Translated material
Who earns in the trade in Russian oil during the sanctions
After the start of the full -scale war of Russia with Ukraine and international sanctions, which limited the possibilities for the sale of Russian oil, the Hong Kong Company Concept Oil Services included its largest buyers. Over the past five years, the scale of its oil trade from Russia has only grown. And the risks associated with international sanctions do not seem to be embarrassed. For eight months since the beginning of the war, the Concept Oil Services has acquired oil $ 3.2 billion in Russia, being the sixth on the list of leaders. At the same time, her ownership scheme is very confusing.
“Important stories” found that the Hong Kong Concept Oil Services was part of a large group of companies registered in six countries. And people associated with the oil industry invested millions of euros in German and Austrian real estate, owned a small Austrian airline and intersected with the surroundings of old friends of Vladimir Putin: Transneft President Nikolai Tokarev and billionaire Arkady Rotenberg.
Trader with history
The Concept Oil Services oil oil industry has been surprising the market for many years.
In 2012, Polish journalists noticed that the supply of Druzhba oil pipeline from Russia could increase outside of any graphs for those foreign buyers who used the services of Concept Oil Services (and several other little -known traders). And vice versa, the “technical capabilities” of “friendship” were strangely reduced when it was necessary to pump oil for those who did not collaborate with these traders.
At the end of 2016, Rosneft controlled by the state closed the Bashneft's acquisition from AFK Sistema, which was aimed at in 2013. The transaction was accompanied by criminal cases and a demonstration landing of the owner of the “system” Vladimir Yevtushenkov under house arrest. But when Rosneft gained control over Bashneft, that had long -term contracts for the sale of oil through the Concept Oil Services (from 2013 to the end of 2015 for $ 2.36 billion and from 2016 for $ 1 billion with the possibility of prolongation for a year). And the omnipotent head of Rosneft Igor Sechin could not do anything about it, in any case, there were no high -profile demonstrative actions on his part in relation to the Concept Oil Services.
Finally, in 2017, in the Moscow Arbitration Court, one of the Russian oil companies stated that the Concept Oil Services “is a monopolist in the market for purchasing oil products received for export to Kozmino port”. “The oil market is not a competitive <...>, since Transneft, together with the Ministry of Energy of Russia and the company [Concept Oil Services] actually independently set the prices for the purchase of oil from“ small oil organizations ”, which realize oil through the Kozmino port, taking advantage of their disabilities for the transportation of oil to finite foreign buyers,” the representative of the Neftyanova told the judgment The company "Duccess" (the court did not take this into account).
According to the data of the Argus price agency, the oil of small manufacturers at the Kozmino port Concept Oil Services bought up to form tanker parties for his long -term partner - Tenergy Trading from Switzerland. The last Swiss journalists associate with the friend of the Russian president Gennady Timchenko. In general, the Concept Oil Services has only improved its indicators: in 2018 it purchased oil by $ 2.2 billion, and for eight months of the war in 2022 - $ 3.2 billion.
Owner with potential
It is believed that Concept Oil Services belongs to the Russian -speaking entrepreneur from Latvia Mikhail Zeligman. Such data were announced in the London court in 2013. Zeligman then successfully sued the owners of the Kazakhstani oil refinery (they sold the batch of oil products for which Zeligman had already paid an advance). As a result, it became known about Zeligman that he was talking in good English, founded Concept Oil Services in 2003, has business relations in Kazakhstan and a long-standing relationship with Lukoil and TNK-BP. But this did not explain the great opportunities that opened before him in Russia. Usually, in the Russian market, such potential arose among those who had an administrative resource and went to meet the interests of officials and top managers of state-owned companies.
In the Russian press there were versions that the former adviser to the Russian Minister of Energy Mikhail Stolyarov could be connected with the Concept Oil Services. But the adviser did not look like a figure that could ensure the success of this scale. “Important stories” tried to figure out whose interests crossed from Concept Oil Services, and found people close to the Russian government.
In 2020, the Swiss Public Eye found out that several years ago, the director of Concept Oil Services went to one of the trading houses in Geneva with a proposal for cooperation. As the trading house employees told reporters when it reached the KYC (Know Your Client - “Know your client” procedure, the obligation to establish the personality of the counterparty, the beneficiaries of the company with which partnerships conclude), the main owner of the Concept Oil Services, the Latvian citizen, refused to reveal the names of all its beneficiaries. “At that time, we came to the conclusion that Concept Oil is controlled by Transneft managers, ” an employee of a trading house told Swiss reporters.
Two sources of “important stories”, one of which was a partner of the Concept Oil Services, and the other has been working on the oil and gas market for many years, said that this oil and factor has now stood the former first vice-president of the transneft state Mikhail Arustamov and the former son-in-law of Transneft Andrey Bolotov. At least at the time when the Concept Oil Services had unique access to the Druzhba oil pipeline, the Russian part of which is operated by Transneft's state -owned company. And when the traders were called a monopolist in the buying out parties of oil of small manufacturers in the Kozmino port.
