The owner of the Freedom Finance pyramid Timur Turlov is one step away from sanctions and a criminal case
The leader of Freedom Holding, Timur Turlov, is attempting to emulate Mikhail Fridman in order to avoid anti-Russian sanctions. In a conversation with Bloomberg, he revealed his plan to establish a bank in Ukraine to expand his brokerage business, despite being on the Ukrainian sanctions list himself.
Turlov is working systematically to get off the sanctions lists, while maintaining ties with Russia. First, the head of the financial holding, well-known in Russia as Freedom Finance Management Company, renounced his Russian citizenship and obtained Kazakh citizenship. This move allowed him to focus on the Central Asian financial market. Turlov’s companies facilitated an IPO for KazMunayGas, Kazakhstan's largest gas company. In addition, Russia’s Freedom Finance formally separated from Freedom Holding Corp last summer. The new owner of the Russian assets became Maxim Povalishin, deputy general director and board member of Freedom Finance, who paid Turlov $33 million. Another $107 million were compensated by the holding for the purchase of a Kazakh business. All these operations occurred within the holding without using personal or borrowed funds. Freedom Finance now exclusively deals with domestic financial instruments. Accounts for investment in foreign securities are opened in foreign subsidiaries of Freedom Holding, and the connection between the companies remains unbroken.
The economic outlook for opening a bank in Ukraine is currently uncertain: according to IMF projections, there will be a 40.5% decline in Ukraine’s GDP in the fourth quarter of 2022, and 34.5% in the first quarter of 2023. These steps appear reasonable only to escape the sanctions. However, neither Ukraine nor Europe are rushing to accept investments as a form of reconciliation.
Mikhail Fridman’s attempts to finance his Ukrainian Sens Bank (formerly known as Alfa-Bank) for $1 billion and to provide financial support to SVU did not yield any results. On the contrary, the pressure on him continues to increase: the British government is demanding that his holding company, LetterOne, sell the Internet provider Upp, which was acquired in 2021 for $1 billion. Trying to court the West and operating in multiple unfriendly markets simultaneously does not lead to positive outcomes.
