| Author | Message | | Alpha | | Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 11:19 pm Post subject: Russian Oligarchs in Israel |
| Scooter Libby. Mob Lawyer :
http://gorillaintheroom.blogspot.com/2005/10/scooter-libby-mob-lawyer.html
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http://www.counterpunch.org/weir02172005.html
February 17, 2005
Do Americans Even Care?
Russia, Israel and Media Omissions
By ALISON WEIR
As is often the case with AP's coverage of news having to do with Israel, there's a serious omission in its reporting on the Russia-Israel connection even when it involves oil and the United States.
The day after the State of the Union Address, two Interpol fugitives attended the "National Prayer Breakfast" held in Washington DC. The day before that, these fugitives from the law were the guests of honor at an hour-long meeting of the International Relations Committee on Capitol Hill, invited by ranking Democrat Tom Lantos (Calif.)
You would think it would be hot news when wanted men being hunted by European police suddenly pop up in the US particularly on Capitol Hill and at events attended by the US president.
Yet, there was not a single AP story in the US on any of this. [1] Not a single national network television or radio news program even mentioned these facts. In fact, Google and LexisNexis searches four days after these events took place turned up only three newspaper articles on them anywhere in the entire country. [2]
Who are these fugitives from the law, wanted by Interpol, who are meeting at the highest levels of the US government? And why didn't we learn of them?
Therein lies the story. These two men, it turns out, are just the tips of a colossal iceberg. And this iceberg doesn't just have 90 percent of its mass hidden under water; this iceberg is almost entirely submerged.
They are Mikhail Brudno and Vladimir Dubov, Israeli-Russian partners in the giant Russian oil company Yukos. They, along with a number of their cronies, are wanted by Interpol for allegedly bilking Russian citizens out of billions of dollars. To elude Russian prosecution, these men have taken up residence in Israel. [3]
As the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz explains: "In recent years Russian authorities began investigating [Yukos], its managers and major stockholders, many of whom are of Jewish origin. The probes caused several of the managers to flee to Israel, and resulted in Khodorkovski's [Yukos CEO] arrest and a Kremlin attack on Yukos."
The fact is that Israel is an important factor in the ongoing, nation-shaking power struggle now going on in Russia. Yet AP virtually never reports this connection. For example, a few months ago in a typical AP story on this power struggle, "Report: Russia again charges Berezovsky," [4] Moscow AP Bureau Chief Judith Ingram makes no mention anywhere that Berezovsky is an Israeli citizen, or of his many connections to Israel.
Such omissions by AP and large swaths of the American media leave Americans seriously disadvantaged in deciphering what is going on in Russia, and its profound significance for the world.
In order to make sense of this Russian power struggle, and to understand its importance to the rest of us, it is necessary to understand the usually omitted Israeli subtext. When this is understood, the friendship of such pro-Israel Congressional leaders as Rep. Lantos to fugitive Russian oil tycoons begins to make sense.
To explore this background it is often useful to turn to the Israeli press. In July a major Israeli publication, the Jerusalem Post, carried an article headlined: "Boris Berezovsky: Putin's Russia dangerous for Israel." Before describing what this contained, let us first go into a little of the background.
The Oligarchs
Boris Berezovsky is one of seven "oligarchs," as they are known both inside and outside Russia: massively rich, powerful manipulators who through violence, theft and corruption acquired a mammoth percentage (reports range from 70 to 85 percent) of Russia's resources, from its oil to the auto industry to mass media outlets.
At the same time, the group steadily gained control over much of the country's political apparatus. Using extraordinary financial resources and insider dealing, the oligarchs handpicked prime ministers and governmental leaders and barely even bothered to do this behind the scenes.
In 1997 Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky, one of the group and Russia's sometimes richest man (several of the oligarchs trade the top spot back and forth) told an interviewer before he was arrested and imprisoned by Putin last year:
"If we rank all the fields of man's activity by profitability, politics will be the most lucrative business. When we see a critical situation in the government, we draw lots in order to pick out a person from our milieu for work in power." [5]
Almost all of these oligarchs, it turns out, have significant ties to Israel. In fact, Berezovsky himself has Israeli citizenship a fact that caused a scandal of Watergate proportions in Russia in 1996 when it was exposed by a Russian newspaper. [6]
Do Berezovsky's dual loyalties really matter? Yes. In the realm of global dominance, Israel's interests and Russia's are considerably divergent. It is in Israel's interests to bring to power a regime in Russia friendly to Israel, rather than the current one under Putin, which Israeli leaders feel is supportive of its enemies. Not long ago, for example, Putin met with Syrian leaders an action highly disturbing to Israel.
