The Russian Connection- Lithium Miners, Silicon Valley VC’s and Mobsters

The Russian Connection- Lithium Miners, Silicon Valley VC’s and Russian Mobsters

Call them “foreign businessmen”, “oligarchs” or “mobsters”; 4 of the CARGATE implicated banks and 5 of the CARGATE implicated VC’s had extensive meetings with russian gentlemen regarding their ownership of lithium ion fields equipment, mining and manufacturing deals derived from CARGATE derived schemes. All of the Russian businessmen are now under investigation by multiple agencies. Why did Steven Chu give hundreds of millions of our tax dollars to Russian Mobsters? What was he paying them back for? Why did 99% of the people on this page have a first-person connection to “AGHANI-SCAM” ?

Why did the key investors of Tesla meet with persons and groups from the Russian government and business sectors who State Department has identified as having mob connections? Could it have to do with all of the trillions of dollars of materials used for making lithium ion electric car batteries that those Russian groups control? If those Silicon Valley VC’s  (“Cough”.. Kleiner, Draper, etc..) helped grease the deal, they certainly wouldn’t manipulate Congress for greed… would they? (SEE THE VIDEO PROOF HERE)

ABC News

Politics Test Silicon Valley’s Russian Ties

Entrepreneurs and investors say Silicon Valley’s fast-growing financial ties with Russia’s tech sector are being slowed down by current political tensions between the White House and the Kremlin.

“It’s safe to say a lot of investors here are taking a step back to see how the situation will unfold,” said Alexandra Johnson, who manages a $100 million venture fund called DFJ VTP Aurora, a Menlo Park, Calif., branch of Russian bank VTB.

For decades, Russia’s sophisticated scientists and engineers remained at arm’s length from Silicon Valley’s venture capitalists and marketing mavens. That changed in recent years with a flurry of investment, largely sparked in 2010 when then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited the region and met with high-tech leaders.

Russians investors, including billionaire Yuri Milner, who has large stakes in Facebook and Twitter, poured an estimated $2 billion into U.S. tech firms over the past three years, according to Johnson, who organized a technology symposium with venture capitalists and entrepreneurs last month in San Mateo, south of San Francisco.

But Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors fear negative economic fallout from Russia’s takeover of Crimea, its troop buildup near Ukraine’s border and its attempts to compel constitutional changes in that country, markedly raising political tensions with the West.

Secretary of State John Kerry has charged Russia with “creating a climate of fear and intimidation” and the Obama administration has frozen assets and revoked visas of some Russian officials and their associates.

Among the concerns in this technology center are whether visa limits will make it hard for business travel or for scientists to relocate. In addition, economic sanctions could tighten the flow of dollars between tech sectors in both countries. And for those U.S. and Russian firms with ties to Ukraine, rumors of a draft are fanning fears that young entrepreneurs and engineers will have to close up shop and fight.

Experts say an investment slowdown will be temporary and will not untrack rapidly growing, lucrative U.S.- Russia business relationships in the long run.

Axel Tillmann, who invests Russian venture capital on behalf of government-sponsored RVC-USA, said the tensions are definitely going to “slow things down for a while,” describing a two- to three-month suspension of additional investment by Russian government funds in tech firms.

However, Tillmann said the flow of investments is certain to resume because Russian companies thrive on Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurship.

“Russian technologists have been at the leading forefront of technology for many years, even going back to the Soviet Union, but they had the problem they called ‘The lonely ideas,'” he said. “The ideas just sat there.”

Tillmann said the one thing Russian companies are not very good at today is commercializing their technology — something that Silicon Valley firms are masters at doing. “When we combine, we get the best of both,” he said.

In Russia, entrepreneurs and investors now tap Silicon Valley experts to try to replicate their success.

A planned technology hub outside Moscow, the Skolkovo Innovation Center, includes Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt, Cisco CEO John Chambers and retired Intel CEO Craig Barrett on its 17-member board.

Russian entrepreneurs have also launched their own firms in the Silicon Valley, and tech giants are buying stakes in Russian startups. Last year, for example, Cisco acquired a stake in Russian software developer Parallels and got a seat on its board.

