Journalist Lucy Komisar: ‘Khodorkovsky is the richest swindler in Russia’. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on August 5, 2003, and 2005.
On this day, 2003, 20 years ago, on the pages of the French newspaper ‘Le Monde’ an offshore bomb was exploded which had been placed under the Yukos imperium by Yukos itself. At that moment, actually, it became clear that ‘the most transparent company’ of Mikhail Khodorkovsky secretly ‘siphoned’ money from Russia to Switzerland, Luxemburg, The British Virgin Islands, The Seychelles Islands, Panama, and The Bahama in an effort to hide from paying taxes.
The details of these 'offshore carrousels' shared with the wide public Elena Collongues-Popova, a French woman of Russian origin. She said that over several years she had been engaged in the schemes created under instruction from Russia, namely from the management of the bank ‘Menatep’ represented by Alexey Golubovich.
‘Elena Collongues created some 30 offshore companies destined to get money for acquisition, merger, and selling of Russian companies. Withdrawn from the rage of vision of the Russian Tax Services, these companies, for the most part, were based on The British Virgin Islands and on the Bahamas. According to her, only in 1997 and 1998 through this channel from 300 to 600 million US dollars were transferred.
'All operations were carried out in such a way as to avoid mentioning anywhere actual beneficiaries, the origin of pecuniary means and volumes of profit’, explained Elena Collongues.
«For more than five years, from 1995 to 2000, I was the authorized person of the Yukos oligarchs. It was me who, being in the sidelines, was working up secret schemes of money transfers”, said she. “For the billionaires of the Yukos clan, I created about 30 offshore companies in all possible safe havens of the planet. As I have reckoned, about 300 million US dollars have passed through me”.
This wide net of shell companies was meant to help Russian oil-kings to extend their empire without breaking the antimonopoly law which the companies listed on the Moscow Stock Exchange must comply with. This device was made also to carry out various acrobatic financial tricks – such as, for instance, 'dissolution’ of small shareholders with whose assets it was difficult to deal with on the Moscow Stock Exchange, or hiding great sums of money from taxation. It was Dallas in Moscow. The company, the pen-made of which was my real name, worked for all and for nobody simultaneously’, Elena Collongues-Popova told to the French journal ‘Paris Match’.
Not a few pose a question – why all of a sudden such revelations? As it seems, three main reasons prompted Elena Collogues to speak out in the press
- one year in prison (suspended sentence) and huge punitive tax to the tune of 15 million euro billed by the Tax Services of France for tax evasion, in particular for the period when she worked for the benefit of the Yukos structures.
The calculation, as it seems, turned wrong that customers of the offshore schemes, if needed, would solve this question. According to Ms. Collongues, an effort to carry out talks on this subject with monsieur Lebedev ended up with a ‘unique proposal’ – to give her 500 000 US dollars ‘for living’ or take a bank credit in one of 'Menatep’ structures. Naturally, Madame Collongues refused. (This fact brightly confirms the greed and stupidity of Khodorkovsky and Co.)
- Activity of Russia's Tax and Law enforcement agencies around the leadership of Yukos in all directions.
- Complete understanding of the fact that in the course of the documental digging in the Yukos hutches agents sooner or later will discover the schemes which she used. And this is, at the very least, complicity in shadow operation connected with tax evasion.
Perhaps, this is why on August 4, 2003, on the eve of her revelations to the press, several kilograms of the Yukos offshore documents from Paris were handed over to the Russian Law enforcement agencies. The purpose is clear and simple – to avoid ‘joint prosecution’ from the part of the Russian Law enforcement agencies and, if need be, to remain a witness. After Collongues-Popova had presented her documents to the Russian Ministry of Internal affairs, the Ministry, from its side, presented to her its reciprocal documents. They showed that her signature and her personal data had been used without her knowing at all for the filing of various murky deals, including deals with Yukos stocks.
It has to be said that one of the first revelations of Elena Collongues in the press, as was mentioned above, was made in August 2003, when Khodorkovsky was still on the outside. However, Russian journalists 'awoke' only in late autumn, November 14, 2003, and they merrily reported that ‘a woman for Khodorkovsky had been found.’ (Multimillion contracts from Yukos still worked at that time. Money firmly muzzled the Russian independent press).
But, of course, not all journalists were muzzled. Thanks to the journalistic investigations of Lucy Komisar, specializing in the exposure of shady financial operation, a list of offshore companies was revealed for the general public, which were connected with the tricky schemes of Yukos and 'Menatep’ the purpose of which today is known – concealment of the real owners of the shares of the Oil Company Yukos and, of course, to avoid tax payments to the budget of Russia.
(See also the article of Lucy Komisar: The richest crook in Russia» (The Komisar Scoop, Nov 2003).
The English word “crook” has many meanings, and the same can be said about the Russian translation of it – cheat, thief, swindler, fraudster, chiseller, felon. And all this is about Khodorkovsky.