Having an Israeli citizen at the highest levels of the Russian government is ideal, from Israel's point of view. In Berezovsky they had such a man. The Jerusalem Post article mentioned above is revealing. It describes Berezovsky as "the Godfather of the Oligarchs' and Kingmaker of Russia's Politics'" and reports Berezovsky's statement that "Putin's Russia is dangerous for Israel." Berezovsky goes on to assert that Putin "supports terror" in the Middle East through Russia's previous relations with Iraq and current relations with Iran. [7]
While Israelis may have been delighted at Berezovsky's position in Russia, It is not surprising that Russian citizens were somewhat less so. Finding that a powerful leader and member of the Russian Security Council was an Israeli citizen was disconcerting, at best.
As a result of the media uproar over Berezovsky's Israeli citizenship and other events, the Oligarchs' connections to Israel are widely known in Russia and elsewhere. In Israel they are covered frequently, often with adulation, including a recent hit Israeli TV series called "The Oligarchs."
"Some of its episodes," according to Israeli writer Uri Avnery, "are simply unbelievable or would have been, if they had not come straight from the horses' mouths: the heroes of the story, who gleefully boast about their despicable exploits. The series was produced by Israeli immigrants from Russia."
Avnery writes that the oligarchs used "cheating, bribery and murder," as they "exploited the disintegration of the Soviet system to loot the treasures of the state and to amass plunder amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars. In order to safeguard the perpetuation of their business, they took control of the state. Six out of the seven are Jews." [8]
According to a Washington Post story by David Hoffman, the group bought and controlled Russian governmental officials at the highest levels. After financing Yeltsin's election in 1996, Hoffman writes: "The tycoons met and decided to insert one of their own into government. They debated who and chose [Vladimir] Potanin, who became deputy prime minister. One reason they chose Potanin was that he is not Jewish, and most of the rest of them are, and feared a backlash against the Jewish bankers." [9]
In Russia, the oligarchs are deeply loathed, considered villains who worked to bleed the country dry; during their reign many Russian citizens saw their life savings disappear overnight. A new term was coined for their dominance, "semibankirshchina" (the rule of the seven bankers), and they were widely known to have wielded small, murderous armies. There are rumors that Berezovsky, subject of the respectful AP article, was even responsible for the gunning down of an American journalist, Forbes Moscow editor Paul Klebnikov.
While no one has been charged with the murder of Klebnikov, who had written a book on Berezovsky, many suspect a Berezovsky connection. As a friend of Klebnikov wrote: "Experienced expatriates in Russia shared an essential rule: Don't cross these brutal billionaires, ever, or you're likely to go home in a box." [10]
The Chechnya Connection
There is evidence that Berezovsky's responsibility for death and tragedy may be vastly greater.
"Berezovsky boasts that he caused the war in Chechnya," Avnery reports, "in which tens of thousands have been killed and a whole country devastated. He was interested in the mineral resources and a prospective pipeline there. In order to achieve this he put an end to the peace agreement that gave the country some kind of independence. The oligarchs dismissed and destroyed Alexander Lebed, the popular general who engineered the agreement, and the war has been going on since then.
"In the end," Avnery writes, "there was a reaction: Vladimir Putin, the taciturn and tough ex-KGB operative, assumed power, took control of the media, put one of the oligarchs (Mikhail Khodorkovsky) in prison, caused the others to flee (Berezovsky is in England, Vladimir Gusinsky is in Israel, another, Mikhail Chernoy, is assumed to be hiding here.)"
Yet, apart from the Washington Post, American media report on almost none of this. Instead, US coverage largely portrays Berezovsky and his crowd as American-style entrepreneurs who are being hounded by a Russian government whose actions are, to repeat the media's commonly used phrase, "politically motivated."
US news stories, even when they occasionally do hint at questionable practices, tend to use such phrases as "brash young capitalists" to describe the oligarchs. [11] For example, a long series co-produced by FRONTLINE and the New York Times referred to these men as "shrewd businessmen," and asked "what it's like to be young, Russian and newly affluent?" [12] Massive violence, dual loyalties, and control of resources are rarely, if ever, part of the picture.