The Russian Innovation Center, which opened two years ago on Silicon Valley’s Sand Hill Road amid a cluster of venture capital firms, combines three firms investing in California companies committed to the Russian market.

And today more than 100 Russian high-tech firms have representative offices in the northern California region, including Russian search engine Yandex, which employs former Yahoo and Google engineers at its Palo Alto laboratory.

On April 3, San Jose-based Cisco, a valley leader in building ties to Russia, announced that it had won a contract to supply the video conferencing network for Moscow’s water and sanitation supplier. Cisco has also reported that it is currently reviewing its Russian business practices for any possibility of corruption.

Spokesman John Earnhardt said they are watching events closely, but that Russia remains an important market.

Silicon Valley-based Dmitry Akhanov, president of the U.S. subsidiary of Russia’s state-owned venture fund RUSNANO, said it has taken years to shape those East-West tech sector relationships.

“Political turmoil can happen, but business ties are much more sustainable because those are people-to-people, and those build trust,” he said. “The diplomats need to calm down and think about the immediate consequences of their decisions. It’s very easy to hurt an economy and much harder to rebuild.”

Oleg Slepov, who heads the Russian Trade Representation’s office in San Francisco, said he’s spoken with many U.S. business leaders lately who tell him they have no plans to close or scale down their business in Russia.

Slepov said he’s even optimistic that business ties may help ease the conflict.

“The interests of Russian and American companies are so intertwined today that, on itself, it becomes a factor that is contributing to easing of tensions between Russia and the U.S.,” he said.

———

Here is the NY Times research on some of their backgrounds:

Russian Organized Crime Data Pull- State- :

Multiple meetings with Silicon Valley Suspects

Alexey Mordashov

Received DOE Funds Via Severstal:

Alexey Mordashov -General director of “Severstal group”, Chairman of the board of directors in “Power Machines”, the largest shareholder of “Arcelor”,

http://rumafia.com/person.php?id=54

Surname: Mordashov
Name: Alexey
Fathername: Aleksandrovich

Position: General director of “Severstal group”, Chairman of the board of directors in “Power Machines”, the largest shareholder of “Arcelor”, a member of board of RSPP.

Biography

Mordashov Alexey Aleksandrovich was born on September 26, 1965 in Cherepovets in the Vologda area in workers’ family; Russian. In 1988 he graduated with excellence from the Leningrad Engineering-Economical Institute. During study he got acquainted with Anatoly Chubais.

From 1988 till 1989 – Senior Economist in maintenance and repair shop #1 of the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant (CMP).

In 1989-1991 – Head of Bureau of Economics and Labor of MRS#1 at CMP.

In 1991-1992 – Deputy Director of planning department of CMP.

In 1992-1993 – Deputy Director of Economics and Finance at CMP.

Since 1993 – Financial Director of CMP (now CMP is renamed into Open Joint-Stock Company “Severstal”). Simultaneously the chairman of board of directors of joint-stock company “Severstal-Invest”. He was one of creators of the plant privatization program, and transition to active marketing practice in metal trading. Company “Severstal-Invest” was engaged in sale of rolled metal products, motor vehicles and the weapon, cultivation, processing and sale of fish, realtor and security-detective activity.

Since March, 1996 – chairman of board of “Severstal-holding” LLC (Cherepovets).

Since March, 1996 – chairman of board of directors of Joint-Stock Company “Severstal-invest” (Cherepovets).

Since September 1996 till June, 2002 – General Director of “Severstal” OAO.

Since November, 1997 – chairman of board of directors in Metkombank (Cherepovets). He was a councilor of bank “Metallinvest”. Then he was trained on courses of managers in England (in the late nineties he completed the MBA program of Newcastle Business school (NBS) in the University of Northumbria (UNN, Great Britain).

Since June, 2000 – the councilor of directors of Joint-Stock Company «Izhora pipe factory», joint venture of «Izhora factories» OAO and “Severstal” OAO. In October, 2000 he was selected as a member of bureau of board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP).

