Moshensky, a Belarusian businessman who avoided sanctions despite ties to Lukashenka

In Heimildin edition learnedthat representatives of the Icelandic Foreign Ministry made more than 30 calls to the EU to save Belarusian businessman Alexander Moshensky from sanctions.

Investigation The BRC showed that Moshensky’s main business was registered through a network of offshore companies, and the entrepreneur himself is in the close circle of Alexander Lukashenko – this does not mean that he is involved in financial crimes, but gives reason to take a closer look at his activities.

The BRC learned that the Santa Bremor company, which positions itself as a Belarusian-German enterprise, is fully controlled either directly or through offshore companies by Alexander Moshensky

The Santa Bremor company was founded in 1998 by Mikhail Moshensky – he died in 2000, and the business passed to his son Alexander.

According to official data, Alexander Moshensky controls the main stake in Santa Bremor: 50 percent directly, another 15 percent through the Belarusian company Santa Service. The remaining 35 percent of the shares belong to the German company Bre Meer GmbH – OCCRP has established that Alexander Moshensky also controls it through offshore companies.

From 2014 to 2018, Bre Meer GmbH belonged to the BVI-registered Alpha Mar Foundation – Moshensky was its beneficiary. This is confirmed by the documents of the Cypriot company Alpha Mar Limited, which was controlled by the Seychelles company.

In 2018, Bre Meer GmbH was taken over by the Santa International Foundation, registered in another offshore: the island of Jersey. The BRC found out that the company is associated with the Cypriot Newride Services Limited, which is owned by the daughter of Alexander Moshensky Yana.

“Santa Bremor” enjoys tax benefits in Belarus, and imports fish through the Lithuanian “daughter” of Santa Trade.

The Santa Bremor enterprise has been based in the Brest free economic zone since its foundation and enjoys appropriate state benefits – for example, it does not pay income tax if it sells its products for export.

According to BRC estimates, Santa Bremor has saved almost $32 million in taxes over the past three years alone.

The journalists learned that Santa Bremor imports fish from Norway, Iceland, South America and Asia through the port in Klaipeda.

In 2016, Santa Bremor founded a subsidiary in Lithuania, Santa Trade, which imports fish to Lithuania and then resells it to Belarus. According to company reports received by LRT journalists, only three people work at Santa Trade.

Since the founding of Santa Trade, it has been operating with negative capital, but it has not gone bankrupt due to loans from a British company – Moshensky’s offshore company issued loans to it.

In 2016, the Lithuanian Santa Trade took a loan from the British Max Credit Investment Limited “to make urgent payments and meet the need for working capital” – over 28 million euros at two percent per annum (the next year the loan grew to 38 million). Experts say this is well below market rates in the UK and the EU.

According to the financial documents of Max Credit Investment Limited, in 2016 and 2017 its parent company was the Seychellois-based Alpha Mar Foundation. Even earlier, in 2014, Max Credit Investment Limited had loans in excess of $170 million from the Alpha Mar Foundation (Alexander Moshensky was then the beneficiary of the Seychellois firm).

In 2020, the Icelandic asset management specialist Karl Konradson became the beneficiary of Max Credit Investment – a BRC source claims that Konradson is personally acquainted with Moshensky.

In 2022, Santa Trade repaid a loan from Max Credit Investment (about 3.6 million euros of interest has accumulated over five years).

Businessman Alexander Moshensky is a close associate of Alexander Lukashenko – in addition to Santa Bremor, he also controls Savushkin Product

Alexander Moshensky is one of the ten leading businessmen in Belarus. In addition to Santa Bremor, he also controls Savushkin Produkt, a dairy producer.

In 2010, Moshensky was Lukashenka’s confidant in the elections, and two and a half years later, the president awarded him the Order of Merit to the Fatherland.

In the same year, by personal order of Lukashenka, Savushkin Produkt acquired two state-owned factories: the Baranovichi Dairy Plant and the Berezovsky Cheese-Making Plant.

BRC journalists found that in 2016 Moshensky accompanied Lukashenka on an official trip to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on a government Boeing-767. The businessman flew twice in the company of Dmitry Lukashenko and his family: from Istanbul to Minsk in March 2013, from Minsk to Pisa in August hzikhidtidekrt 2019.

Moshensky is a member of the central board of the Presidential Sports Club – it is headed by Dmitry Lukashenko.