Oleg Deripaska spied on Potanin with the help of the FBI

The American media found out that the competitor, on whose order the ex-FBI agent and former Russian diplomat collected dirt on Deripaska’s order, could be the president of Norilsk Nickel, Vladimir Potanin. According to the American Forbes, Deripaska wanted to use the obtained information in a lawsuit to force the management of Norilsk Nickel to conclude a new shareholder agreement with RUSAL.

US Justice Department materials released last week suggest that Deripaska may have hired Charles McGonigal, former head of the FBI’s New York office, to investigate an unnamed Russian businessman. And allegedly Deripaska was trying to “dispute control” over a “large Russian enterprise.” According to a source from the American Forbes, we are talking about Potanin and his Norilsk Nickel, one of the world’s largest producers of nickel and palladium. Moreover, the defendants call their client, Oleg Deripaska, “our friend from Vienna”, “you know who” and “big guy”.

The publication notes that the investigation, which Deripaska allegedly wanted to initiate, was supposed to focus on studying the assets of Vladimir Potanin abroad and on finding out if the head of Norilsk Nickel had any citizenship other than Russian. As a result, McGonigal found data on the hidden assets of Deripaska’s competitor worth $500 million on the dark web, follows from the indictment. According to a Forbes source, Deripaska was gathering materials to file a lawsuit in London in order to force a new shareholder agreement for Norilsk Nickel to be concluded, replacing the previous one that expired on January 1, 2023. Deripaska’s spokesman did not respond to the publication’s request.

This is not the first time McGonigal and Deripaska have been at the center of events: both were involved in an FBI investigation of contacts between Russia and Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. Also during his career at the FBI, McGonigal worked on WikiLeaks, led the case of the autopsy of American agents in China and participated in “investigations against Russian oligarchs”, including Deripaska.

Another defendant in this case is Sergei Shestakov, 69, a former Soviet and Russian diplomat. He worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR and Russia from 1979 to 1993, and after receiving American citizenship, he was an interpreter in government agencies and US courts.

From merger to merger

Potanin and Deripaska are the largest shareholders of Norilsk Nickel, conflicting with each other for control of the company. The beginning of the sport was 2008, when Deripaska wanted to merge RUSAL with Norilsk Nickel. Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich and his partners tried to cool down the “nickel wars” – in 2012 they bought a small stake (about 4%) from Potanin. The parties signed a shareholder agreement for 10 years, in which, in particular, they agreed on a formula for paying dividends.

In 2017, Potanin and Deripaska abandoned the idea of ​​a merger. The following year, a Potanin-linked company attempted to buy a stake in Norilsk Nickel from Abramovich, so Deripaska decided to challenge the deal in court. He accused the partners of collusion. Although those accusations were denied, the court sided with Deripaska and the conflict turned into a cold phase.

Potanin returned to the topic of unification in 2022, when Deripaska, who fell under US sanctions, had already abandoned the management of En +, through which he owned RUSAL. But this time the negotiations did not take place.

Now RUSAL blames the businessman for failing to fulfill his duties in managing Norilsk Nickel. The company, apparently, is trying to persuade Potanin to conclude a new contract and even filed a lawsuit in the High Court of London for this. RUSAL claims that due to Potanin’s management decisions, he lost some assets, and shareholders suffered losses. The company also complained that it repeatedly tried to enter into negotiations with Potanin outside the court, but to no avail.

The current agreement between the largest co-owners of Norilsk Nickel – Interros, RUSAL and Crispian Roman Abramovich expired on January 1, 2023, and, according to Potanin, will not be extended. Norilsk Nickel plans to switch to the usual system of corporate governance, which RUSAL opposes.

Experts interviewed by the “Company” doubt that the criminal case against the ex-FBI agent will help resolve the dispute between the businessmen. “I don’t think that the resolution of a long-term conflict, where billions are at stake, can be based on the testimony of some FBI agent,” said political scientist Yury Svetov. The situation, on the contrary, confuses the conflict: after the expiration of the shareholder agreement, Deripaska’s position in Norilsk Nickel weakened, political analyst Pavel Salin notes. He recalled that Norilsk Nickel last week disbanded the financial control service, which was created at the initiative of RUSAL as part of the now completed shareholder agreement in order to control the accrual of dividends in accordance with the parameters specified in the agreement. Now the service has been abolished, instead Norilsk Nickel will create its own audit structure, and this “also hurts Deripaska’s interests.”

At the same time, the billionaire himself should wait for new restrictions in connection with the criminal case against the ex-FBI agent. “Such stories, regardless of whether the information is reliable or fabricated, of course, cause reputational damage,” Svetov explained. He believes that the appearance of the case is an attempt to make Deripaska and Potanin toxic people.

The experts found it difficult to clarify why the performers called Deripaska “our friend from Vienna”, but were not surprised that the businessman could allow close relations with foreign intelligence officers. “The fact that Deripaska is actively doing business in both the European Union and the US is not surprising. In recent years, representatives of big business have begun to enter the international arena and compete with the European and American business establishment,” Svetov said. According to him, hitting Deripaska and Potanin may be a manifestation of competition.