Support “important stories” we will continue to find hidden beneficiaries of the confusing schemes of the Russian authorities to supportThe official owner of the Concept Oil Services Zeligman is not an outsider for Arustamov: in any case, Arustams mentioned the sponsors of some projects of the Zeligman Foundation Unit History - the Latvian charitable organization for the preservation of the history and development of the culture (the list of sponsorsdisappeared from the Uniting History website, but is available On the Internet archive).
Mikhail Arustamov is a man with big ties. For many years he worked with a longtime friend of Putin in the KGB Nikolai Tokarev, at Transneft, he dealt with the construction and graphs of pumping in oil pipelines and left the state -owned company in 2012. Arustamov was considered not only a man from Tokarev’s entourage, but was close to his family: together with his wife Tokarev, Galina, owned a company that was engaged in real estate in the Czech Republic. And together with his son -in -law Andrei Bolotov (now former), he invested through offshore companies in Moscow real estate.
Documents of the Pandora archive received by the International Consortium of Journalists-Investigators (ICIJ) showed that in Moscow, Arustamov and Bolotov owned mansions and office buildings for billions of rubles. And in 2020–2021 it became known that the husband of the sister of the Prime Minister of Russia Mikhail Mishustin, Alexander Udodov, sold Arustamov a share in the luxury shopping and office centers of Yakimanka, 26 and Himens a kilometer from the Kremlin. Their cost was estimated at 5-6 billion rubles. In February 2023, Udodov fell under US sanctions.
Mikhail Arustamov has a Cyprus passport received in 2013. But in 2021, a special commission, created in Cyprus to investigate how the investment program worked for investment, recommended depriving Arustamov Cyprus citizenship. His acquaintances assure him that he has enough problems and that he has long moved away.
As a talkative secretary declassified Mikhail ArustamovConcept Oil Services was one of the four mysterious traders who bought oil of small oil -producing companies in Kozmino and Primorsk ports and had access to the Druzhba oil pipeline. The other three (Aurora Progress, Normeston Trading and Flontrano Tradition) could also be associated with Concept Oil Services. Polish journalists associated them all with Arustamov (he himself refuted this). And the Russians looked at Concept Oil Services and Flontrano, noting that while the former adviser to the Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation Mikhail Stolyarov advised Flontrano, his wife, Oksana, worked at the Russian representative office of Concept Oil (with the exception of Concept Oil Services, these traders are now not included in the list of leaders Russian oil trade, and Aurora Progress was liquidated in 2020).
Arustamov’s connections with any of these oil refineries tried to check Vedomosti in 2013. Arustamov personally told Vedomosti that he had nothing to do with the traders. However, he got in touch after several telephone calls, one of which journalists made Switzerland, trying to find Arustamov through the control Aurora Progress.
During a telephone conversation, the secretary said that she could transmit information for Mikhail Arustamov that he is available and can find him to send questions. After some time, the worried representative of Aurora Progress called the Vedomosti, more interested in those who exactly announced the editors of Arustamov and Aurora: “Where did you get information that Mikhail is connected with Aurora Progress?” But in the end he assured that the company does not have such a partner. After some time, Arustamov himself contacted Vedomosti, emphasizing that the editorial issues were handed over to him from Transneft “by old memory”, although he no longer works there and is not connected with any traders.
Senator with the terminal
The Hong Kong Concept Oil Services that trading in Russian oil was part of a group that consisted of a dozen companies registered in different countries. The trader is owned by the Cyprus Deiton Holdings, which is the core of the group.
She also controlled three Russian transport and logistics companies and the Estonian Centrobalt (in liquidation since March 2023), at the disposal of which there were about 200 railway tanks in the past. They were used mainly for servicing oil companies in Kazakhstan. Centrobalt was transporting Kazakh and Turkmen oil through Russia. Including small parties, which had to be delivered to load to the main oil pipelines or to oil depots under Transneft agreements from KazTransoyil on the transportation of oil transit through the Russian Federation.
Against the backdrop of the revision of Bashneft agreements with Lukoil, which Rosneft arranged, the Russian press suggested that "in the case of Concept Oil Services [with its long -term contracts with" Bashneft "], all threads stretch to Lukoil." But this is not so. The version of the connections could spread due to business relations and some Russian projects of Zeligman. In the Orenburg region, in Sorochinsk, the maternal company Concept Oil Services (Cyprus Deiton Holdings) and Zeligman owned structures that had built a railway oil terminal since the early 2000s, and then provided oil storage and transportation services.
This project was called the Pion terminal. One of the partners there was the family company of the former vice president of Lukoil, the father of singer Alsou, ex-speaker Ralifa Safin and his son Marat. The company from the island of the Mauritius Marr Oil from the Safyu family group participated in the project at least in 2013 through the Cyprus company Foradilco Trading. Safin Sr. at that time was still a Russian senator.
Another partner in the terminal was the Danish oil tycoon Jan Bonde Nielson (his group Greenoak). This billionaire is known not only for its investments in projects related to oil transportation and the ability to find a common language with government officials. But the fact that in Denmark back in 1982 he fell under a criminal case of fraud. Four years later, he was justified by the Copenhagen court and although the prosecutor’s office protested the judicial verdict, the case was stalled due to the lack of a billionaire in the country. He prudently settled in the UK.
