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Last Updated: May 16, 2007 - 10:07:03 AM |
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.
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
.
Source:Ocnus.net 2007
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