Originally Syndicated on May 17, 2023 @ 9:24 am
Dmitry Vladimirovich Kamenshchik, a Russian businessman, is the chairman of Moscow Domodedovo Airport, the airport’s only shareholder, and the owner of DME Ltd., the airport’s holding company.
According to Forbes, he is rated #52 among Russia’s wealthiest businessmen as of August 2022, with a net worth of $1.7 billion.
Who is Dmitry Kamenshchik
Dmitry Kamenshchik was born in Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg, Russia) into a family of radiophysicists. Dmitry Kamenshchik’s parents originally met at the Urals Polytechnic Institute (UPI), which is now Ural State Technical University. His mother controlled a top-secret geodesy and mapping company, and his father oversaw Uralgiprotrans’ computer center.
After graduating from high school, Dmitry Kamenshchik enrolled at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute’s Faculty of Physics and Energy Engineering.
Between 1986 and 1988, Dmitry Kamenshchik was drafted into the Soviet Army’s armored regiments for regular military service.
Dmitry Kamenshchik enrolled at Moscow State University’s philosophy degree in 1990 but later dropped out to pursue his unrealized, ambitious business goals.
Dmitry Kamenshchik persisted in his studies, and in 2000 he got his degree in Economic Sociology from Moscow State University’s Sociological Faculty. In 2003, he received his Ph.D. in Economics from Moscow State University.
Dmitry Kamenshchik was arrested on February 18, 2016, in connection with the Domodedovo International Airport explosion on January 24, 2011. He was charged with criminal negligence after 37 individuals died as a result of his actions.
Domodedovo Airport and Kamenshchik both denied any wrongdoing, arguing that airport security was completely compliant with all applicable legislation at the time of the disaster.
Business
Anton Bakov, an Ekaterinburg entrepreneur, established JV East Line in February 1991 to provide air transportation services. Dmitry Kamenshchik claims that he was then appointed as the newly established JV’s general representative in Moscow.
JV East Line was decommissioned in 1992. Kamenshchik saw it as a chance to seize control of the East Line brand and continue the airline industry.
East Line began operating charter flights to Europe and Asia on leased aircraft in 1993. Dmitry Kamenshchik launched the same-name airline, gradually growing its fleet and climbing to the top of the air cargo industry.
East Line Company began its principal operations on the grounds of Domodedovo Airport in 1994, comprising catering, handling, and freight operations. The Airport provided old plants and equipment in exchange for East Line handling the refurbishment of airport facilities and modernizing its management system.
1998 was a genuinely momentous year for Dmitry Kamenshchik. It was at this point that his company and his own frantic work began to pay dividends. The Domodedovo airdrome complex (runways, taxiways, and aircraft parking stands), which is not privately owned, was leased to East Line for 75 years, allowing it to operate for an extended length of time.
The state investigated the aforementioned lease and ownership rights transfer agreements. Since 2004, the Federal Agency for State Property Management (Rosimuschestvo) has been attempting in court to challenge the award of these rights to East Line. However, the Supreme Arbitration Court’s Presidium issued three judgments supporting the legitimacy of the agreements between 2006 and 2008.
In an effort to improve airport connectivity, Dmitry Kamenshchik made a brief foray into the machinery business in 2002. There was a little scarcity of electric trains at the time, and he recognized promise in this industry. As a result, his company purchased a 98.19% share in Demikhovskiy Machinery Factory.
To add to this spending spree, Transmash, a project office for transport engineering, was founded, and two big acquisitions were made: Tsentrosvar Factory and Oktyabrskiy Electric Car Repair Factory. East Line liquidated both its own airline firm and machinery assets at a profit in 2004 as Kamenshchik elected to take his foot off the non-core business pedal and focus on the airport business.
Because of Kamenshchik’s management system, Domodedovo Airport has been the busiest airport in Russia in terms of passenger traffic since 2005, and it was rated one of the busiest airports in Europe in 2011.
Following the terrorist attack at the Domodedovo facility in January 2011, law enforcement officials investigated who owned the facility.
In the run-up to the IPO, the holding company released information on the final beneficiary on the London Stock Exchange website, designating Kamenshchik as its only owner. However, due to the current poor market conditions, the IPO has been postponed.