Partner with connections
In 2022, the Dossier Center called one of the possible owners of the Concept Oil Services of entrepreneur Alexei Sharonov on the grounds that the Cyprus Maternal company of the oil register called him an offshore company (Grafson Holdings with the British Virgins) connected (the bound party in Cyprus is considered to be companies with a plain or indirect party Relationship at the level of at least 25% or companies included in one group). If so, then Concept Oil Services with figures close to the Russian government is even more interesting.
Subscribe to our newsletter site can be blocked. But the newsletter is not.“Important stories” found that Sharonov by business intersected with serious people.
He and his offshore company owned TD Everest, which by 2021 was packed in ZPIF of the Moscow manager Sergei Kotlyarenko, known for being disposed of the family assets of the former first deputy prime minister of the Russian government, and now the chairman of the State Corporation of VEB.rf Igor Shuvalov.
And since 2016, Sharonov owned a minority share in the GC Scanex - it was a company with the participation of Igor Rotenberg, the son of a friend of Yunost, Putin Arkady Rotenberg. The Scanex engineering and technological center is engaged in cartography, supplies satellite pictures for Yandex and Rosreestr. By 2015, the center became the contractor of the Rotenberg Platon project - for the collection of payments from heavy trucks for federal routes.
Money with real estate
From 2016 to 2021, Concept Oil Services paid dividends for more than $ 125 million. Recently, they have grown significantly. In 2016-2017, the company paid only 200 thousand and 300 thousand dollars, respectively. Since 2018, it was about millions: payments have increased from $ 7.5 million in 2018 to 50.7 million in 2021, show reports of the maternal company of the oil industry. Revenues from the sale of Russian oil flowed into German real estate.
In the center of Berlin, on the Schrek embankment, the German investment development company Althafen Real Estate, registered in 2018, erected a nine-story complex Pier 61-64 with an area of 17.8 thousand square meters-with hotel rooms, apartments and rooms for stores and restaurants. And in Potsdam, the same Althafen made noise, planning the construction of the “creative space ” of Raw Potsdam-a shopping and office complex with an area of about 50 thousand square meters. Construction work began this year. And the noise arose because the project covers the RAW Hall architecture monument next to the city’s main station. And it was completely incomprehensible who the investor was.
Berlin project Althafen Real Estate Pier 61-64 Photo: Althafen 
Potsdam project Althafen Real Estate Raw Foot: AlthhafenThe top manager of the development company in 2018 told reporters only that the investor is a worthy person: “He is my age, EU citizen, a man, three children.” Local social activists then suspected that investments could go from somewhere in Russia. And people embarrassed that they did not understand the origin of this money. Only in September 2019, the official owner of Concept Oil Services Zeligman gave an interview to the German Tagesspiegel, calling himself an investor of Raw Potsdam. He explained the initial secrecy by the fact that he did not want publicity.
Are the status people from Russia who stood behind the oil industry? Such a question arises because the German development company Althafen Real Estate is led by two people with Russian ties: the Althafen operating Dirktor is the recent head of the Russian structures of Concept Oil Services. And Althafen Executive Director is a person intersected by an offshore company who could be associated with a partner of Rotenberg. Attracting such people to the main positions in the German development company is a strange step for a European businessman who wanted to avoid public attention to his personal projects.
Russian ties of the German developerThe operating director of the German Althhafen Real Estste, who was so actively engaged in real estate in Berlin and Potsdam, became Alexander Mozhaev, who headed Russian companies of Concept Oil Services.
Althafen Executive Director is Vitaly Kivmann. It was mentioned in the list of sponsors of the Zeligman charity fund, as well as the former vice president of Transneft Arustamov. In addition, Kivmann is the beneficiary of the Latvian company Renaissance, which was owned by the offshore company Grafson United Capital with the British Virgin Islands. Contacted by the offshore company Grafson Holdings was owned by the already mentioned Russian partner of the company Igor Rotenberg, Alexei Sharonov.
The co -owner of the Latvian Renaissance Kivmann was Maxim Altukhov , the former director of the Swiss office of Concept Oil and Russian oil industry companies. Altukhov also sponsored the project of the Latvian charitable foundation of Zeligman. Together with the owner of Concept Oil Services, Altukhov led the Austrian HeartBeat Foundation. There, in Austria, he owns the ABSOLUT real estate agency , offering mainly houses in the resort cell-am-zza. Altukhov also had a share in the small Austrian airline Zellair. Она распоряжается бизнес-джетом и флотом премиальных малых самолетов, которыми удобнее перевозить состоятельных людей из любой точки Европы.
На момент публикации Зелигман, Алтухов, Можаев и Шаронов не ответили на вопросы «Важных историй».
Дополнение от 17 июля 2023 года: «Ни Grafson United, ни Deiton Holdings никогда не имели какой-либо связи с Grafson Holdings», — сообщил «Важным историям» адвокат исполнительного директора Althafen Виталия Кивманна, Кристоф Парч.