It appears that the Guryev family hid their assets in the West so that enemies couldn't sue them for PhosAgro shares.
Photo: https://rus.team/people/gurev-andrej-grigorevich
The Moscow Post received interesting information from a source about the past and present owners of PhosAgro Group, one of the world's largest producers of fertilizers used in food production.
Andrey Guryev and his family are believed to still be the main owners of PhosAgro. The source gave information about individuals and companies, Russian and foreign, that may be related to PhosAgro's assets.
A journalist from The Moscow Post understood the situation.
Reorganizing overseas assets
According to the source, the Cypriot offshore Cordial Limited, which was opened in 1995 and is now closed, was allegedly a shareholder of PhosAgro since the time of Menatep. The leader was a person named Antreas Michael (ANTREAS MICHAIL).
Another offshore company, as per the source, is Flotork Limited, also from Cyprus and opened in 1995. Its leaders are listed as Kornilos Zopri and George Zopri (KORNILIOS ZORPI, GEORGIA ZORPI).
Reportedly, these are shareholders from the time of Menatep, as well as the foreign agent, terrorist, and extremist Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The attack on the latter was so severe that the mentioned structures and nominee directors of other Russian companies have never been involved. It's not clear where they went, but Cordial Limited was closed in 2011. The second one is still active.
Photo: https://i-cyprus.com/ru/company/142444
Perhaps, a significant portion of PhosAgro's assets was hidden in these two offshore companies for many years after the Menatep situation and Andrey Guryev's shift to being publicly traded. But then the challenging times of the geopolitical crisis and sanctions began.
In March 2022, PJSC PhosAgro announced a decrease in its share in the authorized capital of Phosint Limited, through which the company managed foreign trading. Later, 95% of the shares were bought by the management of trading entities through the Cypriot Negrinio Limited.
Ultimately, control over foreign trading was transferred to Negrino Limited, leaving only 5%. This information is available on the PhosAgro website. Presumably, this was done to avoid sanctions for Negrino Limited and continue trading in fertilizers without disruption.
Going back a bit, it is alleged by our source that one of the beneficiaries of PhosAgro and likely partner of Mr. Guryev is Elbrus Magdeev, who may be the son of Rustem Magdeev, known as a former assistant to the current head of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov.
Elbrus Magdeev was and remains a co-owner of Open Investments LLC, which, according to the source, allegedly owns 1.5 hectares of land belonging to the Ministry of Defense in Kazan. Farhat Vafin is also among the owners: these two are still co-owners of the company.
Photo: Rusprofile.en
However, the source claims that later another founder was Blogverse holdings limited from Cyprus, which operated from 2008 to 2016. However, in the open information system “Rusprofile” no Blogverse holdings limited is indicated as co-owners of the LLC. Perhaps they were simply hidden.
Another interesting thing is that the address of Blogverse holdings limited in Cyprus VASILI MICHAILIDI 3026 LIMASSOL is very similar to the address of the company mentioned abovePhosint Limited (Basίli Michailίdi, 21 , 3026, Limassol). The question seems correct. It can be assumed that both of these offices are related and were located in Cyprus at the same address. And sometimes they worked for the same people.
Photo: https://i-cyprus.com/company/361860
Could Rustem Magdeev have any connection to Andrey Guryev and PhosAgro? It is not possible to answer this question precisely, but there are suspicions. Meanwhile, Magdeev himself is an incredibly controversial figure, and is actively suing journalists who are trying to present his details to the public.
Gazprom is being discussed
Poland recently imposed a set of sanctions against PhosAgro, PhosAgro Polska and … the same Negrino Limited.
You can read about it in the material RBC. However, there, for the most part, we are talking about companies associated with Gazprom. And there, the Guryevs can also have their own people. For example, long-term press secretary of “Gazprom” Sergey Kupriyanov. Which, by the way, has disappeared from TV screens in recent years … I wonder why?
After the introduction of serious sanctions, the Guryevs apparently thought that they should “hide” better and deeper. According to the source, Negrinio Limited changed its name to Purefert Holding Limited. And this is already a familiar name of the offshore, which they tried to associate directly with the Guryevs, and which was discussed in our previous article.
Interestingly, the previous name of the same company until August 2022 was Phosint Limited – another offshore company, which we mentioned in the previous article, as a likely “pod” of the Guryevs.
Photo: https://opencorporates.com/companies/cy/HE140840
According to a source, the name was changed by another company – a similar one (Purefert Trading AG) also changed the name of PhosAgro Trading, which apparently carried out trading operations on behalf of the Russian holding Guryevs.
