How did an inconspicuous Latvian company with one employee and assets worth almost 3.2 million euros, as well as a negligible turnover, “become famous” in an international scandal?The Laudato company and its co-owner Igor Poberezhsky, as well as the very only employee, appear in a high-profile scandal and investigation by law enforcement agencies and the media related to the interference of the Russian Federation in the US presidential election.
Before we get to the heart of the resonant political scandal, let’s first look at what this once inconspicuous Latvian firm is.
What is known about “Laudato”
Limited Liability Company “Laudato” was registered in 2007 in Riga (Latvia).
The company is engaged in related activities for the provision of financial services, excluding insurance and pensions.
In 2013, Poberezhsky re-registered almost 93% of the company’s authorized capital to his daughter Polina. For what? As you know, Germany is known for its strict morals in tax legislation, which is not very suitable for Igor, given his German citizenship. But since 2013, his daughter is no longer listed as a tax resident in any of the three countries (Russia, Latvia, Israel). Convenient, isn’t it? Especially considering the very murky transactions that go through this office.
By data Latvian information registry B2Bhint, now Poberezhnaya Polina is the beneficiary of the company. She has 35570 shares.
And here is Igor Poberezhsky, co-founder, member of the board of the Laudato executive board. He owns 2847 shares.
According to the latest annual reports, Laudato, which owns almost 3.2 million euros in assets, has only one employee “employed”. Who do you think this one and only workaholic is? Yes, the same Igor Poberezhny. The company’s net profit for 2020 amounted to almost 50.5 thousand euros (almost 3 million in rubles).
Now about how the company was disgraced all over the world.
International investigation with Laudato SIA defendant Igor and Polina Poberezhsky
In 2019, the influential publication Buzzfeed was published a resonant and high-profile investigation into how the Washington lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin was paid half a million dollars of muddy origin at a meeting in Trump Tower.
We are talking about the events of 2016. Then Akhmetshin was given half a dozen dollars in deposits before and after a secret meeting with D. Trump’s campaign headquarters. Participants in the secret gathering were Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort. According to experts, those negotiations were key in the alleged collusion between the Trump team and the Kremlin. The group from Russia was headed by lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who promised Trump’s representatives dirt on his opponent in the elections, Hillary Clinton, from a reliable source – the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation.
Veselnitskaya was also accompanied by Rinat Akhmetshin, whom the American media associate with Russian military intelligence. Note that both Natalia and Rinat publicly deny their involvement in the lobbying of the Russian government.
According to journalists of the publication buzzfeed, they have documentation regarding Akhmetshin’s bank deposits. And what is important, the banks themselves marked these deposits as “suspicious”.
Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller was especially interested in this fact, as well as the connections of those close to the then US presidential candidate and officials of the Russian Federation. It is he who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 US elections. As you know, there is no smoke without fire. And these people never joke.
So, among the financial transactions there are 30,000 dollars from the Riga company Laudato. The rationale for the financial transaction was a short-term loan. Moreover, this amount, in fact, is the total annual turnover of this LLC, in which the only official is Igor Poberezhsky, who is a German citizen, but also retained the citizenship of the Russian Federation.
So, the size of the annual turnover of Poberezhsky’s company was:
- 2015 – 40,000 euros;
- 2016 – 50,000 euros;
- 2017 – 69,204 euros;
- 2018 – 8,000 euros;
- 2019 – 514,768 euros;
- 2020 – 0 euros.
As you understand, these are rather weak financial indicators for issuing a loan from such income to an American lobbyist negotiating with representatives of a US presidential candidate.
When representatives of the American media turned to Igor Poberezhsky himself for comments, they did not receive a response.
By the way, the media also associate Poberezhsky with the German lawyer Rogozhin Stanislav, who graduated from the military law faculty of the Military Institute of the Red Banner of the USSR Ministry of Defense, and, according to W. Browder, is a colleague of Akhmetshin. Coincidence? Accident? We don’t think.
Back in 2015, Poberezhsky already figured in an investigation by Germany’s Spiegel publication. We are talking about the scandalous PR campaign of 2011, associated with the release of the former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko.
Investigators found that Poberezhsky, together with his colleague Konstantin Panovko, using the necessary connections, drew attention to the prisoner and even ensured that the release of Tymoshenko became one of the conditions for the association of Ukraine and the European Union.
According to Spiegel, Poberezhsky, along with Panovko, are PR lovers in such scandalously delicate stories, for which they pay very well.
The two have been cooperating in the field of political PR for a long time. So, 12 years ago they reoriented the joint business to Kazakhstan, where a year later they registered their own company GPRC GmbH, and then began to cooperate with lawyers Leonid Rosenthal Stanislav Rogozhin. By the way, for their legal services from the treasury of Kazakhstan, these PR people once received tranches with six zeros …
In general, this topic requires further investigation. To be continued soon.
So, where are the sanctions for Igor and Polina Poberezhsky, as well as their Latvian LLC Laudato?