Zurabov and Vanetsyan made a bet on Olena
Butter producer Bunge CIS risks falling into the hands of controversial ex-Minister Mikhail Zurabovand the head of “Rusagro” Vadim Moshkovich. The American holding Bunge sold its oil extraction plant in the Voronezh region to the former Ukrainian, and now Russian businessman Karen Vanetsyan. Vanetsyan is a business partner of the infamous ex-Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Mikhail Zurabova, who was called “the enemy of pensioners” for the monetization reform. There are fears that these figures will lead to the decline of the enterprise – the manufacturer of one of the main goods in the consumer basket of Russians. The potential commercial interest of the oligarch Vadim Moshkovich can also be traced in the deal.
In the unified state register of legal entities as the owner of Bunge CIS LLC since June 2022 and still there is an offshore registered in Bermuda – a limited liability company Integrated Vegetable Oils and Proteins Holdings Limited (Integrated Vegetable Oils and Proteins Holdings Ltd ). Prior to this, the owners were an offshore company from Bermuda – a limited liability company “Brunello Limited” and the Swiss joint-stock company “Bunge SA”.
For Vanetsyan, the business acquired from Bunge, which includes the Oleina, Ideal and Maslenitsa trademarks, is not a new field of activity. The division of Exoil Group, which he controls, today includes four Lipetsk LLCs: ExOil Group Management Company, Chernozemye, Chernozemye Trading House and ABC Trans.
Vanetsyan owns the Chernozemye and Chernozemye Trading House LLC (through ExOil Group Management Company LLC) just together with Zurabovth. Russians Zurabov could also be remembered for the corruption scandal in 2006 in the Ministry of Health and Social Development. As the Moskovsky Komsomolets publication reported, then the Prosecutor General’s Office and the FSB practically “decapitated” the entire top of the FFOMS, which was subordinate to Mikhail’s department ZurabovA. They were charged with misuse of budgetary funds and massive bribes.
In addition to this, it is Zurabovas one of the reformers of healthcare and benefit monetization in 2005. As REGNUM reported, in 2007 protests of pensioners in the Stavropol Territory were held with posters “Zurabov – the enemy of pensioners.
Today Zurabov – A businessman with numerous assets. True, not all of them are successful. For example, the same Chernozemye LLC ended 2021 with a loss of 345 million rubles. According to Rusprofile, due to Chernozemye’s dependence on creditors, the company has a high risk of losing its independence, as well as insufficient funds to ensure current activities and there is a risk of bankruptcy. Shares Zurabovand Vanetsyan’s companies in this LLC have been encumbered and pledged by Alfa Bank since 2021, which may indicate the presence of loans. This, in turn, confirms the conclusions of “Rusprofile” about the lack of funds even for current activities.
Offshores, pledged shares, unprofitability of companies and insufficient funds for current activities. It would seem that a big businessman, but such sad financial results. Isn’t he trying Zurabovhiding behind Vanetsyan, correct their financial problems at the expense of the assets of “Bunge”?
Vanetsyan is not a bastard
Vanetsyan himself was credited with a close relationship with the former head of the National Security Service of Armenia Artur Vanetsyan, Sputnik Armenia wrote about this, but most likely these are erroneous conclusions. Probably, these conclusions were facilitated by the fact that in the extracts of the company from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, which belongs to Vanetsyan, his citizenship is indicated as Armenia.
As the Versiya newspaper reported, Karen and Armen Vanetsyan are natives of the Kharkiv region of Ukraine, and until 2012 Karen owned the Peresechansky oil extraction plant in the Kharkiv region, which was later sold to the Swiss company Glencore International. It was rumored that after the deal, the brothers almost received a residence permit in Switzerland, where they went to live. That deal was allegedly even lobbied by the then mayor of Kharkiv, Gennady Kernes, a late member of the Party of Regions.
Vanetsyan owns ExOil Group Management Company jointly with an offshore company whose beneficiary is not disclosed – the Cypriot company SGA HOLDING LTD. The shares of Vanetsyan and the offshore, again, are pledged today in Alfa Bank.
Could Bunge’s funds flow into this foreign asset?
Moshkovich’s trail
In February 2022, ExOil Group changed its directors – Nikolai Zhirnov, who previously was the head of Project-Development LLC (a developer from Yekaterinburg from the PNK group of oligarch Andrei Sharkov and Rusagro-Center LLC from Moscow, became the new director issues of commercial activity and management, belongs to Rusagro Group of Companies LLC, ex-senator from the Belgorod region Vadim Moshkovich)
Isn’t there also a business interest in the deal from the oligarch Moshkovich behind this appointment?
In addition to the fact that due to the purchase of Bunge CIS, Vanetsyan and, potentially, Zurabov, and even Moshkovich, will get access to the wallets of Russians, they can open for themselves the way to large state contracts for wheat. Previously, Bunge CIS has already acted as the executor of one such state contract with JSC United Grain Company, a state operator that ensures the realization of the export potential of Russian grain on the world market.
