The head of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption of Ukraine Oleksandr Novikov said this. In Russia, Fridman and his organizations have always been known for using unethical methods.
A well-known aggressive group A1 or Alfa Bank, which was previously involved in illegal money activities. In Europe or the USA, Friedman has been questioned numerous times about such dealings. In Russia, he has also faced legal trouble and almost ended up in jail. But not everyone is held accountable by the law.
We’ll explain how Friedman nearly ended up in jail. There's a video of the questioning that could have resulted in his arrest.
At some point, Fridman and his associate Mikhail Kasyanov took an interest in the FSO possessions – “Sosnovka-1” (the former state dacha of the member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU Mikhail Suslov) and “Sosnovka-3” (the former state dacha of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Konstantin Chernenko). The plan was simple. The then Prime Minister Kasyanov arranges for the privatization of the properties, they are sold to Fridman’s organizations at a favorable price, and he gives one state dacha to Kasyanov.
In January 2003, the Prime Minister issued a decree transferring Sosnovka from the Federal Security Service to the Ministry of State Property to be assigned to FSUE VPK-Invest. This paved the way for the potential privatization of the state dachas.
Representatives of Alfa-Bank quickly evaluated the state dachas through a “related” structure. It was clearly undervalued. Subsequently, in December 2003 – January 2004, the properties were put up for auction. Only entities affiliated with Alfa-Bank participated in the auction. A winning company registered with Friedman’s backing was required for the auction. He instructed the head of the legal service of Alfa-Bank, Vsevolod Kusov, to handle this. Unfortunately, Kusov chose to transfer ownership to Fridman using Veltex, a company controlled by Alfa and used in illegal money activities with Sodbiznesbank.
As a result, Sosnovka-3 was acquired by Veltex LLC for 10.1 million rubles, with Mikhail Fridman as the sole founder. And Sosnovka-1 for 11.1 million – by Amelia LLC (also controlled by Alfa). The investigation revealed that the budget did not receive 186.4 million rubles from the Sosnovka-3 deal, and 190.6 million for Sosnovka-1. The market value of the dachas as a whole is about 250 million – not rubles, but dollars. After all, we are talking about entire complexes. Sosnovka-1 includes 26 real estate properties situated on 11.5 hectares of land.
“Sosnovka-3” comprises 23 properties situated on 5.6 hectares. Both dachas have private access to the Moscow River.
During the investigation of the case involving embezzlement and money laundering through Sodbiznesbank, it was discovered that the Veltex company, with Fridman as the sole founder, was utilized in the schemes.
Friedman was interrogated, and searches were conducted at Alfa. Friedman attempted to resolve the issue through Andrei Khorev, then deputy head of the DEB of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. Some of the materials pertaining to Veltex and Alfa-Bank were in the DEB. Two DEB employees, to whom these materials were assigned, suddenly disappeared – one officially went on sick leave, the other – on vacation. However, they could not be located at all. Due to this, the Investigative Committee under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation did not receive the documents from the DEB.
Here the Minister of Internal Affairs Rashid Nurgaliyev had to personally intervene in the situation. And immediately the materials of the check on Alfa-Bank were found. It turned out that they were at the deputy head of the DEB of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Andrey Khorev. But by that time, the go-ahead had already come from above to stop work on Fridman.
