Translated material
Dangerous mobile communications
The prosecutor's office received an arrest warrant for the former co-owner of Megafon
The scandalous case of the theft of a stake in the third largest Russian cellular company Megafon recently received a new continuation. On October 9, the Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow, at the request of the city prosecutor's office, issued a warrant for the arrest of Russian financier Leonid Rozhetskin (pictured) , who, according to some sources, recently received US citizenship. He was charged in absentia with fraud. According to investigators, his company LV Finance Group Limited twice sold a blocking stake in Megafon in 2003, leaving the foreign buyer without money and without shares. The damage amounted to $54 million. Earlier, on August 3 of the same year, Mr. Rozhetskin, at the request of the Moscow prosecutor's office, had already been put on the international wanted list.The criminal case against the former co-owners of LV Finance Leonid Rozhetskin, Dmitry Razumov and Christophe Charlier has been dragging on since December 2004. During this time, it was suspended five times, after which it was resumed due to newly discovered circumstances.
The case was based on a statement by Michael Nordt, managing director of IPOC International Growth Fund Limited. He contacted the Moscow Department for Economic Crimes and reported that Mr. Rozhetskin, the general director of LV Finance Group Limited, registered in the Virgin Islands, managed to sell 25.1% of the shares of the mobile operator Megafon to another company, although he had previously received from it for the same shares, $54 million. Mr. Nordt confirmed his words with documents, providing option and extra-contribution agreements, etc.
During the investigation, it turned out that in April and December 2001 in Switzerland, IPOC (which then owned 6.5% of Megafon shares) entered into two options with LV Finance to purchase shares from the latter company Transcontinental Mobile Investmeny Limited (TMI), in which also included CT Mobile, which owns a 25.1% stake in Megafon. Thus, IPOC was going to become the owner of a blocking stake in the mobile operator. In accordance with these agreements, IPOC transferred money to the Swiss account of LV Finance. However, Mr. Nordt's company never received the promised shares, since in 2003 Mr. Rozhetskin protested the option agreement, saying that it was allegedly signed “under pressure” and “on unfavorable terms” for him.
After that, as follows from the materials of the criminal case, “in the same 2003, LV Finance, represented by Leonid Rozhetskin, sold shares of CT Mobile itself, along with 25.1% of Megafon shares, to the co-owner of Alfa Group Mikhail Fridman. “The scam was to resell Megafon shares several times,” said a source close to the investigation. -- First, Mr. Rozhetskin sold CT Mobile to the Seychelles offshore Palmer, and then LV Finance in several stages sold the shares of TMI to three offshore companies registered in the Virgin Islands - Avenue Limited, Santel Limited and Janou Properties Limited. , controlled by Alfa Group.
Then IPOC lawyers tried to challenge this, in their opinion, illegal transaction in an arbitration court in the Bahamas, but the claim was rejected. Alfa Group managed to convince judges that the Bermuda IPOC fund is being used for money laundering, and that the owner of the fund, Danish lawyer Jeffrey Galmond, is not actually its owner.
However, according to the investigation, Mr. Rozhetskin “in advance, even before negotiations with IPOC, agreed with Alfa Group on the sale of Megafon shares.” According to a source close to the investigation, the businessman is now hiding in the United States, and local authorities have already shown interest in him, checking the authenticity of his American passport. According to our source, the investigation of this case was taken over by First Deputy Prosecutor General Alexander Buksman. Moreover, according to our information, the Prosecutor General’s Office has already discussed with colleagues from the United States the issue of extraditing Leonid Rozhetskin to Russia. It supposedly could take place before the end of the year.
“Unfortunately, we still have not established who owns the blocking stake in the mobile operator Megafon,” said a source in the prosecutor’s office. “But as soon as the owner is identified, the shares will be immediately seized.”