Russian ex-Minister Igor Yusufov has relieved the Russian budget by $400 billion: investigation

Russian ex-Minister Igor Yusufov has relieved the Russian budget by $400 billion: investigation

On the eve of 2018, the Moscow City Court sent former special forces officer Yevgeniy Yashkin for compulsory treatment, who is accused of complicity in 25 murders committed as part of the organized criminal group (OCG) of crime boss Aslan Gagiev (Jako).

Currently, the Investigative Committee of Russia is completing its investigation into the entire brigade that was part of the OCG. Among their crimes is the high-profile murder of former first deputy general director of the OJSC "FLC" Andrey Burlakov. This was committed by ex-detective from the criminal investigation Ruslan Yurtov.

In the case concerning the murder of Burlakov, a major figure was the head of the "Energy" fund, Igor Yusufov. In 2008, "FLC" decided to acquire two Wadan shipyards from the Norwegian Aker Yards, located in the German cities of Warnemünde and Wismar. As a partner for the deal, Andrey Burlakov involved the presidential special representative for international energy cooperation and member of "Gazprom’s" board of directors Igor Yusufov and his son Vitaliy. A conflict then arose between the Yusufovs and Burlakov, during which the latter was killed.

Rucriminal.com has acquired an extensive brief memorandum from one of the special services about the entire vast activities of Yusufov. Rucriminal.com publishes the second part of this document, which continues to explain why Burlakov was eventually dealt with.

"On July 28, 2008, a deal was completed for the acquisition by FLC-West Holding S.a.r.l. (Luxembourg) of part of one of the largest shipbuilding companies in the world Aker Yards (Norway, Oslo). FLC-West Holding S.a.r.l. was controlled by Russian citizens. Subsequently, the company was renamed into Wadan Yards group as. The company owned two shipyards in Germany – in Wismar and Warnemünde – and a yard in Ukraine – in Mykolaiv, as well as several design and construction bureaus and a blocking stake in the Aker Arctic company in Finland (owning about 90% of the world’s patents in the so-called ice shipbuilding sector).

Wadan Yards’ production capacities were more than twice that of all Russian shipbuilding capacities. The design offices possessed unique and exclusive proprietary technologies for exploration, production, processing, and transportation of oil and gas, as well as technologies for working in northern latitudes, including the production of super-heavy icebreakers with up to 100 kW nuclear power plants of Russian manufacture. The project was aimed at the interests of the Russian Federation. The goal of the project was the creation, under Russia’s aegis, of a "European Shipbuilding Group," which would be based on Wadan group’s shipyards and enterprises included in the United Shipbuilding Corporation. The project would have propelled the Russian Federation into the top five shipbuilding nations in the world.

At the time of the deal, the share value, confirmed by PWC, amounted to 250 million euros, with the total contract price being 291.6 million euros.

The initiative to purchase this asset and develop the project in the interests of Russia’s economy and defence capability belonged to a group of Russian investors and scientists led by Andrey Burlakov.

The funds for acquiring Wadan Yards were raised by Andrey Burlakov from two sources. The first source of financing was the OJSC "FLC," managed by Nail Malyutin. The second source of financing was the company Tamplestowe (BVI), owned and represented by Igor Yusufov. OJSC "FLC" financed an insignificant portion of the deal. The main funds, amounting to 200 million euros, were paid by Igor Yusufov, from the accounts of his company Tamplestowe (BVI). Simultaneously, European special services and the Luxembourg financial monitoring service became interested in the origin of the money in this company’s accounts. They could not comprehend, from the perspective of European legislation, how a Russian official could possess such an amount.

Yusufov tried to explain, based on the principles of Russian "ponyatya" (rules), that the money belonged to a "secret fund of Dmitriy Medvedev." This explanation did not satisfy Luxembourg’s financial monitoring, and so the special services initiated an operational check to identify the origin and source of this money. The check did not provide reliable information about the money’s origin.