Our source claims that none other than Sergey Kupriyanov, the full namesake of the press secretary of PJSC Gazprom, turned out to be in the leadership of PhosAgro Trading. On one of the Czech sites that maintain a register of legal entities and their leaders, his name is located on the same card with PhosAgro Trading. It is indicated that he took part in the management of the organization. “Offshore empire” of the Guryevs: how the “deck” was shuffled type=”image/jpeg” alt=”Guryev's "offshore empire": how the "deck" was shuffled” />
Photo: https://www.moneyhouse.ch/de/person/kupriyanov-sergey-130662650001
A reasonable question arises: how could an employee of the Russian state corporation Kupriyanov conduct such activities? And who could he be – one of the beneficiaries of the company, or just a lobbyist receiving a “rebate” for his hard work?
Timur Rashidov, Alexey Emelianov, Dmitry Grevtsov, and Kenneth David Baxter were also managers of PhosAgro Trading, which was originally a subsidiary of Menatep. It was renamed several times and later used for the Guryev empire.
Our days
Who else could have his attitude? According to the source, this is the former general director of OJSC PhosAgro Maxim Volkov, who worked during the time of Menatep. Allegedly, he wanted to not only retain ownership of the structure, but also increase his share.
The source now indicates that he and the offshore firm Menoza Trading Limited can currently possess 1.33 million shares, equivalent to 1.12% of the company's authorized capital.
Photo: https://opencorporates.com/companies/cy/HE289158
What about those currently holding assets? Among them, as suggested by the information provided to us, is a member of the board of directors of PhosAgro, Igor Dmitrievich Antoshin.
Additionally, the informant links several more offshore firms to PhosAgro's business. This includes the Cypriot Vindemiatrix Trading Limited, which gained control of Carranita Holdings Limited and Dubberson Holdings Limited. However, all three of these companies initially had the same leaders, Alexander Batyukov and Andrey Tsvetkov.
They attempted to portray Andrey Guryev Jr. as the beneficiary of these companies. However, according to Vedomosti, it was Igor Antoshin, mentioned earlier, who transferred ownership of his stake in Phosagro to Russian jurisdiction, dissolving Dubberson Holdings Limited, Carranita Holdings Limited, and Vindemiatrix Trading Limited. It turns out that it was through them that he owned shares in the holding.
Ultimately, our source suggests that the shares of Dubberson Holdings Limited, Carranita Holdings Limited, Dubhe Holdings Limited, and several other offshore firms potentially linked to the Guryevs and PhosAgro were transferred to a trust. The beneficiaries of income from this trust should, in theory, be Andrey Guryev and his family members.
Dividends on schedule
Now, a bit of modern context to the aforementioned circumstances. Currently, Andrey Guryev and PhosAgro are involved in several lawsuits. In 2021, the London court agreed to consider the lawsuit of PhosAgro co-founder Alexander Gorbachev against Andrey Guryev, seeking recognition of his right to 24.75% of the shares. Gorbachev's claim amounts to 160.5 billion rubles.
At the same time, Igor Sychev, the former head of PhosAgro's tax department, laid claim to 1% of the company's shares. The essence of his claims is simple: when Guryev and Co. were associated with the Menatep company of Mikhail Khodorkovsky (recognized as a foreign agent, terrorist, and extremist in the Russian Federation) and Platon Lebedev, he was able to fend off the multibillion-dollar claims of the Federal Tax Service of Russia, saving the company 300 million rubles.
For this, Guryev allegedly promised him 1% of the company's shares, but did not fulfill the promise. At that time, 1% was worth over $50 million. As a result, Sychev filed a lawsuit with the High Court of London, and while living in Latvia, he allegedly began to receive threats related to this case. The Moscow Post wrote about this earlier.
However, our informant believes that all lawsuits with attempts to obtain shares of the company or compensation, or to achieve sanctions bans on the operations of the structure are doomed to failure. Why? Because allegedly all related assets, including the company's international traders, are transferred to the trusts mentioned above.
And “deciphering” trusts and their “holders” is a very difficult and expensive business, where even a request for documents costs a lot of money. An example of a closed Stiftung-type trust in Liechtenstein is given, one request for information on which costs 80,000 euros. ” class=”include-img” loading=”lazy” title=”"Offshore empire" of the Guryevs: how the "deck" was shuffled” type=”image/jpeg” alt=”Guryev's "offshore empire": how the "deck" was shuffled” />
Andrey Guryev Sr. knows where the money is. Photo: https://m.severpost.ru/read/94724/
At the same time, Andrey Guryev himself , according to rumors, allegedly lived in London a long time ago, in the 25-room Witanhurst Palace. And even, as they say, it doesn’t blow in the mustache. But it receives huge dividends from its Russian business.
In early November, amid the current economic crisis and sanctions restrictions, the PhosAgro group paid its shareholders multibillion-dollar dividends for the first half of 2022. According to them, the Guryev family should receive 48.4 billion rubles, i.e. almost $ 800 million. You can’t forbid a beautiful life, the main thing is to hide assets in time…