When AP Moscow bureau chief Ingram was asked for this article about Berezovsky's Israeli citizenship, she claimed to know nothing about it, a curious contention for someone who has been an AP news editor in Moscow since 1999. When Ingram was queried further, she hung up the phone.
An examination of Ingram's reporting on the Berezovsky story cited above raises serious questions. Though she is located in Moscow, Ingram interviewed only two people for her news story: Berezovsky, who is in London, and Berezovsky associate Alex Goldfarb, in New York. One wonders why she interviewed none of the Russians residing around her.
Similarly, one wonders why not a single AP story has identified Berezovsky's considerable connection to Israel.
Further, nowhere does Ingram's article convey the ruthlessness of the oligarchs' actions, or the significance of their holdings, including control of its media. Unnoted in Ingram's report is the fact that her subject and fellow oligarch Vladimir Gusinsky have been two of Russia's most powerful media tycoons.
Before Putin's crackdown, according to the Washington Post, oligarchs had succeeded in seizing "the reins of Russia's print and broadcast media, vital to the evolution of the country's fledgling democracy and growth of its nascent civil society." Berezovsky crony Gusinsky, who is close friends with Rupert Murdoch and was about the launch a satellite network, fled to Israel when it appeared he would be arrested." [13]
Somehow, AP's bureau chief seems to have missed all this.
Does this matter to Americans?
AP is the major news source for the thousands of news outlets around the country who cannot afford to have their own foreign correspondents. When AP chooses not to cover something, its omission is felt throughout the nation. When national news networks and others leave out the same facts, the cover-up is almost total.
Russia, despite its current turmoil, contains enormous power. Its natural resources are gargantuan: it possesses the world's largest natural gas reserves, the second largest coal reserves, and the eighth largest oil reserves. It is the world's largest exporter of natural gas, the second largest oil exporter, and the third largest energy consumer.[14] Russia's significance on the world stage now, as in the past, is immense.
Similarly, the United States is currently the most powerful nation on earth. It is therefore essential that its citizens be accurately informed on issues of significance. Israeli citizens, Russian citizens, and citizens of nations throughout the world know the information detailed above. It is critical that American citizens be no less well informed.
For years, the neocons' push for war against Iraq was unreported by the US media. For even longer, the neocons' close connections to Israel have gone largely unmentioned in mainstream American news reports. As a result, very few Americans know to what degree many of those responsible for the tragic US invasion and occupation of Iraq have been motivated by Israeli concerns.
The omission in coverage of Iraq has been profoundly disastrous, both for the Middle East and for Americans. In fact, it is quite likely that only history will show the true extent of this disaster. It is deeply troubling to see the same kind of omission occurring on Russia.
Alison Weir is Executive Director of If Americans Knew
[1] Interestingly, an AP report sent out only on its Worldstream wire (i.e. to Europe; Britain; Scandinavia; Middle East; Africa; India; Asia; England, but not to US papers) contained information on this at the end of the report.
[2] Washington Post: "Prayer Breakfast Includes Russian Fugitives" (overall, the Post has been an exception to the general blackout on this subject); the Seattle Times, which ran the Post story, and the New York Times, in a short story on page 12 on Sunday, three days after the event. Interestingly, the NY Times story was filed from Moscow (not Washington) and quotes a "spokesman" for the two men, Charles Krause, who has worked as a correspondent in Israel for the News Hour with Jim Lehrer. In the Times story Russian attempts to prosecute these men are described as "politically motivated."
[3] This is a wise move, since Israel is known for never extraditing Jewish citizens, no matter what their crime. Even requests for such cooperation by the US, which gives Israel over $10 million per day, go unheeded by the Israeli government. Private citizens wanted for committing murder in the US, for example, are not returned for trial.
