PwC’s work for Russian billionaires is part of a global system of enablers who, at a time of war, have undermined Western efforts to hurt Russian oligarchs financially and to sow discontent with Putin in their ranks.
Documents reveal a striking — and ultimately troubling — willingness to provide accounting, audits and other services to the secret offshore networks controlled by members of Putin’s inner circle and others who have contributed directly to his Ukraine war effort. Since Russia began its assault on Ukraine by invading Crimea in 2014, PwC Cyprus has worked for a Russian-controlled energy firm operating there, the owner of a major Russian military contractor and the family of a Russian military strategist.
All major consulting firms have been complicit in so many scandals. Peddling drugs, money laundering, tax fraud, laundering blood gold and metals, helping Dictatorships hunt down dissidents…
Yet they are continued to be hired by many western governments to consult on various topics, often with abyssimal results. But it surely is a coincidence, that the German army spent hundreds of millions on consulting contracts that were not part of a public bidding process. That the minister of defense at the time, Ursula von der Leyen had a son working at the company KPMG at the time, had nothing to do with it. I couldn’t think of anyone better suited to lead the EU now than von der Leyen.