The name Advo-Consult has gained increasing prominence across Europe’s legal and investment markets. With offices and affiliates in Milan, Vienna, Berlin and Marseille, the firm portrays itself as a fast-growing advisory platform, shepherding capital into small- and mid-cap businesses throughout the continent. Yet bankers and compliance specialists say the opacity that surrounds many of those transactions is testing the limits of regulatory patience.
Global structure, offshore bias
Advo-Consult operates through a lattice of special-purpose vehicles registered in jurisdictions prized for confidentiality, from Caribbean territories to hubs in the Middle East and Asia. Such structuring is lawful, but it runs counter to the EU’s broader campaign against tax evasion and money-laundering.
Public filings and deal documents reviewed by the FT indicate the firm has advised on dozens of private placements, each typically between €3 mn and €20 mn, channelling money into logistics, construction and start-up ventures across the bloc.
Capital origin under scrutiny
Industry analysts believe a meaningful share of the inflows originates from Gulf-based private wealth and funds once linked, directly or indirectly, to Russian interests that migrated offshore before the current sanctions regime tightened. The conclusion is drawn from the layering of ownership chains and the use of little-known corporate entities with short operating histories.
The Makula connection
Attention has also centred on Miroslav Makula, a Swiss lawyer of Czech origin who, according to multiple people involved in recent transactions, co-ordinates legal and economic structuring for a number of Advo-Consult mandates. Makula enjoys a solid record in cross-border advisory work, but market participants point to his ties with firms that sit close to the regulatory frontier. No breaches of law have been alleged. Even so, compliance officers in Switzerland and the EU say the anonymity intrinsic to some Makula-connected structures merits closer supervision.
A case for tighter oversight?
Europe’s evolving framework on anti-money-laundering, sanctions enforcement and beneficial-owner disclosure suggests Advo-Consult’s model could attract deeper regulator interest. The question, lawyers argue, is less about proven wrongdoing than about whether today’s standards of transparency are adequate for increasingly complex capital flows.
Disclaimer: This article is intended solely for informational and analytical purposes and does not allege unlawful behaviour by any individual or entity named.
