Судебные разбирательства между государственной компанией «Совкомфлот» и ее бывшими менеджерами Дмитрием Скаргой и Юрием Никитиным вскрыли структуру собственности одного из самых закрытых бизнесов России — трейдерской группы Gunvor, аффилированной с предпринимателем Геннадием Тимченко, давним знакомым Владимира Путина.
Разбирательство по обвинению экс-руководителей «Совкомфлота» в мошенничестве проходило в Высоком суде Англии и Уэльса. Суд принял решение взыскать $60 млн с Юрия Никитина в пользу судоходных компаний «Совкомфлот» и «Новошип».
Штаб-квартира одной из самых закрытых трейдерских корпораций мира – Gunvor находится в Амстердаме. Основателями считаются российский предприниматель Геннадий Тимченко, которого считают советским разведчиком и приятелем премьер-министра России, и бизнесмен Торбьорн Торкнквист. В пользу близости этой компании к российским властям говорит то, что через Gunvor идет продажа более 30% всей российской нефти. По экспертным оценкам, в 2008 году компания могла заработать около $70 млрд.
Объем экспорта нефти из России в январе-мае 2010 года составил 102 млн тонн. Но в редких интервью Геннадий Тимченко и Торбьорн Торкнквист объясняли этот факт профессионализмом своих трейдеров. В последнее время Gunvor, ранее традиционно специализировавшаяся на нефти и нефтепродуктах, расширяет сферу интересов за счет поставок угля, газа и электроэнергии.
По словам Никитина, бизнес Тимченко начинался с «Киришинефтеоргсинтеза» — нефтеперерабатывающего предприятия «Сургутнефтегаза». Для торговли нефтепродуктами, произведенными на этом НПЗ, заместитель директора «Киришинефтеоргсинтеза» Адольф Смирнов в 1987 году создал компанию «Кинэкс».
«Ближе к 1990 году Тимченко и Катков вошли в «Кинэкс». В это же время Тимченко установил дружеские отношения с Владимиром Путиным», — говорится в свидетельских показаниях.
В то время заместителем Путина в администрации Санкт-Петербурга был Игорь Сечин, сейчас занимающий пост вице-премьера.
В материалах суда Геннадий Тимченко, Андрей Катков, Евгений Малов и Адольф Смирнов проходят как Kinex partners (партнеры по «Кинэкс»). «В период перестройки бизнес был очень прибыльным», — говорится в свидетельских показаниях Юрия Никитина.
Управление бизнесом было переведено в Финляндию, в Хельсинки Геннадий Тимченко возглавил компанию Urals Group.
Mr. Nikitin was born in St Petersburg, attended the Ship Building Institute there in the 1970s and worked in the city between 1978 and 1982 and again from 1987. Between 1982 and 1987 he studied and worked in Moscow, and, when studying for a postgraduate qualification in foreign trade, he met Mr. Malov, and through him Mr. Katkov and Mr. Timchenko.
In 1987 Mr. Adolf Smirnov, who was the Deputy General Manager of Kirishinefteorgsintez (which is generally known as «Kinef»), a major Russian refinery and a subsidiary of Surgutneftegaz, one of Russia largest oil and gas producers, was responsible for setting up a trading organisation for Kinef. He established Kirishineftekhimexport (or Kirishi petroleum chemical export), which is also known as and to which I refer as «Kinex», and he recruited Mr. Malov to be Kinex's Deputy General Manager. Kinex were responsible for trading Kinef's oil products and making overseas purchases. In the late 1980s Mr. Timchenko and then Mr. Katkov joined Kinex. According to Mr. Nikitin, around this time Mr. Timchenko established good relations with Mr. Vladimir Putin, who was then the deputy mayor of St Petersburg and who was, of course, to become the President of the Russian Federation and is its Prime Minister. Mr. Putin's deputy was then Mr. Igor Sechin, who was Deputy Chief of the Russian Presidential Administration while Mr. Putin was President and is now First Deputy Prime Minister.
Kinex soon became a separate legal entity from Kinef, and in 1991 they moved to their own premises outside Kinef's Kirishi refinery. Kinex was run by Mr. Smirnov, Mr. Timchenko, Mr. Katkov and Mr. Malov (the «Kinex partners»), and proved to be very profitable during the period of «perestroika», particularly after it had expanded into oil trading. Mr. Timchenko was based in Helsinki, working for the Urals Group, and on behalf of the Kinex partners effectively came to control the Urals Group in Scandinavia. After the Russian Federation had been established on 25 December 1991, Mr. Timchenko and his Kinex partners continued to expand Kinex's operations.
In 1994 Kinex became a shareholding company, and in 1995 and 1996 Kinex, Kinef and Surgutneftegaz were all privatised, Kinef becoming part of Surgutneftegaz but Kinex remaining independent. When 51% of Kinex was privatised in 1995, the shares were distributed to employees, including the top managers, Mr. Malov, Mr. Katkov, Mr. Timchenko and Mr. Smirnov. They bought more shares when the remaining 49% of the company was sold in 1996. In 1997 Kinex became a joint stock company, but in 1998, following the Russian financial crisis, it went through a bankruptcy process and was replaced by a new company called the Kinex Group, the sole and equal shareholders being the Kinex partners.