Dmitry Kamenshchik, head of the board of directors at Moscow Domodedovo Airport, was legally recognized as the airport’s ultimate owner on the website in September 2013.
DME Ltd., Dmitry Kamenshchik’s parent company, establishes a second arm, Aerotropolis, to complement its airport activities. The primary goal is to create a synergistic conurbation surrounding the airport that includes business parks, logistical and transit hubs, shopping malls, industrial centers, and resort hotels.
The massive $455 million ‘Flying Fox yacht, which is tied to Russian businessman Dmitry Kamenshchik, is presently stranded in the Dominican Republic after US authorities demanded an investigation into the vessel.
Some of the key points are:
- The Flying Fox yacht, which is said to be owned by Russian millionaire Dmitry Kamenshchik, has been stranded in the Dominican Republic since March 21.
- Dominican Republic officials prevented the vessel from leaving the country after receiving a request from the US administration.
- Last Friday, Homeland Security Investigations agents assessed the superyacht to see if there were any ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Let’s see the full story here:
A $455 million superyacht allegedly owned by Russian businessman Dmitry Kamenshchik remains anchored in the Dominican Republic after the US government ordered an investigation into the vessel following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
After arriving from St. Barts on March 21, the Flying Fox was barred from leaving the Caribbean island.
The opulent ship arrived in the resort town of La Roma to refuel and replenish food supplies. It took off before being forced to land at the Don Diego Port in Santo Domingo.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents visited the boat last Friday as part of their inquiry, accompanied by officials from the Foreign Relations Ministry, General Directorate of Customs, and Office of the Attorney General.
The Flying Fox, a $455 million yacht reportedly linked to Russian billionaire Dmitry Kamenshchik, owner of Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport, is currently anchored in the Dominican Republic as the US government investigates any possible links to President Vladimir Putin as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Homero Figueroa, a spokesperson for Dominican President Luis Abinader, stated on Tuesday that the Attorney General’s office has the findings of an investigation into the Flying Fox superyacht, which is docked in Santo Domingo while US and Dominican officials investigate whether it is linked to Russian oligarch Dmitry Kamenshchik.
According to Dominican Republic authorities, the Flying Fox has 57 crew members but no passengers.
The United Kingdom, European Union, and the United States have not sanctioned Russian billionaire Dmitry Kamenshchik. He is the owner of Domodedovo Airport, one of Russia’s busiest.
Homero Figueroa, Dominican President Luis Abinader’s press secretary, went on Color Vision’s Today morning show and reported that the Office of the Attorney General received the results of its investigation.
‘If something is discovered that contradicts Dominican Republic legal regulations, we will proceed in accordance with the law. If there are no irregularities, the yacht will be released,’ Figueroa stated.
While there has been mutual collaboration with their US counterparts, Figueroa stressed that each agency has a ‘distinct aim.’
A helicopter lands on the deck of the opulent Flying Fox yacht, which has been docked in the Dominican Republic since March 21.
U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents visited the Flying Fox yacht last Friday
Dominican institutions operate within the parameters set by the regulations, and the inquiry conducted by Dominicans has a completely different goal than the (United States) institution that was present in the Dominican Republic,’ Figueroa noted. We are referring to the prospective finds that the Dominican institution (Customs) may discover during the yacht raid.
According to Dominican authorities, Kamenshchik’s 466-foot yacht has 57 staff members but no passengers.
According to Boat International, the Flying Fox is the world’s largest yacht available for rental, having entertained Jay-Z and Beyonce. It measures 104 feet above the waterline. The yacht features a pool, spa, gym, and 11 cabins.
According to Boat International, the Flying Fox is the world’s largest yacht available for rental, having entertained Jay-Z and Beyonce. It measures 104 feet above the waterline. The yacht has a pool, a Jacuzzi, a gym, and 11 staterooms.
According to Boat International, the Flying Fox is the world’s largest yacht available for rental, having entertained Jay-Z and Beyonce. It measures 104 feet above the waterline.
The yacht, which was built in 2019, has a pool, spa, gym, and 11 cabins for a total of 25 passengers.