[4] Associated Press, Sept. 22, 2004
[5] "Tycoons Take the Reins in Russia," By David Hoffman, Washington Post Foreign Service, Friday, August 28, 1998; Page A01
[6] "Media and Politics in Transition: Three Models," Post-Soviet Media Law & Policy Newsletter, Issue 35, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Feb. 27, 1997
[7] "Boris Berezovsky: Putin's Russia dangerous for Israel.', Bret Stephens, The Jerusalem Post, July 5, 2005
[8]" The Oligarchs", Uri Avnery, CounterPunch, Aug. 3, 2004
[9] "Tycoons Take the Reins in Russia," By David Hoffman, Washington Post Foreign Service, Friday, August 28, 1998; Page A01,
[10] "Same Old Ruthless Russia," by Michael R. Caputo, Washingtonpost.com
[11] Washington Post, Aug 28, 1998
[12] October 2003, Sabrina Tavernise,
[13] "Powerful Few Rule Russian Mass Media," David Hoffman, Washington Post, March 31, 1997; Page A01
[14] http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/russia.html
http://www.counterpunch.org/weir02172005.html
Last edited by Alpha on Wed Nov 02, 2005 6:28 pm; edited 2 times in total | |  | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 10:53 am Post subject: Yukos oil fugitives find safe haven in the promised land |
| Yukos oil fugitives find safe haven in the promised land
Financial Times
March 22, 2005
Harvey Morris
For the Russian government, they are allegedly dangerous criminals who have made off with billions in unpaid taxes and are wanted on charges that range from embezzlement to murder. For Israel, they are potential valued investors in the country's slowly reviving economy.
Two of Israel's normally publicity-shy Russian "oligarchs" this week surfaced to announce their first investment in Israel since they sought refuge there 18 months ago in the wake of the debacle over Yukos, the Russian oil company.
In an interview with the FT, Leonid Nevzlin and Michael Brudno, whose Menatep group owns 60 per cent of Yukos shares, outlined a business strategy based on the likelihood that they will not be returning to Russia anytime soon.
The two men live a hundred yards from each other in the affluent anonymity of Herzliya, an upscale suburb north of Tel Aviv. Propped against a wall of Mr. Nevzlin's living room is a "Free Khodorkovsky" placard in honour of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the Yukos founder jailed in Russia in October, 2003 on tax evasion and fraud charges.
The two men and their partner, Vladimir Dubov, took out Israeli citizenship at about the same time, setting up home in Israel in the hope of avoiding extradition over their alleged role in the Yukos affair. As well as the fraud-related charges, Mr Nevzlin is also wanted in Russia for conspiracy to murder.
Mr Nevzlin rejected all the accusations against him and his partners and said they were part of an ideological campaign by Vladimir Putin, Russian president, against the Russian private sector. "It has been totally developed by the [former] KGB, which has a lack of tolerance for anything it does not control. This is a long-term consequence of Stalinism."
Yukos lost 60 per cent of its oil production capacity when the Russian
government ordered it to sell off its main subsidiary in December to pay
back-taxes. The buyer, state-owned Rosneft, has since filed an $11bn suit against Yukos.
Mr Nevzlin said: "The Yukos story is not over yet. The volume of illegal tax claims would be enough to confiscate the rest of the company."
Describing the Rosneft claim as "complete bullshit", Mr Brudno claimed it had been filed on orders from the Kremlin.
Announcing their investment in Israel, the two men said Menatep was acquiring a stake in the holding company of Israel Petroleum Enterprises.
They said they would be looking into further investments in fields within the group's area of expertise. Menatep already has about $100m invested in telecoms companies in eastern Europe.
Although the Russian tycoons have maintained a low profile since moving to Israel, they have not managed to escape controversy.
Mr Nevzlin's name was among those raised in connection with a current Israeli police investigation into the alleged laundering of at least $500m through a branch of Bank Hapoalim, Israel's largest bank.
"I've had no problems with the authorities," he said. "Everything is quite
transparent if you look at my assets. So much time has passed since they started the investigation, they would have had a chance to look at my accounts."
In an indication of how important Israel regards investment, Benjamin
Netanyahu, finance minister, recently said the money-laundering case had been blown out of proportion.
"Israel will lose a lot if some TV viewers think that the country does not need immigrants from the former Soviet Union and can afford to reject investments," he told the RTV1 satellite channel, owned by Vladimir Gusinsky, an exiled Russian media magnate. | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2005 11:02 am Post subject: Re: Yukos oil fugitives find safe haven in the promised land |
| Zionist (Israel first) Neocons were after Iraq's oil as well:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2005/03/17/secret-u-s-plans-for-iraq-s-oil.php
Looks like the Zionist neocons and their cronies were trying to pull the same kind of thing to the oil industry in Iraq that their Zionist cronies in Russia were trying to do to Yukos oil and similar until Putin slammed the door on them:
Are the Israelis Ready to Start WW 3?
