How was Uranium One was able to get its uranium to Europe?
In 1999 Cameco incorporated a subsidiary called Cameco Europe it has described as a “trading and marketing company.” (It was originally located in Luxembourg, but was replaced a few years later with a similarly named subsidiary located in Zug, Switzerland.) This subsidiary employed just one person (a German resident) in 2003, and rented space in a law office, according to the Canada Revenue Agency.
Cameco agreed to provide its subsidiary with uranium for up to 17 years at a price of $10US per pound. The subsidiary was then free to sell that uranium to customers on whatever terms it could negotiate—including back to Cameco itself.
Thanks in part to the low-cost uranium coming from Canada, rising prices made the Swiss subsidiary tremendously profitable—it earned $4.3 billion during the six-year period ending in 2012.
>www.canadianbusiness.com/companies-and-industries/cameco-taxes/