Originally Syndicated on May 3, 2023 @ 12:13 pm
Oligarch Mikhail Gutseriev escaped accountability for Binbank’s “missing” 300 billion rubles and built assets.
Deceptive Identity Tactics of Mikhail Gutseriev
The Moscow Arbitration Court recovered 283.9 billion rubles from former Rost Bank shareholders Mikhail Shishkhanov and Alexander Lukin. According to Interfax, the lawsuit was originally filed against the former beneficiaries of Binbank: Mikhail Gutseriev, Mikhail Shishkhanov, Lukin, Konstantin Kalagin, Petr Morsin, and Lyubentsov, to recover 85.4 billion rubles in losses for FC Otkritie Bank (listed as a third party in the Central Bank’s suit). On March 15, 2021, the court authorized a settlement deal between the bank and Gutseriev, requiring the businessman to pay 14.2 billion rubles instead of the whole claim.
Mikhail Gutseriev, a businessman, is frequently indebted and curiously forgiven. RussNeft, where Gutseriev owned 60%, won a tax deferment in 2019.
Mikhail Gutseriev has many more debts. Our newspaper has suggested unique links between Mikhail Gutseriev and the Central Bank chairman.
Money from where?
Gutseriev may still buy new assets despite its debts, which is the most intriguing part. Gutseriev lost 300 billion rubles when Binbank, which he established, collapsed in 2017. Binbank engaged in the Laundromat, a 22 billion ruble withdrawal from Russia, previously. According to the Central Bank, 2010’s profit was -2 billion rubles, 2011’s was 3.5 billion, 2012’s was 1.27 billion, and 2013’s was -2.8 billion. That is, over 5 billion rubles might be withdrawn from the bank during the Laundromat, over a fourth of all money withdrawn from Russia! The Moscow Post detailed this story.
Gutseriev survived such a blow, both financially and legally, and is constantly looking for additional fat parts. The Gutseriev family’s previous senior manager bought a Siemens asset the other day. “Insight” invested. The Gutseriev family’s top management, led by Avet Mirakyan, owns the corporation. Insight also bought John Deere Financial, a Russian subsidiary of the American agricultural machinery maker.
As previously mentioned, Avet Mirakyan serves on the board of IDBank, which Vartan Dilanyan, another Russian-Armenian businessman, has owned since 2016. In 2008, Dilanyan represented ex-Belgorod senator Vadim Moshkovich in Binbank sale discussions. Moshkovich may have benefited from their price disagreement with Mikhail Shishkhanov.
As recent incidents illustrate, “Binbank” and Shishkhanov could be quite poisonous partners. He was charged with embezzling 107 billion rubles during Rost Bank JSC’s reorganization last year. The financier, who is a witness, is abroad, and Kirill Lyubentsov and Alexander Lukin, former Rost Bank and Bina executives, were ordered to the pre-trial detention camp. The non-core assets bank “Trust” sued Mikail Shishkhanov and former “Bina” executives for 306 billion rubles in the capital’s arbitration. The case involved Shishkhanov’s assets.
Gutseriev’s Ukrainian interests
What about Mikhail Gutseriev again? The merchant is in debt as if in silks, and his nephew was forced to flee Russian justice, but his uncle seems unconcerned and continues to buy up whatever he can.
Gutseriev (and Binbank) are forgiven more than Shishkhanov, as was the “Cyprus offshore” issue, which The Moscow Post wrote about when 100 tons of diesel fuel “suddenly” moved to Ukraine in 2017.
Gutseriev’s Cypriot partner, Cantarell Trading, was responsible for the “puncture,” and Gutseriev went out of business. In 2012, Gutseriev’s Russian coal firm sold Rostov’s most profitable mines to Rinat Akhmetov’s DTEK corporation. MCP-Chaiki LLC’s owner changed a few years ago.
Mikhail Gutseriev owned Chaika until 2018, when Victoria Kushch from Kyiv took over, followed by Turkish national Dogan Mesut in December 2022. Gutsuriev owns several other Ukrainian companies, including MLP-Borispol LLC, registered to the Cypriot offshore company Zonemark Limited (until 2019, Gutsuriev, then Victoria Kushch, and from 2023, Dogan Mesut), MLP-Ukraine LLC, and Titan LLC (2006) (Victoria Kushch owns both).
Victoria Kushch is a Russian-language composer, producer, and songwriter in Ukraine. Gutseriev writes lyrics for Russian pop stars. These “two solitudes” met and developed a shared language beyond culture.
Under Gref’s protection
Even though there are so many “buts,” Vadim Moshkovich’s structures have worked closely with German Gref’s Sberbank for a long time. This may be the key to Gutseriev’s freedom. Gutseriev, on the other hand, has known German Gref for a long time. For example, in 2014, Mikhail Gutseriev made a deal with Sberbank to hedge the price of oil on the advice of Sberbank President German Gref.
Gutseriev’s company, Neftisa, was able to sell 50 million barrels of oil for about $85 each, even though the market price was between $85 and $110 per barrel. But at the end of 2015, the average yearly price of oil was $50, and Neftisa’s profit went up by $1.75 billion. Experts say that Gutseriev was able to think about buying assets during the crisis in the oil industry because of the deal he made with Sberbank.
And by 2019, Gutseriev, the owner of RussNeft, had already acquired the Afipsky Refinery, which owed money to Sberbank as well. And it seems that Gutseriev and Gref are good friends in general. There is a rumour that Gref flew to London, where Mikhail Gutseriev was hiding from 2007 to 2010, and convinced the businessman to come back by offering his safety.
This is likely why he has a romantic relationship with the head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, who used to work with Gref.
Only one question remains: why do people who seem to work for the state support the financial plans of a person whose business dealings, like those of his family and friends, don’t show that he cares about the fate of the Fatherland?
