Kerimov Suleiman

Full name:
Kerimov Suleiman

Kerimov Suleiman Date of Birth

12 March 1966

Kerimov Suleiman Citizenship

Russia

Kerimov Suleiman Professional field/official position

The owner of the financial and industrial group Nafta Moscow, a member of the Council of the Federation from the Republic of Dagestan.

Kerimov Suleiman biography

KERIMOV Suleiman Abdusaidovich (b. 1966 in Derbent) is a Russian billionaire businessman and politician of Lezgin origin. Kerimov graduated from the Dagestan State University in 1989 with a degree in Accounting and Business Analysis, and began working at the Eltav plant of the Ministry of Electronics, where he worked until 1995, advancing from an entry-level economist to assistant general director for economic matters. According to reports from the media, Karimov acquired his initial wealth in the early 1990s.

In 1993, the management of the Eltav plant established the Federal Industrial Bank (Fedprombank) and registered it in Moscow for the convenience of conducting transactions with its clients. Suleiman represented Eltav's interests in the new Fedprombank. Fedprombank provided funding to major industrial companies in crisis. Consequently, Karimov and his partners became creditors of large energy supply companies. Once the Russian economy stabilized, the debts were repaid, resulting in significant profits for the bank and, by extension, Karimov. Subsequently, Karimov became the controlling owner of Fedprombank.
In 1995, Kerimov was appointed the deputy general director of the Soyuz-Finance trading and financial company (involved in the aviation business, raw materials industries, and the banking sector). In April 1997, Karimov became a research fellow at the Moscow International Institute of Corporations, and in February 1999 was appointed its vice president.
In October 1998, he acquired 55 percent of the shares of the investment company Nafta-Moscow (trading in oil and oil products) from its management. Over the year, he increased his share in the company to 100 percent. Since that time, Karimov has overseen this investment holding, which has become his primary business tool, and he began actively participating in investment and resale transactions.
Since December 1999, Karimov has also been part of the country’s political elite. In December 1999, he was elected to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation representing the LDPR party. On December 7, 2003, Karimov was re-elected to the State Duma. In 2007, he left the LDPR and joined the United Russia faction, later becoming a Senator from Dagestan in the Council of the Federation. In March 2011, Kerimov was elected to the Dagestan National Assembly from the United Russia list and reapproved as the representative of Dagestan in the Council of the Federation of the Russian Federation. In March 2019, a French court accused Karimov of tax evasion in France.