Since June, 2001 – coordinator of RSPP Working group.

From April 2001 till April, 2003 – member of the Supervisory board of «Industrial Construction Bank» (ICB).

Since June, 2002 – chairman of the board of directors of “Severstal” OAO.

Since 2002 – General Director of “Severstal group” ZAO.

Since August, 2002 – the chairman of the board of directors of “SSM-Tyazhmash” LLC, subsidiary of “Severstal group” ZAO.

Since December, 2002 – the judicial arbitrator at the Commission on Ethics of RSPP created for settlement of corporate disputes.

In May, 2003 he was included in structure of Business Council at the government of the Russian Federation.

In December, 2003 he became the authorized representative of president Putin on presidential election on March, 14th, 2004.

In 2003 Forbes magazine included Mordashov in the list of 500 richest people in the world (348th place, fortune – 1.2 billion dollars).

In February, 2004 “Severstal” OAO informed that Mordashov supervised 82.75% of stocks of “Severstal”.

Since June, 2004 – councilor of directors of bank “Rossiya” (St.-Petersburg).

In February 2006 “Finance” magazine estimated Mordashov’s capital at 6.0 billion dollars (the tenth place in Russia).

In March, 2006 there was a next rating of Forbes Magazine in which Mordashov was on the 64th place in the world (fortune – 7.6 billion dollars).

Member of Board of guardians of RDC «Expert institute» at Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP);

Member of Advisory council on the innovations created by Ministry of Industry and Science of the Russian Federation.

He is awarded with the order «For Merits for Country» of the I and II degrees.

The winner of the All-Russia competition of businessmen “Career-96”. In December, 2000 Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs called him the best businessman of the year.

Speaks English and German.

Mordashov is married for the second time. He has three sons – one from the first marriage, two – from the second one.

Takes a great interest in poetry, painting, active winter kinds of sports.

Source: http://www.anticompromat.org/

Dossier:

By 2001 there were no any compromising materials concerning Mordashov on pages of the mass-media. As for unpleasant stories – only divorce with the wife and the ignominious alimony to the son. The only thing that was spoken about him appeared in July, 2001. Mordashov was supposed to be offered a post of the chairman in the Russian government. In reply to that Mordashov declared that even if he had been offered the post he would have had to refuse of it.

Source: www.rb.ru

In 2004 in mass media the materials convicting Mordashov of dishonest engagement of “Severstal” were published. The ex-general director of Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant Yury Lipuhin – who promoted Mordashov on a career ladder – became an information source. When Mordashov was already the director of “Severstal” the plant suffered from an attempt of raid capture. Trans-World Group tried to persuade Mordashov to sell the plant (it was represented by well known businessmen Vladimir Lisin, Mikhail Chernoy, Oleg Deripaska) but he resisted. After those events Mordashov convinced Lipuhin that the plant shares needed to be privatized not to admit strangers to the enterprise. The plant released metal under the low prices to the company “Severstal-Invest” created for that purpose; Mordashov spent millions of gross margin from resale on purchase of vouchers and shares from workers. So he became the owner of 51% of shares of “Severstal” and Lipuhin – 49 %.

In 1998 there was a conflict between two proprietors – Mordashov decided to diversify business and began to buy up industrial actives: stocks of ports in St.Petersburg, Tuapse and East port, coal mines, Kolomna diesel factory, UAZ factory. Lipuhin was against of such diversification of the business. In the beginning of 2001 Mordashov redeemed from Lipuhin 49 % of “Severstal-Guarant” with the big discount; Lipuhin is still offended by Mordashov for that. The latter during had enemies that period – Zavolzhsky motor factory became a subject of his conflict to GAZ owner Oleg Deripaska. Together with the head of “Eurazholding” Alexander Abramov, Mordashov struggled for “Kuzbassugol”, the metallurgical market was divided with Iskander Mahmudov.

Source: «Forbes», 4/10/2004

In youth during internship in Austria Mordashov had a conflict with the son of the minister of ferrous metallurgy Serafim Kolpakov Sergey. The minister demanded for Yury Lipuhin dismissed Mordashov, but Lipuhin then defended the young perspective employee.

