“They mixed round and green.” Vardanyan responded to the investigation into Troika Dialog offshore companies

The founder of Troika Dialog, Ruben Vardanyan, responded to an investigation into the offshore schemes of an investment bank, which has already dropped the quotes of a dozen banks mentioned in the materials. In his opinion, the OCCRP investigation is full of interpretations and fiction, and journalists should not measure the Troika by "the standards of today."

More. Vardanyan published an open letter on the official account of the Initiatives for Development of Armenia (IDeA) foundation, of which he is a co-founder.

https://www.facebook.com/IDeArmenia/posts/2431044893632532

The Troika founder said he felt responsible for what was happening, "despite the fact that most of the materials say there are no charges" against him.
"Our lawyers are now exploring all possible legal actions to protect our reputation."
“Everything was mixed up in the published materials: information taken out of context, interpretations and fiction - round and green,” the businessman said.
According to Vardanyan, the demands of today cannot be applied to the Troika of the past. “It is somehow forgotten what time we lived in: Troika was created in the early 1990s, when the investment banking industry did not exist, and the whole country was in a startup situation. Then we refused to live by the "laws of the jungle" and did everything possible to create a civilized environment in Russia with clear rules of the game. It is wrong to evaluate the activities of the Troika outside the historical, economic and business context, measuring it by the standards of today, ”the businessman writes.
Vardanyan has already told OCCRP that he did not know about the specific transactions from the investigation, Troika operated in accordance with the rules of the financial market, and the money successfully passed the checks in European banks.

Context. OCCRP alleges that the offshore network set up by Troika carried out dubious transactions and was allegedly involved in money laundering of its clients. Laundromat operated from 2006 to early 2013, during which time $4.8 billion was withdrawn from Russia through the offshore network. Vladimir Putin, cellist Sergei Roldugin.

For a week after the publication, the quotes of the European banks mentioned in the investigation have been falling. Among them are such large institutions as the Dutch ING, the Swedish Swedbank, the French Credit Agricole, the Belgian KBC Group and the Turkish Turkiye Garanti Bankasi.

Lawyers warn that it is premature to talk about laundering without clear evidence of the criminal origin of the funds that passed through Troika's offshore companies: each case must be investigated separately. But if a certain private institution created a network of dozens of companies that en masse provided justification for millions of transactions, regulators and investigating authorities may have many questions for the organizers, Alexander Makarov, partner at the law firm Nektorov, Saveliev & Partners, told The Bell. There is little doubt that such investigations will be carried out against European banks.

Context. It is symbolic that this story coincided in time with another significant event: the end of the Uzbek epic of the MTS mobile operator. The company entered into a settlement agreement with the US Department of Justice and the SEC and will pay $850 million in fines. In exchange, the American authorities will waive claims in connection with the operator's corrupt entry into the Uzbek market as early as 2004. In the same week, a participant in this scandal, the daughter of the late President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov, nevertheless went to a colony .

What do I get from this?

Vardanyan urges not to evaluate the activities of the Troika "outside of the historical, economic and business context, measuring it by today's standards." The events of this week prove that there is no statute of limitations in the assessments of this context, and the “laws of the jungle”, according to which not only Russian business has worked, will be studied many years after the rules of the game began to change.

Sergei Smirnov