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/articles/2003/11/14/are-the-israelis-willing-to-start-world-war-iii.php
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Russian (Jewish) Oligarchs in Israel
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2005/02/17/russian-oligarchs-in-israel.php
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Russians Ready to Vaporize the Jewish State
http://vialls.net/myahudi/sunburn.html
| Alpha wrote: | Yukos oil fugitives find safe haven in the promised land
Financial Times
March 22, 2005
Harvey Morris
For the Russian government, they are allegedly dangerous criminals who have made off with billions in unpaid taxes and are wanted on charges that range from embezzlement to murder. For Israel, they are potential valued investors in the country's slowly reviving economy.
Two of Israel's normally publicity-shy Russian "oligarchs" this week surfaced to announce their first investment in Israel since they sought refuge there 18 months ago in the wake of the debacle over Yukos, the Russian oil company.
In an interview with the FT, Leonid Nevzlin and Michael Brudno, whose Menatep group owns 60 per cent of Yukos shares, outlined a business strategy based on the likelihood that they will not be returning to Russia anytime soon.
The two men live a hundred yards from each other in the affluent anonymity of Herzliya, an upscale suburb north of Tel Aviv. Propped against a wall of Mr. Nevzlin's living room is a "Free Khodorkovsky" placard in honour of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the Yukos founder jailed in Russia in October, 2003 on tax evasion and fraud charges.
The two men and their partner, Vladimir Dubov, took out Israeli citizenship at about the same time, setting up home in Israel in the hope of avoiding extradition over their alleged role in the Yukos affair. As well as the fraud-related charges, Mr Nevzlin is also wanted in Russia for conspiracy to murder.
Mr Nevzlin rejected all the accusations against him and his partners and said they were part of an ideological campaign by Vladimir Putin, Russian president, against the Russian private sector. "It has been totally developed by the [former] KGB, which has a lack of tolerance for anything it does not control. This is a long-term consequence of Stalinism."
Yukos lost 60 per cent of its oil production capacity when the Russian
government ordered it to sell off its main subsidiary in December to pay
back-taxes. The buyer, state-owned Rosneft, has since filed an $11bn suit against Yukos.
Mr Nevzlin said: "The Yukos story is not over yet. The volume of illegal tax claims would be enough to confiscate the rest of the company."
Describing the Rosneft claim as "complete bullshit", Mr Brudno claimed it had been filed on orders from the Kremlin.
Announcing their investment in Israel, the two men said Menatep was acquiring a stake in the holding company of Israel Petroleum Enterprises.
They said they would be looking into further investments in fields within the group's area of expertise. Menatep already has about $100m invested in telecoms companies in eastern Europe.
Although the Russian tycoons have maintained a low profile since moving to Israel, they have not managed to escape controversy.
Mr Nevzlin's name was among those raised in connection with a current Israeli police investigation into the alleged laundering of at least $500m through a branch of Bank Hapoalim, Israel's largest bank.
"I've had no problems with the authorities," he said. "Everything is quite
transparent if you look at my assets. So much time has passed since they started the investigation, they would have had a chance to look at my accounts."
In an indication of how important Israel regards investment, Benjamin
Netanyahu, finance minister, recently said the money-laundering case had been blown out of proportion.
"Israel will lose a lot if some TV viewers think that the country does not need immigrants from the former Soviet Union and can afford to reject investments," he told the RTV1 satellite channel, owned by Vladimir Gusinsky, an exiled Russian media magnate. | | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2005 6:55 pm Post subject: Khodorkovsky gets 9 years |
| Forwarded:
It's interesting that the only US government official quoted in the BBC report is Holocaust activist Tom Lantos. Here's a letter to the editor of the NY Post from Alison Weir of If Americans Knew on the convictions:
To the Editor:
The Post used to be one of the best sources on Russia’s “Oligarchs,” the men whose insider trading, ostentatious corruption, and ruthless armies led to ordinary Russians’ life savings disappearing in weeks and widespread misery throughout the country. While these men have often been compared to America’s robber barons, this appellation actually gives them more credit than they deserve, since the robber barons at least created companies, while these men only stole them.