Khodorkovsky Group Offshore Entities:
Ensign Corp. Bahamas
Russian Investors Group Ltd. Bahamas
Ideal Corp. Belize
Non-Ferrous Metal Company Belize
Cavendish BVI
Davenport Group SA.BVI
Preval Capital Management Inc. BVI
Socram Ventures Ltd. BVI
Whitehill Capital Resources BVI
Direct Invest Equity Fund Ltd. BVI
New Industrial Management Co. Ltd. BVI
Cromwell Financial Ltd. BVI
Manorex Finance Ltd. BVI
Leach International Ltd. BVI
Laurens Corporation BVI
Tristar Business Corporation BVI
Devarex International SA. BVI
Valpen Group SA. BVI
Deepson International SA. BVI
Frost Impex Inc. BVI
M.Q.D. International Ltd. BVI
Alliances Properties SA. Panama
Carmore International Inc. Panama
Go at large in 2008. Political day-dreams of Khodorkovsky
On this very day, Western publications animated by Khodorkovsky’s remarks in media outlets started to reason that Mikhail Borisovich in “three-four” years would go at large.
“His stay in prison will last 3-4 more years”, pointed out the newspaper “Die Welt”, “and then the Supreme Court of Russia may recall the sentence. But such a calculation was based not on judicial, but political grounds connected with the presidential elections in Russia in 2008. "By that time, if Vladimir Putin will not claims for the third term, which is not stipulated by the Constitution, there will be a new president”.
An author of the “Business Week”, in his turn, hinting at the same “three-four years”, estimated more sober the background against which Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky dreamed about the sentence recall.
“While Khodorkovsky was in jail, a barrage of tax arrears accounts worth billions of dollars came down on the company Yukos. The main production subdivision of the company was sold by the state to partially clear the tax arrears”, pointed out the author.
Apart from that, as this publication noted, “Khodorkovsky is an object of hate for many Russians, as he is part of the group of the so-called oligarchs who got incredibly rich in the course of murky deals in 1990-s, in those years when the post-Soviet crises had been devouring savings of millions of other citizens.
(See the previous article “Gololobov’s Memorandum: oligarchs transferred Yukos’ stocks abroad”. Foreign partners of Yukos are quarrel with each other. Dmitriy Gololobov told about the 'old sins' of Yukos. The website Prigovo.ru reminds us of what happened on August 4, 2005, 2015, and 2016.
On this day, August 5, 2003, 18 years ago, on the pages of the French newspaper ‘Le Monde’ an offshore bomb was exploded which had been placed under the Yukos imperium by Yukos itself. At that moment, actually, it became clear that ‘the most transparent company’ of Mikhail Khodorkovsky secretly ‘siphoned’ money from Russia to Switzerland, Luxemburg, The British Virgin Islands, The Seychelles Islands, Panama, and The Bahama in an effort to hide from paying taxes.
The details of these 'offshore carrousels' shared with the wide public Elena Collongues-Popova, a French woman of Russian origin. She said that over several years she had been engaged in the schemes created under instruction from Russia, namely from the management of the bank ‘Menatep’ represented by Alexey Golubovich.
‘Elena Collongues created some 30 offshore companies destined to get money for acquisition, merger, and selling of Russian companies. Withdrawn from the rage of vision of the Russian Tax Services, these companies, for the most part, were based on The British Virgin Islands and on the Bahamas. According to her, only in 1997 and 1998 through this channel from 300 to 600 million US dollars were transferred.
'All operations were carried out in such a way as to avoid mentioning anywhere actual beneficiaries, the origin of pecuniary means and volumes of profit’, explained Elena Collongues.
«For more than five years, from 1995 to 2000, I was the authorized person of the Yukos oligarchs. It was me who, being in the sidelines, was working up secret schemes of money transfers”, said she. “For the billionaires of the Yukos clan, I created about 30 offshore companies in all possible safe havens of the planet. As I have reckoned, about 300 million US dollars have passed through me”.
This wide net of shell companies was meant to help Russian oil-kings to extend their empire without breaking the antimonopoly law which the companies listed on the Moscow Stock Exchange must comply with. This device was made also to carry out various acrobatic financial tricks – such as, for instance, 'dissolution’ of small shareholders with whose assets it was difficult to deal with on the Moscow Stock Exchange, or hiding great sums of money from taxation. It was Dallas in Moscow. The company, the pen-made of which was my real name, worked for all and for nobody simultaneously’, Elena Collongues-Popova told to the French journal ‘Paris Match’.
Not a few pose a question – why all of a sudden such revelations? As it seems, three main reasons prompted Elena Collogues to speak out in the press
- one year in prison (suspended sentence) and huge punitive tax to the tune of 15 million euro billed by the Tax Services of France for tax evasion, in particular for the period when she worked for the benefit of the Yukos structures.