Source: «Forbes», 4/10/2004

In 2001 the first spouse of Mordashov, Elena declared that Alexey Mordashov did not help their son sufficiently, didn’t let her arrange private life and promoted her dismissal from work. For 2000 Mordashov declared his income at 80 million dollars (Mordashov denied the sum soon after that), his former wife took advantage and sued for alimony and separation of jointly acquired property (he had been paying to the wife 650 dollars monthly for the son). Mordashova demanded a share in business of the husband and developed huge information war. The businessman considered that behind that claim there were competitors of metallurgical holding – the Ural mountain-metallurgical plant and “Sibal”, in particular their owner Iskander Mahmudov who was at that time the main contender of Mordashov in the metallurgical market. In August, 2001 the former wife applied to Nikulinsky Office of Public Prosecutor of Moscow with the requirement to force former husband to give 25% of the income for education of the son from first marriage. In her opinion the underpaid alimony of Mordashov made more than semi billion dollars. In maintenance of the claim the Office of Public Prosecutor managed to arrest 32.5 % of stocks of “Severstal”. Claims of former spouse Elena Mordashova for a quarter of incomes of the husband were recognized by Moscow court as groundless, and attachment was removed from property. And after that Cherepovets court took Mordashov’s side and decided that he did not owe to the former spouse 40 percent of shares of “Severstal” (Elena Mordashova had declared such requirements in the statement of claim). As a result Elena Mordashova lost both suits.

Source: «Moscow Komsomolets», 8/20/2001, “Vedomosti”, 10/30/2002

On presidential election of 2004 Alexey Mordashov was Vladimir Putin’s authorized representative. Support of the head of the country helped Mordashov to create the steel-making company the largest in Russia, which possessed the largest actives abroad on the basis of the Cherepovets plant.

Source: www.akado.com/news

In February, 2005 Alexey Mordashov made scandal at airport Vnukovo-3. He left the plane together with two girls accompanying him in the trip. One of his companions unexpectedly found out that she had lost a buckle from the handbag. Mordashov unexpectedly began to behave inadequately: for about a half an hour he loudly shouted at employees of the airport, and demanded to pay him one thousand dollars for the lost buckle.

Source: “Life”, 2/9/2005

Alexey Mordashov tried to unite his business with metallurgical group Arcelor being absorbed, but owners of the company refused the offer of Mordashov and group “aggressors” – Mittal Steel became its owner.

Source: Investments ? 3(334) 01.02-07.02.2010

In September, 2006 Alexey Mordashov decided to hold again the post of the general director of “Severstal”; in this connection he carried out administrative reform at the enterprise. General Director Anatoly Kruchinin, the hired manager, was removed by Mordashov from the post. Later he was appointed as the General Director of «Severstal. Russian steel» (in April, 2008 management of “Severstal” divided it into three directions: «Severstal. Russian steel», «Severstal. Resources», «Severstal Internationa»). Mordashov’s return on a post of the director of according to his plan should promote success of IPO – Kruchinin was unknown person in business while Mordashov after attempt to become the largest owner of Arcelor received world popularity. In some months Mordashov arranged IPO in London which observers considered to be not successful.

Source: “Vedomosti”, 9/21/2006

Due to lack of more interesting actual metallurgical actives for purchase, Mordashov once again tried to diversify business in adjacent spheres. New object of interest of the businessman – the main Russian manufacturer of the equipment for electric power industry, “Power machines”. Structures “Severstal” then requested permissions for the transaction in Federal antimonopoly service (FAS). Stocks of “Power machines” were the personal investment of Mordashov which was not connected with mountain-metallurgical company “Severstal”. Competitors of Mordashov in struggle for “Power machines” became Victor Vekselberg and Oleg Deripaska.

