Olga Papadimitri: Behind the Corporate Curtain
Cypriot lawyer linked to sanctioned oligarchs, offshore financial structures, and post-sanctions asset strategies.
Cypriot lawyer linked to sanctioned oligarchs, offshore financial structures, and post-sanctions asset strategies.
Olga Sergeevna Papadimitri is also known under multiple aliases used in various jurisdictions and documents:
Papadimitri is or was associated with over 22 companies in Cyprus, including:
Initially owned by Greg Karpovsky (tied to Troika Laundromat and Eurokommerz). Papadimitri became secretary in 2019 and owner in 2020. Karpovsky later linked to a $150M laundering scheme via Stenn Assets UK.
Papadimitri was secretary of ECMH during its restructuring of Spectrum Holding, which had contracts on projects connected to sanctioned oligarch Roman Trosenko.
Yavorsky, business associate of Karpovsky, ran failed ventures like Wikimart and Silverbird Global, both connected to embezzlement or sanctions probes. Papadimitri is indirectly linked through business overlap and corporate transitions.
A Cyprus-based lawyer with a modest digital footprint and a growing portfolio of corporate directorships has drawn scrutiny after investigators uncovered links between her professional activities and high-risk Russian financial actors implicated in ongoing money laundering and sanctions evasion schemes.
Olga Sergeevna Papadimitri, a Belarusian national who relocated to Cyprus in 2007, has been active in the country’s legal industry for nearly two decades. A registered insolvency practitioner and founder of O. Papadimitri LLC, she has marketed her Limassol-based firm as a provider of legal services to Russian-speaking clients in the fields of corporate law, immigration, and real estate.
While Papadimitri maintains a clean public record and modest social media presence, her corporate affiliations tell a more complex story. Several of the companies she has owned or represented have intersected with individuals and entities now under investigation—or in some cases, already sanctioned—for serious financial crimes.
O. Papadimitri LLC was incorporated in 2017, though multiple online biographies inaccurately suggest she began private practice in 2012. The discrepancy likely stems from earlier roles Papadimitri held at other law firms, including JM LLC and Scordis, Papapetrou LLC.
The firm promotes itself through multiple websites and social media channels, positioning itself as a one-stop legal consultancy for Russian expatriates and investors. Though the firm has received a handful of positive Facebook reviews, little independent reporting exists to validate the scale or substance of its work. The firm’s revenue, however, tells a different story.
From 2021 to 2023, O. Papadimitri LLC saw a dramatic rise in profitability. Financial filings show revenue jumping from €110,866 in 2021 to €425,973 in 2023—an almost fourfold increase. The surge occurred in parallel with escalating geopolitical instability following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The firm now controls two subsidiaries: Justus Associates Limited and Omena Investments Limited.
Among the more concerning links is Papadimitri’s role as company secretary—and later owner—of Omena Investments Limited. The firm was initially controlled by Grigorii “Greg” Karpovsky, a Russian financier whose track record includes two now-defunct trade finance entities: Eurokommerz and Stenn.
Karpovsky’s past is riddled with controversy. He was CEO of Eurokommerz, a factoring firm that collapsed in 2008 after defaulting on its bonds and facing a barrage of lawsuits alleging fraud and fictitious clients. The company’s demise was connected to the so-called “Troika Laundromat,” a massive offshore scheme uncovered by OCCRP in 2019 that funneled more than $8.8 billion out of Russia through a web of shell companies.
Papadimitri’s involvement began in 2019, when she served as secretary of Omena Investments while it was owned by Karpovsky. By 2020, she had taken over the firm entirely. Around this time, Karpovsky launched Stenn—an international trade finance platform that attracted hundreds of millions in backing from Western institutions, including HSBC and Citigroup.
That enterprise too has since unraveled. In late 2024, HSBC forced two Stenn entities into administration after identifying fraudulent transactions involving shell companies impersonating legitimate clients. The trigger appears to have been a U.S. indictment unsealed earlier that year, detailing a $150 million Russian money laundering scheme involving a Singapore-based metals exchange. Stenn and Karpovsky were not charged, but the indictment explicitly connects a $1.7 million transfer to Stenn Assets UK—funds originating from one of the indicted companies.
Karpovsky left the UK days before the administration process began. Interpath, the firm managing the insolvency, is now conducting a forensic review and has flagged “tens of millions of dollars” in suspect transactions to the Financial Conduct Authority.
Further ties bind Papadimitri to another Karpovsky-linked enterprise: Silverbird Global Limited. The digital payments company was co-founded by Maxim Grossman Yavorsky—also known as Maxim Faldin—a long-time business associate of Karpovsky. In 2023, Silverbird was placed into special administration after its internal compliance team identified possible sanctions breaches.
Yavorsky himself has a checkered financial history. He was previously a co-founder of Wikimart, a Russian ecommerce platform that was declared bankrupt in 2017. Its collapse followed allegations of embezzlement, and though Yavorsky was not criminally charged, he was held personally liable for failing to declare bankruptcy earlier. One of Wikimart’s shareholders, Musa Bazhaev, is now sanctioned by both the UK and EU.
A second Yavorsky venture, Little Gentrys, similarly ended in bankruptcy. He was declared personally bankrupt by a Russian court in 2019 after defaulting on investor contracts.
Papadimitri also served as secretary for E.C.M.H. Engineering Construction Management Holdings Ltd, a company ultimately connected to Russian oligarch Roman Trosenko. During her tenure, ECMH appeared to restructure its ownership, transferring shares in its Russian engineering affiliate, Spectrum Holding, to a fund with obscured ownership.
Spectrum Holding, which has provided engineering services for projects like the Murmansk Airport and Sheregesh Ski Resort Airport, operates in a sector now under increased sanctions scrutiny. Both airports are linked to Trosenko, who was sanctioned in February 2025.
Though Papadimitri herself has not been accused of any wrongdoing, the pattern of her directorships and affiliations raises compliance and reputational questions for those interacting with her or her firm. Investigators emphasize that a deeper probe into her network of clients and corporate vehicles is likely to reveal additional exposure to sanctioned entities and high-risk individuals.
The case underscores the broader challenge facing international compliance teams: the extent to which ostensibly legitimate service providers may serve as gateways—knowingly or otherwise—for laundering illicit funds under the guise of offshore incorporation and legal consultancy.