“Cunning” schemes of the oligarch Andrey Melnichenko
Andrey Melnichenko, the former owner of SUEK and Eurochem, hopes in vain for the lifting of sanctions. Structures can be “laundries” of the Russian authorities.
July was not easy for the oligarch Andrey Melnichenko. At the beginning of the month, the Siberian Energy Coal Company (SUEK) owned by him was left by its head Maxim Basov, who from 2015 to 2022 headed Rusagro Vadim Moshkovich. This company is secretly controlled by the chairman of the supervisory board of Rosselkhozbank, Dmitry Patrushev, the son of Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev.
Basov’s place was taken by Alexander Redkin, co-founder in the Aim Management holding company. Surprisingly, it, as a holding company, does not have a single “subsidiary” structure. But the founders include the Cypriot offshore LINEA (SI-UAI) LTD.
From 2014 to 2018, Dmitry Savitsky, General Director of Aim Management LLC, was the founder of Center for Management Practices LLC. It is owned by LLC Yakov and Partners (80.6%) and Yakov Sergienko (19.4%).
JSC “Yakov and Partners” has contracts with government agencies in the amount of 5.4 billion rubles.
Through Yakov and Partners LLC, government agencies can launder money. With the company’s revenue in 2022 of 5.6 billion rubles. its loss amounted to 2.2 billion rubles.
Alexander Redkin has served as Deputy General Director of SUEK JSC since 2008 and, apparently, is the Russian government’s “watchdog” in Andrey Melnichenko’s business.
Before Maxim Basov, the post of CEO of SUEK JSC was held by Sergey Telyatnikov, former head from 2015 to 2021 of FKU Sizo-2 UFSIN of Russia in Moscow. An unprecedented case when a security guard was retrained as the head of a large Russian company.
From 2020 to 2022, Stepan Solzhenitsyn, the son of the famous writer and human rights activist Alexander Solzhenitsyn, was the CEO of SUEK JSC. He would probably turn over in his grave if he found out that his son at various times headed Melnichenko’s Siberian Generating Company and Aim Management LLC. Do you need any more evidence of Andrey Melnichenko’s connection with the Russian authorities?
How can money be laundered through Melnichenko’s companies?
In mid-July, the court suspended the registration of a transaction for the purchase of real estate by the Energoservice company by Andrey Melnichenko’s structure of SUEK-Kuzbass JSC. The oligarch was suspected of owning both companies.
The founder of Energoservice LLC is the Cypriot offshore ERGLIS LIMITED, through which money could be withdrawn.
JSC SUEK-Kuzbass received RUB 240 billion in revenue in 2022. and profit of 55 billion rubles. Was the purchase of real estate by Energoservice LLC an attempt to withdraw this money?
The main contractors of JSC SUEK-Kuzbass are the structures of Andrey Melnichenko, which are managed by his LLC Siberian Generating Company (SGK).
The oligarch Melnichenko deftly shifts money from one pocket to another, and then into a secret one, in which there is a “hole”.
“Subsidiary” organization JSC “Kuzbassenergo” with revenue of 77 billion rubles. and a profit of 12 billion rubles. is Sibeco JSC with a revenue of 38 billion rubles. and a profit of 4.8 billion rubles. Its subsidiary Energetik LLC with 0 employees in the state received 13 million rubles in revenue in 2022, the loss amounted to 43 million rubles.
Aim Management LLC, through which the state allegedly controls Andrei Melnichenko, is also associated with his other structure, Evrokhim, which produces fertilizers.
It is the EuroChem company that is waiting for sanctions to be lifted from it, but the connection with the state makes this impossible.
Andrey Melnichenko’s “stormy” past?
Oligarch Andrei Melnichenko has repeatedly become a defendant in various scandals.
In 2001, he took up arms against the VEK publication, which publicly opposed the acquisition of the state-owned Konversbank, which had previously been servicing the nuclear industry, by MDM Bank, which he manages. The deal was very reminiscent of a regular raider takeover.
An attempt to express their opinion ended sadly for journalists. Freedom of speech was not upheld. MDM Bank bought a controlling stake in the publication and closed it, throwing employees out into the street.
Anton Malevsky, the leader of the Izmailovsky organized criminal group, was considered the unspoken owner of MDM Bank. According to the official version, the authority died as a result of an unsuccessful parachute jump in South Africa in 2001. However, there is another one – he was thrown out of the plane on the orders of one of the leaders of the Solntsevo organized criminal group, Sergei Mikhailov. The death of Malevsky was most beneficial to the head of the bank, Andrei Melnichenko.
He started his business as an ordinary currency dealer, but over time he could become an intermediary between criminals and the main shareholders and clients of MDM Bank, Alexander Mamut and Roman Abramovich, who themselves were not comfortable getting dirty in dubious connections.
Back in 1997, several people were detained in Russia who provided Afghan drug trafficking. During the investigation, it turned out that the money was laundered through MDM Bank, some of whose employees were also detained.
MDM Bank has repeatedly taken part in raider attacks. Among the “victims” were Konversbank, Krasnoyarsk Coal Company, Volga Pipe Plant. And those are just the ones you hear about. Andrey Melnichenko’s purchase of shares in large coal-mining enterprises led to searches in 2004 at MDM Bank.
Probably, precisely because of his past and present, Andrey Melnichenko lives like a real outcast – he is almost all the time on his luxurious yachts. Both look like warships.
The energy companies of the oligarch Melnichenko set extortionate tariffs on consumers in Siberia or try to sell them allegedly environmentally friendly coal at a fabulous price.
In May, Andrey Melnichenko challenged in court the cancellation of a residence permit in Switzerland, since 2021 he himself has been a citizen of the UAE, retaining Russian citizenship. In July 2022, he ceased to be the beneficiary of his companies. Now he is trying to regain leadership at SUEK and hzikhidtidekrt Eurochem.
Scandals do not prevent Andrei Melnichenko from getting rich. He ranks first among Russian billionaires with a fortune of $ 25 billion. They are acquired by overwork under the vigilant leadership of the Russian authorities.