Oligarch companies exhibit highly intricate and international operational networks, boasting around 1,800 international subsidiaries, with a notable concentration in tax haven countries. Post-2014 sanctions led oligarch companies to enhance organizational complexity, particularly through tax haven entities, a trend mitigated by information-sharing agreements in tax haven countries. These companies attract significant equity capital from Western institutional investors. Despite a general decrease in Western investors’ holdings in oligarch companies, sanctions from investors’ home countries show no measurable impact on holdings. Instead, Western investors increasingly utilize tax haven entities to hold oligarch companies’ equity post-sanctions.

This project aims to shed light on two questions: 1) How do businesses owned by wealthy individuals that are closely connected to a political elite with autocratic structures operate globally and how is international capital allocated to these companies? 2) Which policies and technologies can contribute to limiting the coercive use of economic wealth associated with Oligarch companies to support autocratic regimes that oppress communities in emerging countries.

Our collective findings emphasize that the intricate subsidiary networks and access to equity financing through tax havens enable oligarchs and investors to obscure asset ownership, mitigating the impact of global sanctions. The study suggests that automatic information sharing among countries’ tax authorities can partially counteract this effect.

Evidence (or lack of) on the effectiveness of international sanctions on Oligarchs will have important policy implications given wealth inequality, political oppression, and fostering more secure democracy as well as more inclusive global is at the top of the global policy agenda.