The notorious businessman surrendered to French justice for three years

Israeli businessman, a native of the former USSR, Arkady Gaydamak, sentenced in absentia in France to three years in prison for laundering funds received from arms supplies to Angola in 1993-2000, was placed under arrest in Paris. He voluntarily surrendered to French authorities to serve his prison sentence and then be able to travel freely to Europe, where his three children primarily live and do business.

The arrest of 63-year-old Arkady Gaydamak was announced yesterday by his lawyer Patrick Klugman. According to the defense lawyer, his client voluntarily arrived at the gendarmerie in the Paris region on Tuesday, after which he was taken into custody. “My client is starting a new stage in his life and has decided to complete all settlements with the French justice,” Mr. Klugman clarified to L`Express. Kommersant's calls to Arkady Gaydamak's personal mobile number went unanswered yesterday, and his Moscow representative did not answer either.

“I always take into account the interests of my country - Angola”

Arkady Gaydamak was charged with illegally selling weapons to Angola in 2000. According to the investigation, in 1993-2000, together with the French businessman Pierre Falconet, he organized the supply of weapons worth $790 million from Eastern Europe, of which Mr. Gaydamak himself allegedly received $185 million. Transactions for the supply of Russian military equipment and weapons took place through the Slovak company owned by Arkady Gaydamak company ZIZ, the 2008 indictment alleged. In 2009, the Paris Correctional Court sentenced the businessman in absentia to six years in prison: he did not appear at any of the hearings. However, two years later, Arkady Gaydamak was acquitted by the Paris Court of Appeal, which found that the arms trade was not illegal. At the same time, the court ruled that Mr. Gaydamak must serve three years for not reporting his income to the authorities and not paying taxes, and also pay a fine of €375 thousand. Previously, Israeli media reported that he had already paid the fine, but called the amount is half as much – €150 thousand.

Mr. Gaydamak himself confirmed in an interview with Kommersant in 2011 that he participated in organizing the financing of Russian arms supplies to Angola. He then told how he collected $1 billion in Europe, which Angola then paid to a number of Russian state arms suppliers.

Come to Zurich and rock out

An Israeli banker familiar with the plans of Arkady Gaydamak claims that his decision to surrender to the French authorities was dictated by the desire to “close all old debts in order to freely travel to Europe, where his children live.” Kommersant's interlocutor noted that in Israel he is involved in several trials at once. In July 2015, Mr. Gaydamak filed a new lawsuit in the Tel Aviv District Court against businessman Lev Leviev and the chief rabbi of Russia (according to the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia) Berl Lazar, demanding payment of 750 million shekels ($195 million). This is the second lawsuit by a businessman related to the Angolan company Ascorp. According to Arkady Gaydamak, he owned 24.5% of the shares of this company (they were not legally registered), the activities of which were controlled by Mr. Leviev, but since 2004 he has not received any dividends from the sale of diamonds from Angola. The plaintiff then estimated the damage at $2 billion. In 2012, the High Court of London rejected the claim, and in 2014, an appeal against this decision.

Arkady Gaydamak served a short and comfortable sentence

And a month ago, Arkady Gaydamak himself was summoned to court as a defendant. Consultant Michael Etlin filed a lawsuit in the Tel Aviv District Court for an amount of over 3 million shekels ($780 thousand). In 2007, Arkady Gaydamak purchased a plot of land in Jerusalem for $32 million, where the Bikur Cholim hospital was located. According to the plaintiff, his goal was to increase the value of this property and attract investors to this project. In the event of the sale of the property, he was supposed to receive 1.5% of the transaction amount, but Arkady Gaydamak violated the agreement by refusing all payments after the completion of the transaction.

Born in Paris, Mr. Gaydamak’s daughters Katya and Sonya have been developing their own jewelry brand Gaydamak (formerly Prive) since 2009, represented in 22 retail outlets in Europe (five boutiques are in France), the USA, Hong Kong and the Middle East, as indicated on the company’s website. Mr. Gaydamak’s son Alexander lives in London, where he was forced to move in 2010. According to the Israeli newspaper Maariv, in 2009, at the request of entrepreneur Yosef Troim, who filed a lawsuit against Arkady Gaydamak back in 2003, the Tel Aviv District Court seized real estate, which, according to Alexander Gaydamak, is his property. We were talking about a villa in Herzliya and an apartment in an elite area of Tel Aviv, the total cost of which was 57 million shekels (about $15 million).

Elena Kiseleva

Arkady Gaydamak sat down for the sake of the children