Source: www.newsru.com from 6/9/2007

In December, 2003 bank “Rossiya” informed that it would make additional share issue for 30 million rubles face value in advantage of Alexey Mordashov’s “Severstal-groups” under the price in 20 times above face value. Thus, the holding should pay 600 million rubles for 9% of shares of bank with own capital of 616 million rubles. The General Director of “Rossiya” Victor Myachin explained the high cost of package with consideration of the «occurrence of the foreign investor» in the capital of bank and dynamics of its development (for a year actives and the capital have trebled). Experts consider such estimation of a minority package as absolutely inadequate. The most probable explanation of such an odd act – rupture of relations with Industrial Construction Bank (ICB) and transfer of money resources to bank “Rossiya”. At the same time Mordashov since 90th years kept partner relations with Petersburg banker Vladimir Kogan, ex-founder of ICB – in the beginning of 2001 Mordashov sold a share holding of “Metkombank” to Kogan.

Source: www.mfd.ru News

In the beginning of 2007 in the central mass-media, in particular, in newspapers “Commersant” and “Newspaper” the information began to appear that soon there would be a merge of two largest metallurgical companies – “Eurazholding” and “Severstal”. Besides it was written about nationalization of branch and government plans about it. As there were no any concrete facts confirming possibilities of such changes, there were assumptions that this “canard” in respectful newspapers was created by their owners. The owner of “Commersant” – Alisher Usmanov was simultaneously the owner of “Metalloinvest”, the largest metallurgical companies; “Newspaper” belonged to other large “metallurgist” Vladimir Lisin, the owner of Novolipetsk metallurgical plant. The purpose: to press on competitors or to force them to buy, for example, business for high price, probably even to frighten and force to cease to put up money in development of the enterprise, to sell to competitor.

Source: «Komsomol truth», 5/30/2007

In August, 2008 at Mordashov’s company “Power machine” shareholders were replaced: 63.1 % of shares of company have appeared concentrated in three offshore now. Among shareholders of OAO there were two offshore, King Rail Trading and Ashington Trading, each owns 16,55 % of his actions. Presumably, these companies are under control of Alexey Mordashov and re-structuring of actives allows him to bypass the requirement about exhibiting of the obligatory offer by minoritaries. If Alexey Mordashov exposed the offer, he should redeem shares from minoritaries with 9 percent award to market quotations. He did not expose it but bought up company shares in the off-exchange market from many sellers. Redistribution of actives gave Mordashov also the joint-stock control over the company.

Source: “Money” ? 33 (688), 8/25/2008

The Office of Public Prosecutor accused Alexey Mordashov of legislation infringement – he, having dismissed employees of Kostomuksha mining and concentrating mill, in October, 2009 replaced them with less paid Gastarbeiters. Active workers of the enterprise arranged several meetings in the city, the Office of Public Prosecutor of Karelia began investigation. Trade-union active workers were accused of extremism and Alexey Mordashov was required by the public prosecutor of republic Karelia to exclude infringement of the labor and social rights of citizens and to provide measures on prevention social and political tension in «Karelian pellet OAO. Thereof Mordashev stopped employment of migrants.

Source: Rusmet.ru 24.12.09

Alexey Mordashova’s name was mentioned in a context of preparation of amendments by the Ministry of Finance to the article 7 of the Tax code depriving Russian businessmen of possibility to minimize taxes by using the companies in the countries having agreements with Russia on avoidance of the double taxation. It was declared that Alexey Mordashov had supervised “Severstal” through the Cyprian companies, thereby minimized taxes in the federal budget of our country.

Source: www.polit.ru/news, 12/2/2009

The family conflict of Alexey Mordashov with the first wife Elena Novitskaya passed to a new stage – in 2004 she submitted the claim to the Strasbourg court where she accused Russia of partiality of justice. In January, 2010 Novitskaya’s case received a priority. Few years ago the court dismissed Novitskaya’s claim about property separation, as all agreements on property division between spouses had been signed back in 1996, and Novitskaya did not apply for shares and refused them voluntarily. Having lost the court, Elena Novitskaya still owed the state duty of 213 million rubles. In European court Novitskaya demanded from Russia for compensation at amount of 500 million dollars, referring to article 6 of the European convention about human rights. Now Russia should prove that at the moment of divorce Alexey Mordashov did not possess influence on justice.