It is disturbing, therefore, to see the Post, rather than reporting itself on this topic, instead carrying an Associated Press report,“Russian Oil Tycoon Sentenced to Nine Years," that is so breathtakingly blatant in its bias. The article contains 15 paragraphs on "tycoon" Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s defense and one paragraph on his criminality. While there have been massive demonstrations against Khodorkovsky representing the vast majority of Russians, AP devotes three paragraphs to small “gatherings” in his favor.
It is easy to empathize with journalists’ difficulties in writing about Khodorkovsky – after all, Forbes Moscow editor Paul Klebnikov was killed last summer following his series of exposes on the oligarchs. Nevertheless, it is important for Post readers to be accurately and fully informed on the complex struggle over control of Russia’s oil. Rather than providing some of the many important facts on this struggle – for example, that Henry Kissinger has been a prime lobbyist for Khodorkovsky and that Khodorkovsky’s oil shares are now in the hands of renowned banker Lord Jacob Rothschild – the Post gave us Khodorkovsky’s defense brief. We need more.
Sincerely,
Alison Weir
Executive Director
If Americans Knew
914 Westwood Blvd. #235
----- Original Message -----
Subject: Khodorkovsky gets 9 years
Yukos ex-chief jailed for 9 years
Former Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been jailed for nine
years after being found guilty of six charges including tax evasion.
But his ordeal may not be at an end as Russian prosecutors have said
they will soon bring fresh charges against him.
The news came as Mr Khodorkovsky was found guilty of six of the seven
charges of tax evasion, fraud and embezzlement he had faced.
Meanwhile, his lawyers said he would take his appeal to Europe.
As well as appealing against the ruling at Russia's Supreme Court, Mr
Khordokovsky will take the case to the European Court of Human
Rights, they added.
US President George W Bush said that he had expressed concerns to
Moscow that Mr Khodorkovsky was judged guilty before even standing
trial.
He added that the US would watch the case as it continued.
Hard time
Mr Khodorkovsky is actually expected to serve seven-and-a-half years
in jail as the court said his prison term should be reduced because
of the amount of time served on remand since his arrest in 2003.
He will serve his time at a medium security prison camp.
But in a statement read out by his lawyer he pledged to continue his
public activities behind bars.
It added he would set up "charitable foundations" to support Russian
poetry and philosophy and set up a union for Russian inmates.
It seems that this political trial before a kangaroo court has come
to a shameful conclusion
Tom Lantos, US Congressman
During the 11-month trial, the court did drop one charge against Mr
Khodorkovsky - relating to his 1994 acquisition of fertiliser company
Apatit - as it fell outside the Russian justice system's 10-year
statute of limitations.
His business partner Platon Lebedev was also jailed for nine years on
the same charges; a third co-defendant, Andrei Krainov, was given a
five-and-a-half year suspended sentence.
'Harsh' sentence
Mr Khodorkovsky and Mr Lebedev were also ordered to pay 17bn roubles
(£330m; $600m) in taxes and penalties.
"I think [the sentence] is a testament to Basmanny justice," Mr
Khodorkovsky told the court. Basmanny, the name of the court where
the Yukos hearings began, has become a byword among his supporters
for corrupt justice.
MIKHAIL KHODORKOVSKY
1963 - Born in Moscow to factory-working parents
1980s - Sets up computer and software business with fellow students
at Mendeleeva Chemical Technical Institute
1987 - Founds Menatep bank
1994 - Buys fertiliser company Apatit at auction
1995 - Buys oil company Yukos for $300m, with Menatep assuming $2bn
in debt
October 2003 - Arrested on charges of embezzlement, tax evasion and
fraud
June 2004 - Court case begins
May 2005 - Found guilty of six of seven charges and sentenced to nine
years in jail
Commentators said that the sentence - just one year lower than the
maximum that could be imposed - was a harsh one.
Outside the court, US Democrat congressman Tom Lantos said: "It seems
that this political trial before a kangaroo court has come to a
shameful conclusion.
"It is obvious that the conclusion of the trial was pre-determined
politically and Mr Khodorkovsky could have been left at home and the
trial could have been conducted without the prison circus."
