Mikhail Gutseriyev, head of Russian oil company Russneft.
Photo: Dmitry Lebedev
| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
Police Undertakes Mikhail Gutseriyev
// Russneft head received charges
Officers of the Investigative Committee at the Interior Ministry of Russia filed charges against Mikhail Gutseriyev, head of Russian oil company Russneft, against three CEOs of the company and heads of its subsidiaries. All of them are charged with “illegal business activity with deriving revenue in especially large amount”. None of the accused pleaded guilty.
In early May, Russneft oil company’s president Mikhail Gutseriyev, the company’s vice-president Sergei Bakhir, and heads of its subsidiaries Viktor Kurochkin (Nafta-Ulyanovsk oil company) and Igor Elansky (UlyanovskNeft oil company) received summons to interrogation to the Investigative Committee at the Interior Ministry. The summons said that all four were to arrive with lawyers and to take part in the investigatory procedures within the case #248120. It was initiated by the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia in autumn 2006. The Office later handed the case over to the Committee.
The investigator charged Mikhail Gutseriyev and his subordinates with “illegal business activity with deriving revenue in especially large amount” (Part 2, Point B, Article 171 of the Criminal Code of Russia). The investigator’s resolution says that Nafta-Ulyanovsk and UlyanovskNeft extracted oil in 2003-2005 violating license agreements. Nafta-Ulyanovsk caused damage of 700 million rubles, and UlyanovskNeft – of nearly 2 billion rubles. Another Russneft subsidiary, Aganneftegazgeologia, is mentioned in the case. The Prosecutor General’s Office charged its CEOs with 5-billion-ruble damage. However, no charges were filed for this episode. The investigator questioned Gutseriyev, Bakhir, Elansky, and Kurochkin as accused, and chose recognizance not to leave as the measure of restraint for them. He also obtained their written promises to come for interrogations at short notice.
Russneft refrained from giving official comments on Monday. It just confirmed that the charges had been brought. Meanwhile, sources in the company said the criminal case was initiated after Gutseriyev had had a conflict with a high-placed Kremlin official. It was related not so much to Gutseriyev’s oil business, but rather to his political initiatives. For instance, Gutseriyev supported Ingushetia’s politicians who are in opposition to the republic’s president, FSB General Murat Zyazikov. The businessman also developed a project for creating a free economic zone in Chechnya. The sources in Russneft say that all these projects were curtailed after “the talks at the top level”. It was after those talks that the Prosecutor General’s Office handed the case over to the Investigative Committee, where the case was reclassified from Part 2, Article 199 of the Criminal Code (“tax evasion by means of including into accounting documents consciously distorted data about profits”, the punishment is up to six years of imprisonment) to a lighter article of the Code. Russneft hoped the Committee would close the case due to the absence of the criminal event. “The investigators calculated inaccurately the incriminated profits of 2003-2005 from the excessive extraction. They calculated the amount of excess of actual extraction over the project extraction, multiplying it by today’s world price on oil, without taking into account the taxes (49 percent of profits) and production costs (43 percent). Thus, the really gained profits were arbitrarily increased by 28 times,” Russneft said.
The source in Russneft said on Monday that the conflict with the Kremlin has been settled long ago: “The only explanation we can give for the current situation is the inertia of law-enforcement authorities. It is hard to stop the flywheel after momentum had been given to it.” The legal persecution for Article 171 of the Criminal Code poses threat of 5 years in jail to Mikhail Gutseriyev and his subordinates.
Nikolai Sergeev
Personal Record: Mikhail Safarbekovich Gutseriyev
Born on March 9, 1958, in the city of Tselinograd of Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. Graduated from the Djambul Technology Institute for Light Industry and Food Processing, the Gubkin Institute for Oil and Gas, the Financial Academy, the St. Petersburg University of Law. Since 1976, worked at the Djambul factory of vernacular arts and crafts. Since 1982, worked at the Grozny production association at the Ministry of Local Industry. In 1988, created the first Soviet-Italian joint venture, -- Chiital furniture factory in Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1992, created and headed BIN industrial-financial company (Bank of Investments and Innovations). Since 1994, worked as Binbank president and president of BIN consortium. In November 1994, headed the Ingushetia zone of economic favoring. In 1995 and 1999 was elected to the State Duma, served as Duma Deputy Speaker. In 2000-2002, headed Slavneft state-run oil company. In September 2002, founded Russneft company on the basis of purchased oil-producing enterprises of Slavneft.
Company Profile: Russneft Oil Company
Russneft oil company, controlled by its president Mikhail Gutseriyev, was founded in September 2002 on the basis of some assets of Slavneft. By 2005, Russneft entered the top ten major Russian oil companies. In 2005-2006, the company acquired some YUKOS assets: 34 percent of shares in Geoilbent (later sold to LUKOIL), 50 percent in Zapadno-Malobalykskoe JV with Hungary’s MOL, 50 percent of Tatar company Alnas. Russneft now owns 30 oil-extraction enterprises, 2 oil refineries, and a sales network of 300 gas-filling stations. In 2006, the company extracted 17 million metric tons of oil. In 2007, it plans to raise extraction to 20-25 million metric tons. It is developing over 170 oil and gas deposits. The company’s data says its total extracted deposits exceed 630 million metric tons. Profits reached 66.9 billion rubles in 2005, and 81.7 billion rubles in three quarters of 2006. Gross profits in those periods made up 14.8 billion and 15.8 billion correspondingly. Nearly 20,000 people work in Russneft.
All the Article in Russian as of May 15, 2007
|
|
|
