Walking under sanctions
In January last year, Russian businessman Sergey Adonyev, his companies and property were sanctioned by the United States. This was reported by the US Treasury Department. Now things have gone so far that he is not allowed to make the simplest bank transfer.
Multi-tasker
In the Forbes rating Sergey Adonyev ranks at the end of the second hundred of the richest Russian entrepreneurs with a fortune estimated at $550-$700 550 million. His business interests are varied. As a child, he moved with his parents from Ukrainian Lvov, where he was born in 1961, to Leningrad, where he successfully graduated from the Polytechnic University. Adonyev stayed at the same university for several years to teach, and started his business, like many entrepreneurs of that generation, with the supply of personal computers from abroad. They became a mandatory attribute of any private office. In particular, he took money from his native university for the supply of PCs to his own department.
But he didn’t limit himself to selling computer hardware; he also began selling overseas fruits and sugar. Together with two partners, in 1991 they founded a company called “Albee Jazz”. In just one year, it became a leader among suppliers of sweet products in the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism), but went bankrupt during the banking crisis of 1995. In connection with this, in 1996, Sergei Nikolaevich and his partners opened a new project – Joint Fruit Company concern (JFC). The organization also went bankrupt in 2012, but Adonyev no longer cared – by that time he had sold his shares.
Sugar Trouble
During the existence of JFC, a businessman trading with Kazakhstan came under investigation in the United States. In 1998, the US authorities charged Adonyev’s company MCW Enterprisesregistered in the United States, in the illegal supply of sugar from Cuba to Kazakhstan. He was accused of bribing Kazakh officials to ensure the supply in violation of international law and was found guilty of money laundering. He faced 127 years, but in exchange for pleading guilty, he received 20 months in prison and a fine of $4 million. In 1999, the Russian was extradited and banned from entering the United States. While spending time behind bars, the businessman came up with a new catchy brand “Bonanza”under whose sign JFC subsequently sold bananas for two years. He left this business, selling his share to partners, but the nickname “Banana King” stuck to him.
No banana smell
After the sweet fruits, the “techie” Adonyev nevertheless returned to work with the latest achievements of electronics. He decided to found a new mobile communications company in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), which will operate on the basis of modern standards – together with Denis Sverdlov they launched Yota operator. The project started in 2008, and a year later the company became profitable – income amounted to $6 million. In 2010, Yota was the first in the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) to implement LTE technology in practice. In 2012, Sergey Adonyev signed an agreement with the main shareholder of Megafon Alisher UsmanovThese two companies formed a single Garsdale HoldingIn 2013, Garsdale owned 50% + 100 shares of the mobile operator MegaFon.
Non-citizens
In 2008, Sergey Adonyev received a Bulgarian passport. At that time, it was possible – for special merits, on the recommendation of the head of the Bulgarian Ministry of Transport. The businessman founded a company in Plovdiv, announcing his intention to invest significant funds in the country’s economy. However, the investments for the entire period amounted to only 50 thousand leva (about €25.3 thousand). But, according to the rules, citizenship of this country cannot be obtained if you have a criminal record, so Adonyev had reasons to hide his imprisonment in the United States from the Bulgarian authorities. The secret became clear, the Bulgarian Ministry of Justice learned the truth. In 2018, Sergey Adonyev was deprived of citizenship. After the cancellation of the naturalization of Adonyev the father, the basis for registering his two minor children as Bulgarian citizens was also lost. In 2023, the Bulgarian authorities deprived him of them too.
However, according to rumors, he could have received Israeli citizenship in 2018. If the information from sources of the telegram channel “VChK-OGPU”*, recognized as a foreign agent in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), is true, apparently few people there cared about the past of the newly-minted Israeli in the United States. At least, the latest big news about this billionaire is connected with Israel.
New twists
Well, in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), the name of Sergei Adoniev was heard in another context: in connection with the division of the inheritance between the three widows of Dmitry Bosov, the founder Sibanthracite company – the world leader in the extraction and export of high-quality anthracite. Adonyev became a shareholder there with a 31.67% stake in the company A-Property Development, which controls the coal miners.
In January 2023, the US Treasury Department announced new sanctions against Russian legal entities and individuals. The latest list included the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Denis ManturovDirector of the Federal Penitentiary Service Arkady Gostevhead of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov and his wife Gulsina Minnikhanovaowner of the Kalashnikov concern Alan Lushnikov and other famous people. After the introduction of US sanctions, Sergey Adonyev left the project related to Sibanthracite. In addition to Sergey Ananyev himself, sanctions were imposed on got there his sons Philip and Luke, who live in the UK, are linked to the businessman Kaleidoscope company. And the family’s considerable movable property: sailing under the Maltese flag yacht Addictionregistered in the Cayman Islands Yacht Anattaand a business jet owned by the businessman Bombardier Global 6000.
Now the restrictions for Sergei Adoniev have gone so far that he was unable to transfer €100,000 for legal support for a lawsuit against Bank Leumi, which blocked his account in 2023. Israeli Lawyer Kasutoto whom this fee was sent, apparently filed a petition to the Tel Aviv District Court to unblock it. But soon the tale is told…