Boris G. Zingarevich

Received DOE funds through Ener1

Boris Zingarevich – Deputy Director General of Ilim Group

http://rumafia.com/person.php?id=204

Surname: Zingarevich

Name: Boris

Fathername: Gennadievich

Position: Deputy Director General of Ilim Group

Biography:

Date of Birth: 08 July 1959.

Place of Birth: Sebezh (Pskov region).

1981: Graduated from the Leningrad Technological Institute of Pulp and Paper Industry (specialty: machines and apparatus of PPI)

1991-1992: “Tekhnoferm”, the CEO

1985-1991: Leningrad carton factory, Master of cardboard shop, Production Manager

1981-1985: Kondopozhsky PPM, mechanic

Since 1992 – Deputy Director General of Ilim

Source: www.forbesrussia.ru

Dossier:

Until the early 90’s Boris Zingarevich, along with his brother Michael worked as a mechanic at the Leningrad cardboard factory. In 1992 they created “Ilim Pulp” – a company for export of paper products. Then they got reassigned to the woods production, and over the years have bought about 30 logging companies – then timber industry enterprises were sold at very low prices.

Easy money in the timber industry caused competition that turned into criminal fights. Most of them appeared to be in Arkhangelsk region, where the main enterprise of the holding – Kotlas PPM was. In the region, the company has developed a bad reputation to the extent that one day in January 2002, half the guests did not appear on the anniversary of the governor Anatoly Efremov, having learnt that Zingarevich brothers and their partner Zakhar Smushkin were going to be there.

In spring 1999 the house of the head of the Arkhangelsk PPC Vladimir Krupchak was bombed. In the summer of 1999 the head of OAO “Solombalskiy LDK” Evgeny Drachev and his driver were kidnapped by unknown. A few months later director general of forestry complex the department of the regional administration, Alexander Bulatov was beaten. It’s difficult to say whether those events were connected to the activities of Ilim Pulp. However, its top managers- Smushkin and the Zingareviches could have argued with those people, because the struggle for supremacy in the timber industry was very tough, and Arkhangelsk region was considered a “fiefdom” of Ilim Pulp in the field. The regional law enforcement agencies had a huge dirt on the heads of the holding, but for some reason the case went “down on the brakes” every time.

For example, the same story happened with the murder of Dmitry Varvarin, Director General of ZAP “Concern” Orimi”, the main competitor of Ilim Pulp. He was shot in St. Petersburg in March of 2000. The heads of Ilim Pulp, including Boris Zingarevich had sufficient motives for the killing, including the competition and the fact that Varvarin supported the campaign of Yuri Boldyrev for the post of mayor of St. Petersburg, which was obviously to fail. In addition, Varvarin owned shares of Ilim Pulp, so he begged Smushkin and Zingarevichey as his partners to allocate money for it.

A few days after the murder of Varvarin, unknown people killed another founder of “Orimi”, Sergey Krizhan together with his family.

Law enforcement agencies considered the version according to which the two murders were connected with the management of Ilim Pulp, as the most probable, but somehow forgot about it; the team of investigators was excluded from the investigation.

Source: Kompromat.ru from 31.07.2002

The involvement of the heads of “Ilim Pulp” in the second killing has not been confirmed, as in 2005, Andrey Yurevich – the son of commercial director of “Plastpolymer”, Victor Yurevich, and two accomplices – Alexander Ulyanov and Vyacheslav Shinkarev were sentenced for that murder. Krizhan was chairman of the board of directors of the company and clashed with Viktor Yurevich.

The newspaper “Kommersant-Petersburg” ? 216 (3300) on 17.11.2005

In spring and autumn of 2000, a new wave of crime passed.

