The main owner of Puiki Investicija, a property developer that has operated in Vilnius for ten years, is a Dubai businessman with close ties to sanctioned Belarusian entrepreneur Viktor Shevtsov, dubbed Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko's wallet, 15min news website reported on Tuesday.
Mohammed Al Suwaidi, a 58-year-old businessman from the United Arab Emirates, has long been a partner of Shevtsov. The two once controlled the partly state-owned Belarusian construction company Belzarubezhstroy and carried out major projects in Venezuela. They also jointly owned Dubai-based Future Metro.
Al Suwaidi controls Puiki Investicija through two UK-registered companies, Dominum Financing and Dominum Europe, which hold equal shares in the Lithuanian firm, according to the report.
Its board includes Belarusian businessmen Aleksandr Gribovski and Vitaliy Bandaryk, who are also linked to Shevtsov.
Al Suwaidi told journalists he does not know Shevtsov.
Sources say Al Suwaidi does not take part in Puiki Investicija's operations, with decisions made by Gribovski and Bandaryk.
Although Puiki Investicija operates at a loss, Al Suwaidi's companies have lent it about 15.5 million euros. The firm has owned or still owns more than 150 properties and continues to expand its portfolio.
A joint investigation by 15min and the Belarusian Investigative Center (BIC) in the spring of 2024 found Shevtsov was linked to Garsų Pasaulis, a company that produced Lithuanian passports and was declared unreliable by the State Security Department (VSD) in September of that year.
Following last year's journalistic investigations, Shevtsov was placed on the EU and Swiss sanctions lists. He has said he is challenging the decisions in court.
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