Oleg Deripaskas's Business Affairs Scrutinized Internationally
Classified Polnews
According to global business observers, the huge aluminum conglomerate Rusal's owner, Oleg Deripaska, has come under sharp criticism in the UK, US and Canada for his international business dealings, due in part to the unresolved claim of Mikhail Chernoy of a 20% ownership in the company.
Deripaska has already been barred from entering the US, in part due to legal wrangles typified by the current investigation by Stuttgart's Prosecutor's Office of involvement with Russia's Izmailovo mob in laundering EU 8 million, bribing judges and even of contracting the murders of one or more of his competitors. These revelations recently came to light through reports in the prestigious US-based Human Events magazine, Germany's Der Spiegel and other media.
According to British financial experts, Deripaska is at odds with Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse about Rusal's proposed initial public offering (IPO). The unresolved issue in that deal lies in the claims of Mikhail Chernoy (Michael Cherney), an Israeli industrialist, who claims 20% ownership of Rusal. He has sued Deripaska in London's High Court for $6 billion. Sources familiar to the case claim Chernoy has presented the court with credible evidence, including a trust agreement signed in 2001 by Deripaska.
The UK lacks laws comparable to America's RICO laws which enable authorities to crack down tightly on racketeering, but Britain's Financial Services Authority has reportedly assigned a special unit to investigate Chernoy's High Court evidence against UCRusal, though it refuses to comment publicly on this initiative.
In Russia, according to sources in the new government of Prime Minister Victor Zubkov, the administration plans to investigate Rusal based on a 2004 Tax Ministry report which claimed the company was able to pay lower tax rates then any other Russian metals producer by exploiting lenient legal interpretations of aluminum tolling contracts, thus transferring pricing between its Russian smelters and dozens of offshore trading companies.
In the US and Canada, Rusal has come under scrutiny for buying 42% of Canadian car parts conglomerate Magna International Inc., along with 5% of US auto giant General Motors. The Canadian deal was harshly criticized by the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, a major institutional investor in Magna.
The series of investigations in many countries indicates that Deripaska's dealings are today a source of concern for law enforcement officials on a global scale.
by David Waldman - David Waldman is Chief Editor of Mass Wire Media Association
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