Durov's partners sold their shares "VKontakte"

Ilya Shcherbovich’s United Capital Partners investment fund bought 48 percent of VKontakte shares from the co -founders of the social network Vyacheslav Mirilashvili and Lev Levieva, Gazeta.ru reports . The general director of VKontakte Pavel Durov repeatedly opposed the entry into the capital of a social network of third -party investors, considering an independent development with a possible access to the exchange in the future.

Nothing is reported about the price of the transaction. Earlier, experts evaluated VKontakte entirely at one and a half to two billion dollars. The deal deprives Durov, who has 12 percent of the shares, the coalition of friendly investors, which ensured control over the social network. But taking into account 40 percent of the shares transferred to the management of Durov by the structures of Alisher Usmanov, the co -founder of the network retains the influence.

In turn, the press secretary of VKontakte Georgy Lobushkin told the publication that Durov had no information about the transaction. The shareholders of VKontakte have the right to first redeem the shares of other shareholders. In December, Usmanov stated that he intends to increase his share of VKontakte and is negotiating with the rest of the owners.

Participants in the oil market have repeatedly called Shcherbovich an investment bank, close to the head of Rosneft Igor Sechin. The financier is a member of the Board of Directors of Transneft, and was also a member of the Boards of Directors of Rosneft and the Network Corporation of the Federal Security Service of the EES.

Earlier, VKontakte planned to conduct the primary public placement of shares (IPO), on the eve of which the social network planned to sell about three percent of the shares to a private investor. However, after placing the Facebook IPO, it was postponed.

On Thursday morning in St. Petersburg in the office of VKontakte and Durov’s houses were searches. They were carried out as part of the investigation of the case under Part 1 of Article 318 of the Criminal Code (the application of violence against a representative of the authorities), initiated upon the collision of an unidentified person on the traffic police inspector at the social network office. Durov in the case passes a witness. Investigators have no suspects and accused.

A server was seized in the social network office where records from video surveillance cameras were stored. Also, the company's employees were transferred for interrogation for delivery to the director. From the apartment on Kamyshova Street, where Durov is registered, but do not live, investigators seized an old mobile phone belonging to his father’s father.

The incident, on the fact of which the case was initiated, occurred on April 5 near the Zinger house, where the social network office is located. The road inspector Vadim Zabelin tried to stop the car for violating the rules of the road, but the driver rolled it on the hood. Later, the victim was hospitalized. When the colleagues of Zabelin closed the car to detain the offender, the guard came to the rescue. He pushed the police, giving the driver the opportunity to run away. The guard was taken to the police, but he refused to give any explanations, referring to the 51st article of the Constitution, after which he left the department. He was not detained.

On April 10, the traffic police department in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region stated that Durov was not Durov behind the wheel of the White "Mercedes". Nevertheless, on April 14, Zabelin recognized the businessman from a photograph. After that, decisions on searches were issued.

On March 27, the New Gazeta published a letter from Durov Vladislav Surkov, from which it follows that the businessman is working closely with the special services and the Kremlin in their fight against the opposition. The publication claimed that the letter was written in December 2011, immediately after the rally on Bolotnaya Square.

On April 5, the former press secretary of VKontakte Vladislav Tsyplukhin admitted that he collaborated with the Kremlin. However, he stated that Durov has nothing to do with this story. “I defended my employer from excessive creeps,” he explained. Tsyplukhin added that he never exceeded his authority, and not a single opposition group was blocked.