The investigation into the yacht allegedly linked to Kamenshchik, who owns Moscow’s Domededovo Airport, one of Russia’s largest, comes as the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States have zeroed in on Russian billionaires and confiscated their vessels, homes, and jets for allegedly bankrolling President Vladimir Putin.
Sam Tucker, the head of superyachts at VesselsValue, recently told Forbes that oligarchs’ ownership of big vessels “is notoriously private.”
Yachts are usually held by offshore corporations. At least 43 yachts are valued at at least $5.4 billion. Russian millionaires with sanctioned assets own 22 vessels totaling $3.1 billion.
‘Technically, these ships are owned by a special purpose vehicle, which is frequently in a different country than the beneficial owner,’ Tucker explained. ‘There are other lease systems, which remove the [owner] even farther from the asset.’
On Tuesday, British authorities seized a $49 million yacht belonging to a Russian businessman. The Phi was boarded by officials in Canary Wharf, east of London.
The warship is the first to be arrested in the United Kingdom as a result of sanctions imposed as a result of the conflict in Ukraine.
It’s simply another sign that we will not stand by as Putin’s cronies sail around the world in these kinds of yachts while people in Ukraine suffer,’ said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.
When you see what he’s doing to Ukraine, what he’s doing to people’s lives, it can’t be proper to have a yacht like this here in London that can just sail away, and that’s why we’ve impounded it, and blocked its capacity to go anywhere right now.
Finland seized 21 yachts last week while investigating if they were owned by Russian oligarchs.
A deep dive into the inside story of the Arrest of Dmitry Kamenshchik
Dmitry Kamenshchik, Russia’s 27th-richest tycoon, packed a rucksack with some spare clothing, a toothbrush, and shoes without laces on the morning of February 18.
According to his lawyer, the millionaire owner of Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport was emotionless. Three current and former airport executives had been imprisoned ten days prior. Kamenshchik calculated the chances and concluded that he had a good chance of joining them.
He arrived in Moscow around midday from his suburban woodland home. He sat with an investigator in a tight room on the eighth floor of an office building for seven dreary hours; a space that appeared to have not been painted since the days of the Soviet Union.
Once the papers were completed, FSB agents transported him to a cell. He was accused of being indirectly responsible for the murder of 37 people in a terror assault at his airport in 2011.
The arrest sent shockwaves through the community. According to investigators, the airport’s security system was criminally lax. Everyone else, including pundits, attorneys, and business leaders, believes the charges are fabricated, have no legal basis, and are being used to deprive him of his airport. If proven guilty, Kamenshchik and his associates may face up to ten years in prison.
The case has drawn analogies to the cases of Russian billionaires Vladimir Gusinsky, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and Vladimir Yevtushenkov, who were imprisoned on spurious allegations and lost some or all of their assets under President Vladimir Putin.
Mikhail Kolpakov, Dmitry Kamenshchik’s lawyer, detailed a conversation between state investigators and his client that highlighted the situation’s cynicism. As the interview came to a close, the incredulous investigator questioned Kamenshchik why he hadn’t fled the country after seeing the incarceration of his colleagues just days before.
Autistic Genius
Kamenshchik’s response demonstrated a tenacity that could hamper any attempt to take Domodedovo away from him.
He is devoid of emotion, feelings, and personal connections,” according to Sergei Kapchuk, a former Russian state official who met him in the 1990s. “His company is everything. He is a money-making machine.”
When Kapchuk met him in 1992, Dmitry Kamenshchik had recently finished a philosophy course and was working as a tour guide for an airline out of a three-room apartment in southwest Moscow with his girlfriend and her young son.
According to Kapchuk, two males broke into the residence one day. They held a grenade to the boy’s head and threatened him, saying, “Hand over your cash or we all die.” Dmitry Kamenshchik’s business would have ended if the money had been lost. Kamenshchik dashed himself across the room, snatched the explosive from the criminals’ hands, and hurried them out.
“He’s practically autistic,” says Anton Bakov, a businessman and politician who hired him as a pilot in the early 1990s. Dmitry Kamenshchik is a business genius, according to Bakov and everyone else who has met him.
