The trial of two businessmen of Russian origin Dmitry Tsvetkov and Rustem Magdeev continues in the High Court of Justice of London. The case concerns the jewelry brand Graff, the boutique of which Tsvetkov and Magdeev opened in Limassol, Cyprus. As Pravda.Ru reported, last year Magdeev's first lawsuit against Tsvetkov worth $5 million had been rejected without appeal. The second lawsuit, which is being considered now, costs two times more. In Russia, this trial between the former Adviser to the President of Tatarstan and the son-in-law of the State Duma deputy from Tatarstan was on the spotlight. Several Russian media sent their reporters to those hearings in London, where the cross-examination of Rustem Magdeev and Dmitry Tsvetkov took place. The process revealed several unexpected details of the case.
In particular, the plaintiff, under oath, confessed to tax crimes in three jurisdictions: in the UAE, in Cyprus and in Russia. In addition, it turned out that criminal authorities from Russia were involved in the Graff's business. During the new hearing, the alleged involvement in the Graff business of the head of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov was considered. The trial revealed the facts that make it possible to also consider the fact that the former head of RUSADA (the Russian anti-doping agency) Ramil Khabriev, could have been a secret beneficiary of the Graff business in Cyprus.
Criminal authorities from Russia
There was a reason why the former adviser of the head of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, Rustem Magdeev tried to block the media coverage of the trial in London. Pravda.Ru reported on the situation one month ago. In London, Magdeev described in detail how he performed the engagement of criminal authorities from Russia - Radik Yusupov, Mikhail Turetsky and Shamil Ediev (nickname Sultan) in resolving issues of Graff's business. The national newspaper Versia cites a fragment from the interrogation of Magdeev.
On the sixth day of the cross-examination, barrister Stephen Berry asked the plaintiff about a meeting that took place in the summer of 2017 in Moscow. According to the barrister, in addition to Rustem Magdeev and the second co-owner of the Graff jewelry boutique in Limassol, Emil Gainulin, three other people were present at the meeting.
Berry: Was Mr. Radik Yusupov present?
Magdeev: Yes, he was present.
Berry: Was Mr. Turetsky there?
Magdeev: Yes.
Berry: Besides Mr. Gainulin, was Mr. Ediev present?
Magdeev: Apparently, he was.
Berry: He [Radik Yusupov] was present there as your friend?
Magdeev: I would not call him my friend. I know him as we were both born in Kazan.
As though the capital of Tatarstan with a population of more than 1 million people is such a small city, that literally everyone there knows each other. It is hard to believe that this is true, and Magdeev's acquaintance with Yusupov has nothing to do with the business of the latter and his criminal career. The plaintiff's lawyer tried several times to save the situation, suggesting that Radik Yusupov, nicknamed Dragon, is just an entrepreneur. It is difficult to imagine the reaction of Judge Sarah Cockerill when it turned out that in reality was previously charged with kidnapping and mass executions.
Radik Yusupov was the leader of the organized criminal community "Sevastopol". This group was known not only in Tatarstan, but throughout all the Russia since the late 1980s. In 2008, Yusupov was detained by officers of the Organized Crime Control Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs during the investigation of several criminal cases involving murders during the active phase of the criminal war in Tatarstan in 1992-1996. According to the law enforcement agencies the "Sevastopol" members committed 20 murders and three attempted murders. Dragon's people kidnapped and tortured people, and also committed other serious crimes. Only the investigative materials contained 76 volumes of 250-300 pages, of which eight are indictments.
Radik Yusupov at court. Source: Business Online
Having said all that, Radik the Dragon Yusupov, who made confessions, spent only few years behind bars. First of all, the Supreme Court of Tatarstan freed him from the punishment because of the expiration of the statute of limitations for alleged crimes.
Tatarstan was already led by Rustam Minnikhanov. The Ministry of Internal Affairs intervened in the case, and it was reviewed twice. Firstly, it was at the Ministry of Internal Affairs who initiated the case. Then the complaints of the accused boosted a review. As a result, in October 2012, Yusupov was sentenced to 8 years in prison, and in 2015, shortly before the scandalous affair with the Graff Diamonds in Cyprus, he was released under parole. Soon after leaving prison, Yusupov went to Cyprus accompanied by Ediev. It was Magdeev who invited them to take part in the on Graff's "negotiations".
Another member of the business mentioned by Magdeev is Mikhail Turetsky (nicknamed Moisha Lyubertsky), who is a business partner of Emil Gainulin. In the first half of the 1990s, Mikhail Turetsky headed the board of directors of the financial and industrial corporation LyuCon (Lyubertsy Concern), and Emil Gainulin served as a vice president of this company. The LyuCon Corporation was found with help of the local organized crime group.
The LyuCon was also involved in a major corruption scandal around the construction contracts of the Ministry of Defense. Then Turetsky and Gainulin managed to get out of the water dry. Later, the Podvodtruboprovodstroy (PTPS), a large construction contractor of Gazprom and Transneft enterprises, became their main business. In 2009, the investigative newspaper Sovershenno Sekretno (Top Secret) and Noviye Izvestiya held their own investigations. They called Mikhail Turetsky a criminal authority who was seen in the company of the deceased criminal godfathers Aslan Usoyan (Ded Hasan) and Vyacheslav Ivankov (Yaponchik).
And now, as we now know from the testimonies made in London, in July 2017 Turetsky, Gainulin, Yusupov and Magdeev in the presence of the Chechen criminal businessman Shamil Ediev discussed the "development issues" of the Graff Diamonds boutique in Cyprus. By the way, Ediev, as a result of this "development", apparently received a reward for his services: belonging to the company Rolls-Royce and jewelry worth several million dollars.
Flight Itinerary with names of Magdeev, Ediev and Yusupov
Real beneficiaries from Tatarstan and Hong Kong
Giving testimonies in the High Court of Justice in London Rustem Magdeev completely confused the situation. The testimony reveals, as Versia reports, that Magdeev did not invest his own, but other people's money in Graff, and those investments were the trigger of the business crisis, because at some point the "owners of money" demanded to return the investment.
Apparently, it was the money of Russian officials from Tatarstan, who are in fact prohibited by law from engaging in any commercial activities. The real beneficiaries of Dubai's Graff diamond business and Cypriot business, which were represented by Magdeev, were Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov and former Tatarstan Health Minister and former head of the RUSADA (the Russian anti-doping agency) Ramil Khabriev. It was announced publicly in the London court that the 10 million euros that Magdeev had on his Swiss bank account at Banque Cantonale Vaudoise and which he used in his Graff settlements were actually owned by Khabriev.
Ramil Khabriev. Source: Twitter.com
Ramil Khabriev, before his appointment to the office of RUSADA, was the Minister of Health in the Government of Tatarstan. That means that he was a subordinate of Rustam Minnikhanov. The latter actively supports Khabriev and Magdeev. In particular, Ramil Khabriev is Magdeev's closest partner - they equally own PharmMedPolis-RT, registered in Tatarstan. Moreover, PharmMedPolis-RT plans to build a medical cluster using the state money in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan. Rustam Minnikhanov personally holds meetings dedicated to the medical business of Magdeev and Khabriev. One of the main projects of the Magdeev-Khabriev company is the production of diagnostic chips in Tatarstan under the license of the Japanese company Mirai Genomics K.K. It is planned to spend tens of billions of rubles from the Tatarstan compulsory health insurance fund for chips. By the way, nobody managed to find references to either the Japanese company or its technology in the international press and science web-sources.
Read the second part of the investigation here.
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