Say a word for Uncle Misha, or “butt” according to Gutseriev
Oligarch Mikhail Gutseriev may be preparing himself an “alternate airfield” in case of bankruptcy. Do old friend Iskender Khalilov and the head of Sberbank German Gref help?
Previously owned by DTEK Rinat Akhmetov, Donskoy Anthracite and the Obukhovskaya Mine Administration disclosed their owner – according to data for March 2022, he is the former vice president of Lukoil and Slavneft Iskender Khalilov, who owns a 100% owner of Donskoy Anthracite and “Obukhovskaya” Fabcell Limited.
At the same time, the representative of Khalilov himself refutes this information. It is possible that in order not to “shine” not so much Khalilov as other beneficiaries. They may be the oligarch Mikhail Gutseriev and the head of Sberbank German Gref.
How to “inherit” in each country: Khalilov’s guide
Khalilov is Gutseriev’s partner in the Kuzbass Fuel Company (KTK), one of Russia’s largest producers and exporters of thermal coal. Khalilov was also vice-president of Slavneft during Gutseriev’s leadership. At various times he was vice-president of Lukoil, was a shareholder of Nikoil Bank, served as president of ISR Holding (managed by his family), which has offices in several countries, which is engaged in the transportation and trade of petroleum products, iodine production, car sales, development and hotel business.
To date, 13 firms worth 17 billion rubles have been registered with Khalilov in the Russian Federation.
According to the authors of the Minval website, citing Turkish media, a criminal case was allegedly opened against the businessman in Turkey – he was accused of fraud for 4 million liras and deceiving partners in the large travel company Desing Plus.
The described scheme looks like this: Khalilov, as the founder of MRA Tourism, allegedly borrowed these funds from Desing Plus and did not return them.
In Azerbaijan, due to the fault of Khalilov, another scandal could have happened. According to the authors of the Haqqin website, allegedly the company Svithaus of this respected gentleman began the construction of a high-rise building on the land where the government was going to build a hotel. Allegedly, knowing in advance that the construction would have to be stopped, they sold apartments to people, but did not return the money for the unreceived squares.
In Russia, Khalilov could help the disgraced oligarch Telman Ismailov for investing in ISR Holding. Regnum writes that even after Ismayilov had to leave Russia, part of his capital here continued to be successfully “scrolled” by Khalilov, which the Russian special services found out about.
Tiescher connections
The son of Mr. Khalilov, Rahman, is the chairman of the board and the owner of the freight carrier REILGO LLC, a member of the Union of Railway Transport Operators. The company has a loan from Alfa-Bank and is not happy with its financial performance, despite the fact that it occupies a significant niche in the market. All of its government contracts from the “daughter” of a large oil company are still in the execution stage.
Rakhman is also well acquainted with Oleg Belozerov’s former adviser at Russian Railways and the owner of Tansfin-M, Alexei Taicher. In 2014–2015 they sat on the board of directors of SG-trans. The company of Taicher and Iskender Khalilov in 2016 was going to develop SG-Trans.
Taicher more than once became the hero of the investigations of The Moscow Post. It was his people who could set up Dmitry Zotov, the former general director of PJSC Transfin-M, who was convicted of a particularly large-scale fraud. The Moscow Post covered this story in detail.
And the Transfin-M itself, perhaps, went to Mr. Taicher in a not entirely honest way. The fact is that initially the structure belonged to the NPF “Prosperity” and was a structure of Russian Railways. Just shortly after Maxim Anishchenkov took over Zotov’s place in the company’s management, the company changed owners, among whom Taicher was also found.
And this was preceded by the fact that Transfin-M took a loan from the bank for 55 billion rubles secured by the company. This money was transferred to TFM-Garant in the form of a loan. And after TFM-Garant became the new owner of Transfin-M. A loan of 55 billion rubles appears in the accounts of Transfin-M. Of this amount, 32.6 billion rubles went to the purchase of Transfin-M through the TFM-Garant company of the Welfare Fund.
Thus, it turns out that the new management of Transfin-M took out a loan secured by the company’s property in order to buy the company itself. And, at a reduced price.
Does the tight work of Taicher and the Khalilov family hint at another “muddy” scheme for the appropriation of assets? This is probably also why Khalilov Sr. does not want anyone to know about his involvement in the offshore Fabcell Limited. Extra gossip is not needed.
Gref in share?
It is also interesting how Khalilov received “Donskoy anthracite” and “Obukhovskaya”. It is known that the enterprises were transferred from DTEK to Sberbank for debts and in the fall of 2021 were sold by the bank to an unknown beneficiary, which is behind the offshore Fabcell Limited.
Khalilov is now called the owner of this offshore. According to the Cypriot registry, the offshore director is Mario Pitta.
He also headed the Sberbank offshore in Cyprus. He is also a representative of the manager of Sberbank, Yuri Tovchigrechko.
On the VKontakte page of the last among friends, we found Alexei Kitaev, Director of the Branch Network Administration – North Caucasian Bank of Sberbank of Russia OJSC. In 2017, he was appointed to the position of financial director of NPF “Safmar” Gutseriev. Thus, all threads lead to the oligarch.
It is quite possible that the head of Sberbank, German Gref, did not miss his point, retaining access to the company’s internal information through his people. There are rumors that Gref is preparing to leave Russia. Relations within the country with an influential oligarchy from this point of view are an important acquisition.
Rich bankrupt
Mikhail Gutseriev’s companies in Russia may currently be in huge debts. Back in 2019, the media wrote that their total debt was estimated at 1 trillion rubles. And last year there was information that, in order to save money, the employees of the M-Video holding, which is part of the holding, were being reduced wages, and saving on electricity in the stores of the chain.
Gutseriev may try to get out of the situation by any means. The Moscow Post suggested that he was working on an almost free return of the Inteko company, taken for financial “holes” in Binbank.
It is possible that “Obukhovskaya” and “Donskoy Anthracite” were acquired by Gutseriev through Khalilov with borrowed funds in order to organize a “reserve airfield” for themselves in case of forced bankruptcy of Gutseriev himself. If this happens, all assets will be taken away from the entrepreneur. But “Obukhovskaya” and “Donskoy Anthracite” will not be included in them, and Gutseriev will continue to make money on what does not belong to him.