In 1990, Dmitry Kamenshchik began organizing small charter flights for Bakov, ferrying Polish visitors to Asia via Moscow with “perfect” efficiency. By 1992, the two men were transporting Russia’s new class of small traders to China. The passengers would disembark, buy as many electronics and clothes as they could fit into a suitcase, and transport them back to Russia to resell for a profit. Dmitry Kamenshchik started his own airline, East Line, and flew freight. He began working in Domodedovo in the mid-1990s.
Domodedovo, 20 kilometers south of Moscow, was in disarray at the time. The airport serviced internal flights to Central Asia and Russia’s eastern territories during the Soviet era. It was cramped, chaotic, and there was nowhere to sit. On the flights, there was frequently only standing room. Dmitry Kamenshchik and East Line started making deals with the airport to upgrade its infrastructure piece by piece. He privatized the buildings and cemented his control along the way.
Domodedovo became Russia’s first modern airport under his leadership. Dmitry Kamenshchik established a fast train link between Domodedovo and central Moscow in 2002. He bought factories to construct trains since there were none. Under modern glass and steel, the old concrete terminal vanished. Dmitry Kamenshchik claims to have invested more than $1.5 billion in Domodedovo over a decade and a half. By the mid-2000s, it had grown to become the country’s largest airport; in 2014, it handled more than 30 million passengers per year, and Dmitry Kamenshchik estimated it was worth more than $8 billion.
Yevgeny Chichvarkin, another of Russia’s top industrialists, once said, “Out of s**t he made a chocolate candy.”
Is it really understandable?
It wasn’t all plain sailing. As the airport grew in popularity, it was subjected to a barrage of lawsuits. Since 2001, some 6,500 legal claims have been filed against the airport, according to Kamenshchik in an interview with the business journal Vedomosti in 2014. Among them were allegations that East Line delivered illegal goods. The government fought a four-year campaign to reverse Domodedovo’s privatization and return it to state ownership in the mid-2000s. Domodedovo, according to Dmitry Kamenshchik, has a team of more than 100 in-house lawyers to handle the caseload.
These disagreements could become heated at times. A video of Kamenshchik’s business colleague, Valery Kogan, frolicking with two young men in skimpy underwear was released to the internet in 2011.
Dmitry Kamenshchik has become risk-averse, even paranoid, as a result of the strain. To lessen his exposure to takeovers and attacks, he disguised his ownership behind a series of offshore front companies for more than a decade. He told Vedomosti that he was frequently confused if the state’s incessant stream of checks, inspections, and litigation was the state’s lawful role as overseer or motivated by malicious interests.
His defense approach is befitting of a man who is nearly autistic in his obsession with the letter of the law. He denies taking kickbacks or making arrangements with powerful people. Authorities’ rigorous scrutiny, he claims, is “a kind of penalty” for his failure to play by corrupt rules. The airport’s lawyers have dismissed the majority of the allegations.
However, the uncertainty produced by the flood of litigation has impeded investment. To allow the airport to expand, the government has taken years to authorize new runways and expand road connectivity. This has hampered the expansion of Domodedovo and allowed Moscow’s two other airports, Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo, to catch up. Both airports are jointly owned by the government.
The worries keep coming. A few years ago Kamenshchik was approached by a potential buyer for Domodedovo. Dmitry Kamenshchik says he was told: “You do understand? … They’ll take it all. Or unite it with state airports. If you don’t agree to our terms you’ll be making the biggest mistake of your life.”
New Attack
Out of tragedy arose a new opportunity to put pressure on Domodedovo.
On January 24, 2011, a 20-year-old called Magomed Yevloyev entered the airport with up to 5 kg of explosives. Islamist separatists had dispatched him to Moscow from a hamlet in Russia’s North Caucasus. He exploded an explosive under his shirt while mingling with the crowds in the terminal building, killing 37 people and injuring more than 170.
Investigators set out right once to establish that Domodedovo’s administration and owner shared blame for the crime. According to them, airport security should have required everyone entering the facility to go through a metal detector, which would have allowed them to find Yevloyev’s bomb.
The investigators’ claims have been consistently refuted. Several Russian courts have determined that there was no statute requiring Domodedovo to undertake total checks at all entrances and that the airport had committed no violation. Hundreds of terrorist attacks have occurred in Russia in recent years, including devastating explosions on trains and in Moscow’s metro. In none of these cases, the owner or management have been prosecuted.