In March, the director of Agency Company, lumber exporter – Vladimir Malkov was attacked. And in October, the hotel “Polina”, owned by Krupchak was set on fire. As leader of the Arkhangelsk Pulp and Paper Mill, he was a major player in timber market and he could have possibly conflicted to the Zingarevicheses and Smushkin quite often. In 2001 Dmitry Belyaev, External Manager of LDK-4 was attacked. Again, the connection with the management of Ilim Pulp was not confirmed, but it was on the cards, as Ilim Pulp had been seeking for the rule in the forest sector, and Belyaev could have threatened the interests of their company by his business, or could have simply competed with its leaders.

Boris Zingarevich together with the companions did the business of “Ilim Pulp” not very successful, at least for their enterprises. The main one was the debts of Kotlas pulp and paper mill in Arkhangelsk region, Bratsk Timber Complex in the Irkutsk region, as well as others, they had ruthlessly cut down the forest, accidents happened frequently, the equipment was worn out or even broken. At the same salaries were miserable.

Until 2000, the shareholders of Ilim Pulp had not received dividends. Ostensibly, they were invested in production development, but in reality everything was falling apart. The problem was that all the investments in production then were exempt from taxation. Once the tax credit was abolished, dividends went.

In addition, it became clear that Kotlas Pulp came under the control of Ilim Pulp illegally: during the investment competition the money, which the company pledged to invest in a company, were transferred to its account for one day and then were sent back to the accounts of Smushkin and the Zingarevicheses. But formally everything looked legitimate.

They purchased equipment for the companies in an interesting way: at very high prices, while in fact only half of it was brought. The money also flowed to foreign accounts of the firms affiliated with Ilim Pulp.

Other financial frauds by the Zingarevicheses and Smushkin were turned in the Bratsk Timber Industry Complex (BTIC). First they formed huge debts for electricity for the budget of Bratsk and many others. And in 1998 the company established a subsidiary company OAO “Pulp and Cardboard Plant (PCP) and began to place there their liquid assets. Thus, BTIC eventually had unprofitable production and debts. The state had a stake in BTIC and did not impede the withdrawal of assets.

Only Dmitry Medvedev, the current president objected that, then in 1993 he was Director of Legal Affairs “Ilim Pulp”, and since 1998 -a member of the Board of Directors in BTIC. His relationship with the Zingarevicheses and Smushkin worsened, and in 1999 they were completely stopped – he was distracted by new concerns associated with climbing the career ladder.

In October 2001 it became known that Ilim Pulp committed deals for the sale of pulp and paper factory to offshore companies. Then the shareholders of OAO “Irkutskenergo” which was the main creditor of BTIC – appealed to the federal agencies. They failed to find out the truth because of the legal tricks: documents submitted to the commission, were valid, but for the period prior to the fraud.

After that the minority shareholders of BTIC went to court, and it ordered to reinstate the dismissed general director BTIC George Trifonov. He restored an order, paid the debts. The Zingarevicheses and Smushkin were defeated. But when in 2002 BTIC came under their control again, they began to restore the old order by dismissing disloyal people and replacing them with loyal ones, uncomprehending in the timber industry.

In addition, the holding company began the blockade of the Ust-Ilim Timber Complex (UiLPK) by not sending paid commodity to the company. All forces were driven to expell the head of the trade union, Yuri Savinkov, they wrote denunciations to the prosecutor’s office against the former Complex director Andrey Prokopov. The new head of UiLPK Vladimir Batishchev reported that Prokopov took away the production equipment. It was a slander – he just took jeeps belonging to the management company “Continental Invest”.

In early February 2002 UILPK was entirely under the control of Ilim Pulp.

Source: Kompromat.ru from 13.02.2002

In April 2002, Ilim Pulp lost control over Kotlas and Bratsk pulp and paper mills. There were two lawsuits from shareholders, after which the company’s shares were arrested, and then purchased for the benefit of companies affiliated with the actual new owners – “Basic Element”, “Continental management” and “Banking House” Sankt-Petersburg”. Oleg Deripaska was behind those machinations, who wanted to get a strategic advantage in the industry.