In 1989 Mr. Nikitin and his father-in-law, a former sea captain, had set up a company based in St Petersburg providing survey and tallying services. It was very successful and Mr. Nikitin prospered. He had made his first $1 million by 1992. In 1992, Mr. Malov on behalf of himself and the other Kinex partners proposed to Mr. Nikitin that together they should develop Kinex's shipping business, and Mr. Nikitin should set up a shipping company which would charter vessels to carry Kinex's cargoes, the profits being shared equally between Mr. Nikitin and the Kinex partners. Accordingly, in 1992 Kirishi Shipping was established, and in 1998 the business was incorporated in the BVI under the name of PNP. Its offices were in St Petersburg. The beneficial owners of PNP were Mr. Nikitin, Mr. Malov, Mr. Katkov and Mr. Timchenko, who «took care of» Mr. Smirnov's share as well as his own. As Kinex prospered in the 1990s, the business of Kirishi Shipping and then PNP rapidly grew, and by the late 1990s they were handling up to 1 million tons of cargo each month and chartering around 200 vessels per year, including ships of NSC. They chartered on the spot market, but by about 2000 Mr. Nikitin had come to the view that PNP should start to hire vessels on time charters and he discussed this possibility with the Kinex partners.
During this period, Mr. Nikitin came to know brokers through whom he chartered vessels for PNP, including Mr. Claudio Cepollina of Italia Chartering srl («Italia») and Alexia Shipping. He also established relationships with bankers, including Mr. Michael Baum, whom he met as the general manager of a branch of Credit Suisse. When Mr. Baum moved to Wegelin Bank in St Gallen, Switzerland, Mr. Nikitin transferred his private banking to Wegelin, although the shipping business continued to bank with Credit Suisse. Through Mr. Nikitin's introductions Mr. Katkov, Mr. Malov and Mr. Timchenko also opened accounts at Wegelin.
Mr. Nikitin also became a partner in the railway activities of Kinex, which later came to be managed through an off-shore company called Nikolas Invest Corporation («Nikolas»). The profits were shared by Mr. Nikitin, the Kinex partners, and Mr. Aadu Lukas, who had an interest in and exercised some control over the Pakterminal berth in Tallinn, Estonia. In 1999 Kinex began to trade Surgut crude oil (as well as continuing to trade oil products produced by the Kirishi refinery) through a BVI company called Gunvor Energy. Crude oil from the pipeline carrying Surgut crude to the Kirishi refinery was transported by rail for shipment at the Baltic ports. This produced business for both PNP and the railway business in which Mr. Nikitin and his associates had an interest. The ultimate beneficial owners of Gunvor Energy were Mr. Nikitin, Mr. Timchenko, Mr. Katkov, Mr. Malov and Mr. Lukas, and also a Mr. Torbjorn Tornqvist, a friend of Mr. Timchenko.
Mr. Timchenko's relations with Mr. Malov and Mr. Katkov deteriorated and in the spring or summer of 2003 the Kinex partners decided to end their collaborative ventures and to go their separate ways. Mr. Nikitin attributed this, at least in part, to Mr. Timchenko's belief that, because he enjoyed a good relationship with President Putin, he did not need to include Mr. Malov and Mr. Katkov in his new enterprises, including the business of Gunvor International which he set up in 2002. Further, Mr. Malov and Mr. Katkov resented that Mr. Tornqvist, whom Mr. Timchenko had introduced into the business, was, as they saw it, improperly exploiting his position. For whatever reason, the collaboration behind Kinex ended in acrimony. Messrs Malov and Katkov planned to disrupt Mr. Timchenko's business by gaining control of the companies that owned the rail link from Kirishi refinery to Estonia, the shares in which were held equally by Mr. Timchenko, Mr. Malov, Mr. Katkov and Mr. Nikitin. When Mr. Timchenko heard of the plan, he sought to acquire Mr. Nikitin's shares, but Mr. Nikitin preferred to sell them to Mr. Malov and Mr. Katkov and in return he acquired their shipping interests. Mr. Nikitin's evidence was that Mr. Timchenko threatened revenge, and I accept that he did make some aggressive threats against Mr. Nikitin.
В этот период предприниматели начали устанавливать связи с западными банками. Никитин познакомился с Майклом Баумом из Credit Suisse. А когда Баум перешел в швейцарский банк Wegelin, Никитин перевел туда свои счета.
«После этого Катков, Малов и Тимченко тоже открыли счета в Wegelin», — говорится в судебных материалах. Ранее «Газета.Ru» сообщала, что в этом банке находятся счета Елены Батуриной, бенефициара компании «Интеко».
Транспортный бизнес партнеров по «Кинэкс» не ограничивался танкерными перевозками. Для поставок по железной дороге они учредили офшор Nikolas Invest Corporation. Прибыль компании делили Никитин, группа Тимченко и эстонский предприниматель Ааду Лукас, решавший проблемы с таможней.
Взлет бизнеса «партнеров по «Кинэкс» произошел в 1999 году: компания начала продавать нефть «Сургутнефтегаза». Дело было перерегистрировано на новый офшор Gunvor Energy. Его конечными владельцами выступили Юрий Никитин, Андрей Катков, Евгений Малов, Ааду Лукас, Геннадий Тимченко и гражданин Швеции Торнбьорн Торнквист.
Компания работала до 2003 года. Затем отношения Геннадия Тимченко с Юрием Никитиным и «партнерами по «Кинэкс» осложнились и они разошлись.
Никитин выкупил долю в транспортном СП PNP. А Тимченко и Торнквист учредили новую фирму Gunvor International. Развод сопровождали скандалы: бывшие «партнеры по «Кинэкс» Андрей Катков и Евгений Малов заподозрили Торнквиста в «злоупотреблении своим положением». А Геннадий Тимченко угрожал Юрию Никитину, следует из материалов суда.
Сейчас Gunvor International владеют Геннадий Тимченко, Торнбьорн Торнквист и менеджмент компании.
Получить оперативный комментарий Gunvоr в пятницу не удалось. Мобильный телефон представителя Геннадия Тимченко отключен.