Politically motivated
Mr Khodorkovsky's supporters have claimed that the trial was
politically motivated punishment from the Kremlin in response to his
financing of pro-Western opposition political parties.
"The sentence had to be long enough so Khodorkovsky was in jail in
2008, at the next presidential elections," political analyst Marsha
Lipman at the Carnegie Moscow Centre added.
"There will be a lot of criticism in the West, no question about it."
However the Russian prosecutor's office "categorically denied" that
the case was politically motivated.
"Specific serious crimes were committed and have been proved.
Astronomical sums were stolen," spokeswoman Natalia Vishnyakova said.
Countersuit
The charges against him go back to Russia's hasty privatisation
programme in the 1990s under which Mr Khodorkovsky was able to form
Yukos, formerly Russia's largest oil company.
Since Mr Khodorkovsky has been behind bars, Russian authorities have
broken up Yukos after hitting it with a bill for $28bn in back taxes.
Yukos, meanwhile, has sued the Russian government for 324bn roubles,
arguing that it is due compensation for the break-up, which saw its
main production unit sold off to a competitor.
The company says the break-up will eventually ruin it.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/4595289.stm | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 8:41 am Post subject: Russian Jewish Oligarchs Under Siege |
| Russian Jewish Oligarchs Under Siege
_Jerusalem Post_ (http://www.jpost.com/)
The rise and fall of Russia's Jewish tycoons
By Yehezkel Laing
Nov. 6, 2005
He lives in a $3.7 million home in Herzliya Pituah and his net worth
was
recently estimated at $4.1 billion. He was just crowned "the richest
person in
Israel" by the Israeli press. No, it's not Steff Wertheimer, not Lev
Leviev
and not even Sammy Ofer. Try Leonid Nevzlin.
If the name is unfamiliar, you're not alone. Only a little over a year
in
Israel, Nevzlin recently became the major shareholder in Russia's
biggest oil
company, Yukos, after its principal shareholder Mikhail Khodorkovsky,
who is
in trouble with the Russian authorities, gave him his 60 percent
share.
To understand the size of Yukos, consider that in 2002 alone it posted
annual revenues of $11 billion and a net profit of $3b.
But the title of richest Israeli may be premature, as Nevzlin's wealth
is
only on paper. The assets of the company he controls have been seized
by the
government, which is seeking more than $27 billion in back taxes. Some
say that
Yukos's strength was the source of its weakness. By becoming so
wealthy and
so powerful, the Yukos group posed a threat to the powers that be.
Nevzlin claims that Putin is taking revenge on him and Khodorkovsky
for
supporting Putin's opponents in the last elections. To escape an
arrest warrant,
Nevzlin fled to Israel in October 2003. He came with two other Jewish
heads
of Yukos, Vladimir Duvdov and Michail Brodno, who together own 22% of
the
company, or $7 billion worth. Yukos head Khodorkovsky, also Jewish,
wasn't as
lucky. Once considered Russia's richest man, worth an estimated $15
billion, he
has sat for the past year in a Russian jail. According to the Russian
press,
Nevzlin took control of Khodorkovsky's stake in Bank Menatep under a
shareholder agreement foreseeing a transfer of ownership if Yukos were
stripped of
substantial assets.
To recover punitive tax claims against Yukos, the Russian government
recently sold Yukos's daughter company Yugensk at what many believe
was a rigged
auction. Yugensk pumps one million barrels a day, accounting for 60%
of Yukos's
total output. The winner of the auction was Baikal Finans, an unknown
outfit
registered in a provincial Russian town. It paid $9.4b. for the
company. Only
a few weeks later the state oil firm, OAO Rosneft, took over Baikal
Finans
and installed its own management team, so Yugensk is now back in the
hands of
the Russian state.
Some have expressed fears that the re-nationalization of Yukos
represents a
reversal of the privatization of Russian industry and could lead to
lower GDP
growth. Economists say that if the fall of Yukos was an anomaly, then
the
Russian economy need not be overly concerned, but if it is part of a
grander
political plan, then trouble lies ahead.
THE FAIRYTALE story of how Nevzlin and other Jews became Russian
oligarchs
starts almost 20 years ago. In 1987, Nevzlin and Brodno were simple
computer
programmers working for the government. One day Nevzlin saw a small ad
­ a
marketing company was offering its services to computer firms. He
called and
Khodorkovsky answered. The two men eventually became friends, and
together
established Bank Menatep.
