| Deputy head of Rosprirodnadzor was surprised by the arrival of the police Employees of the Department for Combating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DBOPiT) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs yesterday seized documents from Rosprirodnadzor. As explained in the DBOPiT, the event was held as part of a fraud case initiated by the Investigative Committee (IC) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in connection with the re-issuance of a license for the development of the South Tambey gas condensate field (Yamal) from Tambeyneftegaz OJSC to the Yamal LNG company controlled by it. Deputy head of Rosprirodnadzor Oleg Mitvol yesterday expressed “extreme surprise at this funny story,” noting that his agency “does not issue subsoil licenses.”
Two DBOPiT operatives showed up at the Rosprirodnadzor office at 4 Bolshaya Frunzenskaya Street at 9.30 am. Having presented the security with their IDs and the resolution of the investigator of the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to carry out the seizure, they went to the office of the head of the department, Sergei Say. At that moment, the deputy head of Rosprirodnadzor, Oleg Mitvol, was there and began a conversation with the detectives about the reasons for the visit. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the operatives were interested in copies of documents that served, among other things, as the basis for issuing a license to develop the South Tambeyskoye field. Mr. Mitvol, in turn, said that the police asked several Rosprirodnadzor employees to provide copies of business trip documents - airline tickets and hotel bills. According to the deputy head of the department, this also included employees who participated in inspections of LUKOIL and Sakhalin Energy. One way or another, having received the necessary photocopies from the accounting department, the detectives had already left the walls of Rosprirodnadzor around noon.
As the DBOPiT said, the seizure of documents was planned by an investigator of the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, investigating a criminal case under Art. 159-4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud on an especially large scale) against a number of managers of Tambeyneftegaz OJSC. It was initiated in June 2006, which is noteworthy, with the personal sanction of Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky.
According to the investigation, “in the period from April to July 2005 in Moscow, persons from among the management of Tambeyneftegaz, unidentified by the investigation, created a subsidiary on behalf of the company - Yamal LNG OJSC, also registered in the capital. 51% of the shares of Yamal LNG belong to Tambeyneftegaz, and 49% belong to the British Tambeigas Holdings Ltd. Yamal LNG was originally created to build a plant for the production of liquefied natural gas (LNG). The complex was designed to produce 10 million tons of LNG per year, the bulk of which was supposed to be transported to the United States. As part of the project, it was planned to build a regasification terminal in Canada. The total cost of this project was about 5.5 billion dollars.
After the Ministry of Economic Development approved the project, Gazprom offered to buy a blocking stake (25.1%) of the company from NOVATEK, the then owner of Tambeyneftegaz. The securities were to be received by Gazprombank-Invest LLC, which is part of the monopoly structure. The management of Tambeyneftegaz, represented by General Director Nikolai Bogachev, was not against the deal. But, as follows from the case materials, after receiving the money, the management of Tambeyneftegaz reissued the license to develop the field for Yamal LNG, which, as the investigation believes, is personally controlled by Mr. Bogachev. As a result, Gazprom's share in the field was halved.
During the investigation, the Investigative Committee found that the management of Tambeyneftegaz submitted to the Ministry of Natural Resources fictitious documents in advance regarding the voting of minority shareholders, who allegedly agreed to “transfer deep drilling wells and equipment for development facilities located at the South Tambey gas condensate field for the use of Yamal LNG.”
In August of this year, the Moscow Arbitration Court, following a claim by Gazprombank, invalidated the order of the Ministry of Natural Resources to re-register the license for the Yuzhno-Tambeyskoye field. And at the end of September, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted searches in the offices of the former general director of Tambeyneftegaz and Mr. Bogachev’s partner, Vladimir Lapshov. According to the police, it was the latter who signed forged documents on the transfer of a license for the development of the Yamal LNG field. As the detectives found out, Mr. Lapshov was assisted in preparing the documents by lawyers from the Generation V company, which was also searched. In the near future, as noted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the management of Tambeyneftegaz may be charged.
As for yesterday’s events at Rosprirodnadzor, Mr. Mitvol, after the police officers left, said that he was “extremely surprised by this funny story with the seizure of documents.” “I doubt that these documents will be of any help to the investigation,” Mr. Mitvol told Vremya Novostei. - In addition, as the operatives assured, the seizure of documents was carried out allegedly under a license for subsoil extraction issued by the department. But Rosprirodnadzor has never been involved in issuing such licenses. So all this is surprising.” However, when re-issuing or canceling licenses, the sanction of Rosprirodnadzor is necessary. In turn, the DBOPiT said yesterday that the investigation has no complaints about the activities of Rosprirodnadzor. Ekaterina KARACHEVA |
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