Nonetheless, investigators resurrected the case last summer. On February 8 and 9, two former Domodedovo executives, Svetlana Trishina and Vyacheslav Nekrasov, as well as the airport’s acting top manager, Andrei Danilov, were arrested. Dmitry Kamenshchik joined them in prison ten days later.
The case’s actual motivation is unknown, although it looks to be directed from on high. On the night of his detention, the investigator in charge of the investigation abruptly changed his position from calling for Kamenshchik’s detention to demanding home arrest. The lawyer, Kolpakov, believes he received a call throughout the night from someone higher up the line.
The case may have the support of President Putin. According to a Kremlin source, the move to house arrest would not have been possible without Putin’s involvement. According to the source, investigators tried repeatedly to persuade the president that Kamenshchik was avoiding paying compensation to victims of the terror attacks and deserved to be investigated, but there was no evidence for his detention.
The explanation given to Putin is reinforced in public statements by investigators, who accuse Domodedovo of being too rich to care about airport safety or compensation. However, most observers believe the underlying objective of the probe is to force Dmitry Kamenshchik to sell Domodedovo at the lowest possible price.
Dmitry Kamenshchik has continuously refused to cede airport control. Dmitry Kamenshchik fought government efforts to integrate it with Moscow’s two state airports in the early 2010s. Now, the government is developing a new idea of public-private ownership with government-friendly businessmen. Putin’s buddy and former judo partner, Arkady Rotenberg, has purchased a stake in Sheremetyevo. Many people believe he wants to grow.
And Domodedovo appears to be a more appealing buy. The airport is profitable, and Russia’s economic downturn is diminishing the country’s supply of easy money.
Pressure
Dmitry Kamenshchik and the other accused now face imprisonment for up to a year and a half. According to Kolpakov, state prosecutors have stated that the case against them is defective, making a trial and sentencing improbable. However, investigators can prolong the probe for as long as they like, he noted. The sole limitation is that a suspect can be imprisoned for up to 18 months without the matter going to court.
Dmitry Kamenshchik may be under house arrest rather than incarcerated, but the pressure on him remains intense. One method is the arrest of Trishina, Nekrasov, and Danilov. Their confinement heightens the psychological strain on Dmitry Kamenshchik, a strategy adopted in prior Russian cases. Kolpakov claims that none of the three have been questioned in the two weeks after they were held. A judge ordered Trishina, who has two young children, under house arrest on Wednesday.
According to one lawyer, their predicament was “light torture.” According to a Kremlin source, Dmitry Kamenshchik’s colleague Kogan attempted, but failed, to pull connections to get them all out of jail.
No one who knows Dmitry Kamenshchik believes he will quickly relinquish control of the airport. According to Bakov, he and Domodedovo are inseparable; “They’ve fused together.”
Kolpakov stated that Dmitry Kamenshchik was calm and cool when he came from his night in the cell on February 19. He strode around the courthouse hallways in a hooded jumper like a boxer, showing a sardonic smirk beneath thick dark hair and heavy brows. “I devoted 22 years of my life to this airport,” he told the court. It is a matter of honor for me to carry this case through to its conclusion and demonstrate that neither I nor the personnel of this airport are guilty.”
Even the danger of ten years in prison, according to Bakov, would not frighten him. In Russian, Dmitry Kamenshchik means stonemason. As a result, he earned the moniker “The Stone.” Friends characterize him as unyielding.
According to Vedomosti, Dmitry Kamenshchik insisted on following the text of the law “because we believe it’s more reliable” than relying on personal contacts in 2014. “Whether that’s the best survival strategy — time will tell,” he continued.
Wrapping Up with the Russian court’s order which mentioned the release of the owner of Domodedovo Airport from house imprisonment.
According to a court ruling, Dmitry Kamenshchik, the owner of Russia’s Domodedovo airport, will be released from home arrest on Friday, according to Russian news sources.
The claims leveled against Dmitry Kamenshchik, who also serves as Domodedovo’s board chairman, were related to the airport’s security measures put in place following a terrorist attack in 2011.