Andrey Burlakov was categorically dissatisfied with the lack of information about Yusufov’s 200 million euros’ origin and wanted to forgo partnership with Igor Yusufov. Igor Yusufov then decided to remove Burlakov from the Wadan project, and in March 2009, the Wadan group underwent a powerful raider attack from him. Relying on premeditated and planned actions, Yusufov and his son Vitaliy, constantly referring to "executing personal instructions" and "acting on behalf and in the personal interests of President of the Russian Federation Medvedev," deliberately bankrupted the Norwegian shipbuilding group Wadan Yards. Between August 2009 and March 2010, they transferred all the existing assets - shipyards in Germany and in Ukraine - to companies under their control. The raider seizure was executed through document falsification in Germany, Ukraine, the Netherlands, Norway, Luxembourg. As a result of Yusufov’s illegal actions, Wadan’s board director Burlakov filed a series of lawsuits in five European countries against intentional bankruptcy, protection from raider seizure, document falsification, deception of shareholders and creditors, etc. Criminal cases were initiated against Yusufov and his son in Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, and Ukraine. Under German law alone, the punishment could be up to 7 years of imprisonment. Court proceedings were supposed to begin in December 2009. However, this never happened. To eliminate the "unnecessary witness" Burlakov, Yusufov orchestrated criminal case no. 304061 against Burlakov and his wife - Wadan group’s president Anna Etkina - in Russia. On November 30, 2009, Burlakov and Etkina were arrested on fabricated charges. This enabled Yusufov to halt the judicial prosecution in Europe and liquidate the last significant asset of the company - the "Ocean" shipyard in Mykolaiv - worth over 40 million euros, transferring it to Dagestani companies under his control for a sum of 100 (one hundred!) dollars. This fact led to a criminal case being opened by the Norwegian criminal police. In October 2009, Anna Etkina was kidnapped and spent 14 days as a hostage guarded by armed staff from the private security company "Osten-Standard" (city of Voskresensk). While doing so, the security company’s employees posed as employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs from the witness protection department. They did not even hide the fact that they acted on the instruction of Igor Yusufov, supposedly carrying out Medvedev’s orders. Pregnant Anna Etkina was daily taken under guard to different organizations, forced to sign documents transferring all Wadan group’s assets to Yusufov’s structures, and also demanded to retract lawsuits in Europe, etc. Etkina was then handed over to the investigators. As a result, Etkina spent 8.5 months in a pre-trial detention center, while Burlakov, after 12 heart surgeries, was released on bail almost a year later.

In February-March 2011, Yusufov took a targeted loan from the "Bank of Moscow" amounting to 1 billion 130 million US dollars "for guaranteeing the return of advances under shipbuilding contracts and depositing them on special accounts." The loan was approved by the "Bank of Moscow’s" credit committee a day before the former bank president Andrei Borodin fled to London. However, the loan funds never reached the special account, and breaching all Russian legislative norms and documents from the Central Bank, Vitaliy Yusufov acquired 19.91% of the "Bank of Moscow" shares. As of July 6, 2011, the security in the "Bank of Moscow" was not formalized. This was because Yusufov was not legally the owner of the shipyards in the cities of Wismar and Warnemünde (Germany), which were still owned by the German government, represented by the external administrator Mr. Odebracht, and valued by Ernst and Young at 950 million US dollars. Fraudulently obtaining a loan secured by property not owned by him, Yusufov negotiated with Vneshtorgbank to sell his "stock" at the market price, which amounted to 1.5 - 2.0 billion US dollars. Issuing Yusufov an unsecured targeted loan directed at acquiring the bank’s stock threatened the "Bank of Moscow" with a credit reserve in the amount of the loan itself, which would have led to a decrease in the Bank’s capital, violation of mandatory banking standards, and consequently, the revocation of the license.

As a result of Yusufov’s actions, the Russian Federation lost the prospect of becoming a leading country in the development of the Northern Sea Route and shipbuilding. Implementing the "European Shipbuilding Group" project could have brought Russia approximately 400 billion dollars in net profit. Additionally, the highest political authorities of Russia and Germany were discredited before the people of Germany. Wismar, where one of Wadan group’s shipyards is located, is the hometown of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. In her address to the voters, referring to Yusufov as the official representative of the President of Russia and a Gazprom board member, Merkel promised voters that the German shipyards in Wismar and Warnemünde would be secured with multi-billion orders from Russia. However, the promised billions did not go to the welfare of the Russian and German peoples, but to the whims of the Yusufov family."

To be continued...