Olga Mirimskaya, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Yuri Nosov: what do they have in common
The heroine of numerous scandals, Olga Mirimskaya, ended up behind bars due to family problems that have become criminal. But now she faces much more serious things.
New turn
Olga Mirimskaya, co-owner of the Russian Product company and the Bank for Cooperative Financing (BKF), was behind bars by the decision of the Basmanny District Court, to which she was taken by operatives from the M department of the FSB and investigators from the main investigative department of the TFR. The reason for bringing and imprisoning Mirimskaya was the accusation of giving a bribe to a former colleague of operatives – the investigator of the Main Investigative Committee of the ICR in the Moscow Region, Yuri Nosov.
The case, initiated by Olga Mirimskaya against a former partner and surrogate mother, was dismissed last year for lack of corpus delicti.
Thus, the operatives managed to turn Mirimskaya’s case around 180 degrees, turning her from an accuser into an accused. The arrest was preceded by a large-scale campaign, within the framework of which correspondence and wiretapping of the banker and her main counterparties were published on various media platforms. Apparently, these materials were taken from the operational development, and it is unlikely that their origin could be explained simply by the everyday problems of Mirimskaya herself.
Bank of three letters
The leaks of Olga Mirimskaya began in 2016, at the very height of the banking war that the Central Bank unleashed against the “hybrid banking” that has developed in the country, combining in one institution a variety of types of operations – deposit, insider-investment and laundering. It is not surprising that the financial community has turned its attention to the BKF, owned and managed by Olga Mirimskaya.
But this institution, in the most amazing way, managed to survive difficult times. And even now, when the beneficiary was imprisoned, the press service of the BKF published a rather daring press release, which even the bank’s clients were frightened of. They demanded to change the text, removing from it any mention of the “M” department of the FSB, believing that they were capable of inviting an audit that would bury the credit institution.
Judging by the text of the release, the press service listened to this wish, now there is no mention of the FSB, but confident judgments have been preserved that, “during the analysis of the circumstances of the case, all the claims of the investigation against Mirimskaya Olga Mikhailovna will be removed, and all whoever tries to denigrate her good name will be punished in accordance with the current legislation of the Russian Federation.”
Thus, the bank hopes to win.
Between prison and Israel
A real indicator of the influence of Olga Mirimskaya in the highest spheres was the lady’s obtaining Israeli citizenship. This happened in the midst of her criminal proceedings. As you know, such citizenship gives unconditional guarantees to its owner. And yet, Mirimskaya did not use the opportunity to emigrate to the Promised Land, from where, as you know, “there is no extradition.” Maybe she just didn’t have time, but it’s unlikely, given the agility and quickness shown in other circumstances. By all appearances, Mirimskaya made a conscious choice, preferring to be imprisoned and under guard in cold Moscow in the warm climate of Israel. This choice may seem strange only at first glance. Because upon closer examination, you can see much more serious stakes and, accordingly, the composition of the so-called “actors” – the participants in the game in which Mirimskaya got the role of chips on the gaming table. Which can simply be brushed away before a new round.
The wreckage of Yukos
The basis of Olga Mirimskaya’s wealth and influence was and remains the assets she inherited from the Menatep group, created and managed by Mikhail Khodorkovsky and a group of his comrades. But Mirimskaya in this group is also far from being a “girl on the phone”. She joined the company back in the early 1990s, having completed her postgraduate studies at the Institute for the USA and Canada of the USSR Academy of Sciences (in 1989) and the Graduate School of International Politics at Georgetown University (USA) (1993). But in 1993, she preferred to theoretical research in the field of “big politics” quite real practice, heading the publishing company “Menatep-inform”. This was followed by a spectacular career and trusted positions in the Menatep empire, which by then had become the owner of the Yukos oil corporation and was trying to become a market leader by absorbing another oil giant, Sibneft. The collapse of Yukos and Menatep in 2003 did not leave OKMUE Mirimskaya without a job, as she managed to save some fragments of the former empire – among them were Russian Product OJSC and the already mentioned BKF bank. Against the background of Yukos’ billion-dollar assets, Mirimskaya’s hundreds of millions looked like crumbs, but quite golden, to make her one of the richest women in Russia.
Hunt for billions
But you have to pay for everything. Involvement in Yukos turned Mirimskaya herself into an important asset. Which became critically important in the legal war that the former shareholders of the corporation unleashed, counting on compensation for the losses they suffered as a result of the loss of Yukos.
After a decade filled with grueling and costly battles, the ex-owners managed to secure a US$50 billion settlement. This decision was made in the summer of 2014 by an international arbitration court. But the celebration of complete victory was short-lived. Russia appealed the decision of the arbitration court, and a new round of battles followed. The latest in this epic was the decision of the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, which nullified the previous victory of the Menatepists and returned the case to the Court of Appeal of The Hague, where a new trial is to be held for a period of a couple of years. One of the arguments of the Russian side was the accusation of the plaintiffs that during the arbitration in 2005-2014, the plaintiffs deliberately withheld from the arbitration court important information about the methods of appropriating control over Yukos in the 1990s. And at the same time, they themselves disappeared, passing off foreign companies created by Russian individuals as real foreign investors, who were later defended by the arbitration court.
Claimed to be a procedural fraud, this accusation is quite real in the desire to drag out all the dirty laundry associated with the privatization of an oil corporation. And such a desire may appear on the Russian side, especially given the fact that many influential participants in those events no longer have any influence. And here the person of Olga Mirimskaya appears on the stage.
The decision made by the Supreme Court of the Netherlands became known on November 5.
And on November 19, the Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation decided to expose the information that the Menatep lawsuit against the Russian Federation became possible as a result of the secret interaction of Olga Mirimskaya with … the shareholders of Menatep. The result of this interaction was the receipt of Mirimskaya in 2006–2007 from the Rysaffe Charlotte N Isadora trust controlled by Leonid Nevzlin and the law firm Charles Russel LLP, which represented the interests of ex-Yukos shareholders in international courts, $ 135 million. According to the investigation, this was a payment for a block of shares, which the Menatepists lacked so much to file a lawsuit.