Shortly thereafter, Prime Minister Boris Yeltsin began the
privatization
scheme which was to become the source of wealth for many Jewish
tycoons. His
government began distributing vouchers in public companies to Russian
citizens.
But to the disappointment of the public, the vouchers turned out to be
practically worthless. Many citizens didn't even save them.
Khodorkovsky and Nevzlin didn't mind that the vouchers were considered
worthless; they realized their true value, and via Menatep began
buying them up,
often at laughable prices. Almost 10 years later, in 1996, Yeltsin
encountered
big political problems and couldn't manage more than 10% in the polls.
Desperate for money, he turned to Menatep. The bank reportedly gave
him $200m. for
his election campaign ­ $197 more than the law allowed. After his
return
to power, Yeltsin thanked them by offering them their choice of shares
in
publicly owned natural resource companies. It is believed that some
70%-control
in Russia's biggest public gas, oil and metals companies was
distributed to
a small group of businessmen at that time.
Yukos, for all its problems with the government, is considered the
first
major Russian company to issue transparent financial statements. Just
prior to
its fall, there was a plan to merge it with Sibneft Oil, owned by
another
Russian Jewish tycoon, Roman Abramovitch. This would have made them
the
fourth-largest oil company in world. "Khodorkovsky was so certain of
his position,
especially thanks to his close connections to the US Democratic party,"
says
Eli Krichevsky, business editor at Vesty, Israel's most popular Russia
newspaper.
But when the Democrats fell from power he lost his overseas support
and his
star began to fall. Khodorkovsky has said that Yukos would have been
worth
$50 billion today if not for the persecution of the Russian
authorities. Now
its capitalization is a mere $1.5b. according to Nevzlin.
ABRAMOVITCH, WHO lives safely in England, is still the Kremlin's man,
according to managing editor of Vesty, Yevgeny Seltz. But Seltz
believes it could
also happen to him.
"There are rumors that the Russian State Ombudsman has checked up on
Abramovitch and found that he bought England's Chelsea soccer team
with the public
funds of a Russian province he governs. "Nevzlin hasn't taken the
charges
sitting down. He says he plans to sue the Russian government for
damages.
"As shareholders, we intend to demand compensation for damages in all
available international courts," he was quoted as saying by the Moscow
business
daily, Vedomosti. Nevzlin expects cooperation from all shareholders
"because in
the current circumstances a consolidated position and joint efforts in
safeguarding property are more important than ever."
But that won't be easy. US investors have already filed a class action
lawsuit in an American court accusing Yukos's managers of failing to
inform them
of the risk involved due to the government investigation of their tax
break
schemes.
Nevzlin has two daughters from two marriages, one 20 and one 26. Both
live
in London. Besides his business pursuits, Nevzlin was a "lord" in
Russia's
upper house. He was also very active in Russian education, and was
rector of the
Russian State University for Humanities in Moscow.
Why Nevzlin chose to come to Israel is a good question. Some would say
it's
because Israel is one of only two countries that don't have a
deportation
agreement with Russia ­ the other being England. But there's more
to it than
that. Nevzlin has a long connection with the Jewish community. He was
former
head of Russia's Jewish Federation and a Zionist activist. Since he
came to
Israel, he has become active in several philanthropic pursuits. He
established the Nevzlin Center for the Study of Jews of Russia and
Eastern Europe at
The Hebrew University. He is also a big supporter of the Diaspora
Museum,
which he thinks can eventually become the main Jewish museum in the
world.
Nevzlin has connections to Israel's politicians, including Finance
Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu. The two have met several times, and reportedly
like each
other. Netanyahu even once tried doing a business deal with Nevzlin,
but
nothing came of it.
Since arriving here, he has invested in several Israeli hi-tech
companies on
the advice of his financial advisers. He also sees great potential in
the
local tourist industry. He believes Israel offers the widest variety
of
attractions of any country and only lacks good marketing. But all that
depends on
funds and Krichevsky says he doesn't have any.
"Most of Nevzlin's money is stuck in Yukos. He probably came to Israel
with
only $10m," says Krichevsky.
Krichevsky believes it is unlikely that any of the Yukos heads will
ever see
their money again. As they say; easy come, easy go. | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
