KYIV, April 24 - A Ukrainian crime gang used offshore firms in British tax havens to secretly invest millions of pounds in the UK, BBC reported citing BBC Panorama investigation.

The gangsters, and in some cases family members, bought luxurious property in prime London locations, including a £12.5m flat.

The daughter of a man dubbed the "Don of Odessa" is the registered owner of three homes in one expensive block.
Many of the revelations come from the Paradise Papers data breach.

The gang were from the Black Sea port of Odessa and made money in the oil industry.

They came on to the police's radar in the late 1990s when they were suspected of drugs and arms smuggling. In the chaos following the collapse of the Soviet Union the gang branched out into Europe, using Italy as a base.

But police were on to them. For four years specialist anti-mafia officers tracked their movements across the continent. They tapped their phones and what the men discussed was chilling, police said.

"They described murders that were particularly cruel. 'I kept hitting his head until it broke... I killed him with many blows,'" recalls Italian state police Deputy Commissioner Nunzia Savino. "They were extremely violent."
The gang was organized along strict mafia lines with each member assigned a role.

Among them were:

Alexander Angert, nicknamed the Don of Odessa. Police say he was once jailed for murder

Nickolay Fomichev, described as a "violent and armed person."

Gennadiy Trukhanov, a man who trained members of the gang in "hand-to-hand combat and sniper shooting with high precision weapons,” according to Savino. He is now the mayor of Odessa.

Despite evidence from the phone taps, most of the gang members were never charged because their crimes were not committed in Italy. Eventually, the anti-mafia investigation was wound up.

Trukhanov returned to Odessa to begin his political career, Angert settled in London while Fomichev is believed to have moved to Belgium.

Trukhanov is currently under criminal investigation in Ukraine.

Last October his home and offices in Odessa were raided. In February he was arrested and accused of embezzlement in Odessa but was allowed to carry on as mayor.

"We suspect the mayor of Odessa of stealing money from the city of Odessa," said Nazar Kholodnytskiy, Ukraine's special anti-corruption prosecutor.

Trukhanov denies the allegations. He also denied all of BBC Panorama's claims, saying the program was putting out false information which "undermines his honor, dignity and reputation.” (bbc/ez)