The calculation, as it seems, turned wrong that customers of the offshore schemes, if needed, would solve this question. According to Ms. Collongues, an effort to carry out talks on this subject with monsieur Lebedev ended up with a ‘unique proposal’ – to give her 500 000 US dollars ‘for living’ or take a bank credit in one of 'Menatep’ structures. Naturally, Madame Collongues refused. (This fact brightly confirms the greed and stupidity of Khodorkovsky and Co.)
- Activity of Russia's Tax and Law enforcement agencies around the leadership of Yukos in all directions.
- Complete understanding of the fact that in the course of the documental digging in the Yukos hutches agents sooner or later will discover the schemes which she used. And this is, at the very least, complicity in shadow operation connected with tax evasion.
Perhaps, this is why on August 4, 2003, on the eve of her revelations to the press, several kilograms of the Yukos offshore documents from Paris were handed over to the Russian Law enforcement agencies. The purpose is clear and simple – to avoid ‘joint prosecution’ from the part of the Russian Law enforcement agencies and, if need be, to remain a witness. After Collongues-Popova had presented her documents to the Russian Ministry of Internal affairs, the Ministry, from its side, presented to her its reciprocal documents. They showed that her signature and her personal data had been used without her knowing at all for the filing of various murky deals, including deals with Yukos stocks.
It has to be said that one of the first revelations of Elena Collongues in the press, as was mentioned above, was made in August 2003, when Khodorkovsky was still on the outside. However, Russian journalists 'awoke' only in late autumn, November 14, 2003, and they merrily reported that ‘a woman for Khodorkovsky had been found.’ (Multimillion contracts from Yukos still worked at that time. Money firmly muzzled the Russian independent press).
But, of course, not all journalists were muzzled. Thanks to the journalistic investigations of Lucy Komisar, specializing in the exposure of shady financial operation, a list of offshore companies was revealed for the general public, which were connected with the tricky schemes of Yukos and 'Menatep’ the purpose of which today is known – concealment of the real owners of the shares of the Oil Company Yukos and, of course, to avoid tax payments to the budget of Russia.
(See also the article of Lucy Komisar: The richest crook in Russia» (The Komisar Scoop, Nov 2003).
The English word “crook” has many meanings, and the same can be said about the Russian translation of it – cheat, thief, swindler, fraudster, chiseller, felon. And all this is about Khodorkovsky.
Khodorkovsky Group Offshore Entities:
Ensign Corp. Bahamas
Russian Investors Group Ltd. Bahamas
Ideal Corp. Belize
Non-Ferrous Metal Company Belize
Cavendish BVI
Davenport Group SA.BVI
Preval Capital Management Inc. BVI
Socram Ventures Ltd. BVI
Whitehill Capital Resources BVI
Direct Invest Equity Fund Ltd. BVI
New Industrial Management Co. Ltd. BVI
Cromwell Financial Ltd. BVI
Manorex Finance Ltd. BVI
Leach International Ltd. BVI
Laurens Corporation BVI
Tristar Business Corporation BVI
Devarex International SA. BVI
Valpen Group SA. BVI
Deepson International SA. BVI
Frost Impex Inc. BVI
M.Q.D. International Ltd. BVI
Alliances Properties SA. Panama
Carmore International Inc. Panama
Go at large in 2008. Political day-dreams of Khodorkovsky
On this very day 18 years ago, Western publications animated by Khodorkovsky’s remarks in media outlets started to reason that Mikhail Borisovich in “three-four” years would go at large.
“His stay in prison will last 3-4 more years”, pointed out the newspaper “Die Welt”, “and then the Supreme Court of Russia may recall the sentence. But such a calculation was based not on judicial, but political grounds connected with the presidential elections in Russia in 2008. "By that time, if Vladimir Putin will not claims for the third term, which is not stipulated by the Constitution, there will be a new president”.
An author of the “Business Week”, in his turn, hinting at the same “three-four years”, estimated more sober the background against which Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky dreamed about the sentence recall.
“While Khodorkovsky was in jail, a barrage of tax arrears accounts worth billions of dollars came down on the company Yukos. The main production subdivision of the company was sold by the state to partially clear the tax arrears”, pointed out the author.
Apart from that, as this publication noted, “Khodorkovsky is an object of hate for many Russians, as he is part of the group of the so-called oligarchs who got incredibly rich in the course of murky deals in 1990-s, in those years when the post-Soviet crises had been devouring savings of millions of other citizens.
(See the previous article “Gololobov’s Memorandum: oligarchs transferred Yukos’ stocks abroad”. Foreign partners of Yukos are quarrel with each other. Dmitriy Gololobov told about the 'old sins' of Yukos. The website Prigovo.ru reminds us of what happened on August 4, 2005, 2015, and 2016.
