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logo https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0056-2527 Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Brooke Harrington, Brooke Harrington Department of Sociology, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 03755 , USA Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Feng Fu, Feng Fu Department of Mathematics, Dartmouth College , Hanover, NH, 03755 , USA ORCID logo https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8252-1990 Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Daniel N Rockmore Daniel N Rockmore Department of Mathematics, Dartmouth College , Hanover, NH, 03755 , USA The Santa Fe Institute , Santa Fe, NM, 87501 , USA Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar PNAS Nexus, pgad051, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad051 Published: 28 February 2023 Article history Received: 06 September 2022 Revision received: 16 December 2022 Accepted: 02 February 2023 Published: 28 February 2023 * pdfPDF * Split View * Views + Article contents + Figures & tables + Video + Audio + Supplementary Data * Cite Cite Ho-Chun Herbert Chang, Brooke Harrington, Feng Fu, Daniel N Rockmore, Complex Systems of Secrecy: The Offshore Networks of Oligarchs, PNAS Nexus, 2023;, pgad051, https://doi.org/10.1093/ pnasnexus/pgad051 Select Format [Select format ] Download citation Close * Permissions Icon Permissions * Share + Email + Twitter + Facebook + More Navbar Search Filter [PNAS Nexus ] Mobile Enter search term [ ] Search * Sign In + Close Navbar Search Filter [PNAS Nexus ] Enter search term [ ] Search Advanced Search Search Menu Abstract Following the invasion of Ukraine, the US, UK, and EU governments-among others-sanctioned oligarchs close to Putin. This approach has come under scrutiny, as evidence has emerged of the oligarchs' successful evasion of these punishments. To address this problem, we analyze the role of an overlooked but highly influential group: the secretive professional intermediaries who create and administer the oligarchs' offshore financial empires. Drawing on the Offshore Leaks Database provided by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), we examine the ties linking offshore expert advisors (lawyers, accountants, and other wealth management professionals) to ultra-high-net-worth individuals from four countries: Russia, China, the United States, and Hong Kong. We find that resulting nation-level "oligarch networks" share a scale-free structure characterized by a heterogeneity of heavy-tailed degree distributions of wealth managers; however, network topologies diverge across clients from democratic versus autocratic regimes. While generally robust, scale-free networks are fragile when targeted by attacks on highly-connected nodes. Our "knock-out" experiments pinpoint this vulnerability to the small group of wealth managers themselves, suggesting that sanctioning these professional intermediaries may be more effective and efficient in disrupting dark finance flows than sanctions on their wealthy clients. This vulnerability is especially pronounced amongst Russian oligarchs, who concentrate their offshore business in a handful of boutique wealth management firms. The distinctive patterns we identify suggest a new approach to sanctions, focused on expert intermediaries to disrupt the finances and alliances of their wealthy clients. More generally, our research contributes to the larger body of work on complexity science and the structures of secrecy. network science, professionals, offshore, wealth, secrecy, oligarchs, sanctions, power laws Information Accepted manuscripts Accepted manuscripts are PDF versions of the author's final manuscript, as accepted for publication by the journal but prior to copyediting or typesetting. They can be cited using the author(s), article title, journal title, year of online publication, and DOI. They will be replaced by the final typeset articles, which may therefore contain changes. The DOI will remain the same throughout. PDF This content is only available as a PDF. (c) The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of National Academy of Sciences. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 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