Source: corp-gov.ru from 29.09.2003

The management of “Ilim Pulp” disputed the transaction through numerous courts. There were information wars. The information agencies had the news spread that the Court invalidated the new board of directors elected by shareholders. It was misinformation. To gain access to the documents of Kotlassky PPM they forged execution lists and sent them to the office of registry holders. According to them it was necessary to issue registry documents. They also launched “a fake” that the registry of the Bratsk TIC was lost.

In the end, “Ilim Pulp” prevailed in the information and judicial war. Businessmen managed to agree, but the true owner of the enterprises is still unknown. Representatives of “Bazel” argued that the blocking stake in the enterprises was still in the structures of Basel. Smushkin also announced that he possessed more than 90%. As the court ruled, the enterprises passed to Ilim Pulp. Perhaps the company paid Bazel some compensation. In any case, that was a good lesson for the Zingarevicheses and Smushkin and a signal that the empire they built up may well falter without gaining a strong support.

Source: Kompromat.ru from 31.07.2002

In 2004, the media reported that Boris Zingarevich intended to acquire a large stake in English football club Everton. Upon the request of Zingarevich, that information was retracted. According to British media, the football club was really interesting to Zingarevich’s son Anton. He himself had no money to buy it, but he practiced abroad as a football manager. There is no information confirming the purchase plans. This episode is insignificant, but given that Boris Zingarevich studiously avoided the media spotlight, it looks interesting. Maybe it was advantageous for someone to put Zingarevich as a reckless spender and a wasteful man.

Source: “Kommersant» ? 155 (2994) on 24.08.2004

Also in 2004, there were rumors in the media that the company “Ilim Pulp” is going to buy the state Vneshtorgbank, and the then owner of Promstroibank Vladimir Kogan was to be an intermediary in the transaction. The price was to be inflated in more than a billion dollars. Journalists advanced the version of such a bizarre waste of public funds. They supposed, the billion would be withdraw from the State Bank and shared by individuals, including Zingarevich. In their opinion, the deal was scheduled to be held “under the guise of” Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin. However, no further speculation happened a the possible grand scam failed for unknown reasons.

Source: Kompromat.ru from 23.09.2004

In 2006 the Zingareviches and Smushkin sold half of the holding to a foreign company International Paper, the world’s largest pulp and paper corporation. In the name of the company they found a strong partner and a way to overcome the crisis that had began with the attack by Mr. Deripaska on Kotlas and Bratsk pulp and paper mills. Once they returned the enterprises, Deripaska exchanged his remaining shares to the stake in the Arkhangelsk Pulp and Paper Mill of Vladimir Kogan, and the latter gave them to the shareholders of Ilim Pulp. That is, everything returned to business as usual. However, after such a shake-up the Zingareviches and Smushkin realized they were not omnipotent, and their old methods to maintain the credibility in the timber industry had been no longer working. The holding company needed a powerful protection of the parties and they found such a support in the name of the foreign company.

Source: Journal “Secret Firmy» ? 48 (183) on 25.12.2006

In spring 2010 the authorities of St. Petersburg passed at once three buildings – the monuments of federal importance for the reconstruction of them as hotels – to the companies close to Zingarevich brothers. OOO “Lotus Oteli” received a historic building of the former barracks of the Life Guards of the Pavlovsky Regiment on the Marsovo Pole, 1. OOO “Orange-Development” acquired the building of the former court stables Office at Konyushennaya Ploshad, 1a. The third building was on Nevsky Prospekt, 7-9A, which is the Central Agency of Aviation and airline ticket place passed to OOO “IFG-Basis-Project”. Experts say that at the auction the buildings could cost a lot of money. However, they gave them under the decision taken at a closed meeting of the government. Thus, not only the interests of the city budget were violated, but of the potential buyers who could acquire the right to use the buildings through a fair competition.

Source: “Kommersant” dated 05/21/2010

FGH-NYT

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oligarch » Agent4Stars

The Russian oligarch has spent the past decade buying up nine flats across two buildings in the exclusive Lowndes Square. … John Doerr; John Frederiksen; John Paul DeJoria; John Paulson; Jon and Karen Huntsman; Jose Mourinho; Joseph Lau; Jr. Julian H. Robertson; Ken Fisher;
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