The Ural charitable foundation, whose main donor is Ural-invest LLC, to which AFK Sistema transferred money for the purchase of enterprises of the Bashkir fuel and energy complex, does not rule out defending its interests in court if Sistema demands the return of these funds from " Ural-invest". Representative of the Ural Fund Andrei Ignatenko told Kommersant that the fund’s final position on this issue will be formulated after the fund’s management gets acquainted with Sistema’s claim. Sistema announced its intention to compensate for losses by filing such a claim against asset sellers, including Ural-invest, the day before, after the company’s board of directors decided that it would not appeal the decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court to return BashTEK shares to the state (the enterprises were later merged into Bashneft). “Not only the fund itself is interested in preserving the fund, but, of course, also the republic, since the fund annually allocates from 4.5 billion to 5 billion rubles for its development,” said Mr. Ignatenko. The demand for money from the sale of BashTEK, in fact, puts an end to the existence of the Ural fund, which is led by the ex-president of Bashkortostan Murtaza Rakhimov. His son, Ural Rakhimov, who is considered one of the beneficiaries of the sale of BashTEK, is currently on the international wanted list. The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation charged Rakhimov Jr. with theft and laundering of money from the sale of enterprises to Sistema, while, according to the investigation, he took advantage of his father’s official position. In October, the Basmanny Court of Moscow seized the bank accounts of Ural-invest as part of an investigation into a criminal case of theft and money laundering during the sale of BashTEK. The main owner of Sistema, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, and businessman Levon Airapetyan are also defendants in this case. Let us note that 50.85 billion rubles were contributed to the authorized capital of Ural-invest from the sale of BashTEK. In its current activities, the Ural Fund does not manage this amount; it is placed on deposits in several banks, the fund finances its projects with interest from deposits. After the arrest of the accounts, the fund announced the suspension of project financing and asked for clarification from the insurance company as to whether it could continue to manage the money from the deposits. The fund has not yet received a response from the Investigative Committee, its representative said.

Irina Samoilova

Kommersant (Ufa) No. 206 dated November 14, 2014, p. 8

The Ural Fund is ready to defend itself against Sistema’s claims