ol·i·garch
Old meaning:
one of the rulers in an oligarchy.
New meaning:
Russian mobster.
Use:
Russian oligarchs stung by Cypriot bank tax
But it’s not just Russia that is affected by the proposed bank account tax in Cyprus. Oligarchs in Ukraine also like to transfer money to Cyprus and then re-invest it back home. Just like in Russia, Cyprus has been the largest foreign investor in Ukraine. In 2011, the country invested more than $10 billion, according to Ukraine’s statistics agency Derzhkomstat. That represents one-fifth of the total foreign investments in the former Soviet republic.
More than 90 percent of all Ukrainian foreign investments in 2012 went to Cyprus. If ownership changes in the Ukraine, a company with a postal address in Cyprus simply gets replaced by another one in Cyprus.
Which brings to mind another term: money laundering.
Here’s the latest on Cyprus,
