Early years.
Education, service
In 2001, Kerimov became the owner of the Nosta steel mill (today Ural Steel), the insurance company Ingosstrakh and Avtobank.
In 2005, through the joint efforts of Suleiman Abusaidovich and the Moscow City Hall, the telecommunications company Mosteleset appeared. Kerimov also owned shares in the developer PIK, the companies Polyus Gold, Uralkali and others, was involved in the restoration of the Moscow Hotel, invested in foreign projects and companies, and financed the Anzhi football club.
Policy
Car accident
Charity
If you are interested in learning more about the oligarchs on our planet, then you should get acquainted with one of the representatives of the oligarchs - Suleiman Kerimov. This man once had a rather interesting position: deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation of the fourth convocation. At the age of 50, he managed to achieve a lot.
Celebrity family
Successes during military service
Since 1984, Suleiman Abusaidovich served for two years as a rocket scientist in the strategic forces. He became a senior sergeant and was the head of the Strategic Missile Forces crew. This man was not lazy - he went in for sports in the army. As a result, he won and became a real champion. This applies to kettlebell lifting.
Kerimov returned from the army in 1986. After that, he transferred to the Faculty of Economics of the University of Dagestan.
This man's life is full of ups and downs. But he never gave up. All the time I tried to move only forward, upward, towards the intended goal. This is what every person should do.
Suleiman Kerimov is one of the richest people in RussiaAfter all, having given up our hands, we will go to the bottom - does anyone need this?
This man managed to work at the plant - until 1995, he went from an ordinary economist to an assistant to the general director dealing with economic issues.
Already in 1995, Suleiman became deputy general director. It was the well-known company Soyuz-finance. A couple of years later, he became a research fellow at the International Institute of Corporations, and then vice president of a non-profit organization. This man began to earn his initial capital in the 90s. Using the example of this hero, you can make sure that everyone can achieve their goal. The main thing is to believe that everything will work out, to strive to achieve what you want. Stock up on willpower and patience, and you will definitely succeed - you can rest assured.
Read also: The head of the DPR presented the first family in Ilovaisk with the keys to a house built to replace one destroyed in battle. Yatsenyuk’s daughter was mistaken for a boy at a vocal competition. In the Chernihiv region, a car was burned to the family of an ATO hero - “retribution” for “feats” in the Donbass? About the war and the lost family Interview with a captured lieutenant colonel, the pilot of the SU-25 plane shot down over Marinovka (video) Sister of centurion Parasyuk - “We will organize such a Maidan as we never dreamed of: we will not come with wooden bats”Kerimov Suleiman Abusaidovich is a Russian businessman, politician, and philanthropist.
Early years.
Education, service
Suleiman Kerimov, Lezgin by nationality, was born in Derbent on March 12, 1966. His father was engaged in legal activities and worked in the criminal investigation department. Mother was an accountant. In addition to Suleiman, the family also raised his brother (who became a doctor) and sister (who became a teacher of Russian language and literature).
As a teenager and young adult, Suleiman was interested in sports and mathematics. He practiced judo and kettlebell lifting and participated in math olympiads. He has repeatedly won prizes in sports and scientific competitions.
In 1983, Kerimov graduated from high school with honors and entered the Dagestan Polytechnic Institute at the Faculty of Construction. A year later, Kerimov was drafted into the army. Until 1986, Suleiman served in the Strategic Missile Forces. He held the rank of senior sergeant and served as crew chief. Returning from the army, Kerimov was reinstated at the institute, but transferred to another faculty - economics. During his studies, he was involved in social activities - he was deputy chairman of the university trade union committee. In 1989 he graduated from the university.
Entrepreneurial activity
Immediately after defending his diploma, Suleiman Kerimov, with the help of his newly-minted father-in-law, chairman of the Dagestan Council of Trade Unions, got a job as an economist at the Eltav plant. By 1995, Kerimov took the post of assistant general director for economic affairs.
In 1993, Suleiman Abusaidovich was sent to work in Moscow, where partners of the Eltav plant opened the Fedprombank bank. Very soon Kerimov became the controlling owner of the bank, and in 1995 he took the position of head of the trade and financial company Soyuz-Finance.
In the spring of 1997, Suleiman Kerimov became a research fellow at the International Institute of Corporations in Moscow. Two years later he became vice president of this enterprise.
In the late 1990s, Suleiman Kerimov began to actively engage in business. At the end of 1999, he bought shares in the Nafta-Moscow oil company. The company existed until 2009, after which it was liquidated. While working at Nafta, Suleiman received a huge profit.
In 2001, Kerimov became the owner of the Nosta steel mill (today Ural Steel), the insurance company Ingosstrakh and Avtobank. In 2005, through the joint efforts of Suleiman Abusaidovich and the Moscow City Hall, the telecommunications company Mosteleset appeared.
Kerimov also owned shares in the developer PIK, the companies Polyus Gold, Uralkali and others, was involved in the restoration of the Moscow Hotel, invested in foreign projects and companies, and financed the Anzhi football club.
In the 2000s, Kerimov took over the Razvitie construction holding, and a few months later sold it, earning about $200 million.
Policy
From 1999 to 2007, Suleiman Kerimov was a State Duma deputy from the Liberal Democratic Party. For several years he was deputy chairman of the committee on physical culture, sports and youth affairs. In 2008, Kerimov joined the Federation Council of Russia, the upper house of the Federal Assembly, and became a representative of Dagestan.
For some time, Kerimov was a deputy in the People's Assembly of Dagestan. In early autumn 2016, Suleiman Abusaidovich was re-elected as a senator from Dagestan in the Federation Council.
Car accident
On November 26, 2006, Suleiman Kerimov had an accident in Nice. The businessman was driving his Ferrari Enzo, and he was accompanied, by the way, by Tina Kandelaki. Suleiman was seriously injured and received severe burns. After that incident, Kerimov began wearing flesh-colored gloves to hide his mangled hands from prying eyes.
Charity
Suleiman Kerimov is a famous philanthropist. In 2007, he founded the Suleyman Kerimov Foundation, whose main activity is to provide financial and other support to initiatives aimed at improving the lives of young people around the world. The Foundation is engaged in promoting projects to improve the situation in the areas of healthcare, sports, and culture. In addition, the Suleyman Kerimov Foundation helps those in need and works closely with many Russian and foreign charitable organizations.
Since 2006, Suleiman Kerimov has been the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Russian Wrestling Federation. The businessman is also a member of the board of trustees of the Sirius educational center for gifted children in Sochi and Sirius-Altair in Makhachkala.
After the accident in 2006, Suleiman donated one million euros to the Pinocchio Foundation, which works with children affected by burns.
P.S. At one time, Suleiman Kerimov, among many regions of Dagestan, provided charitable assistance to the Rutulsky district. In particular, in our area, comfortable small mosques were built on the territory of sacred places so that travelers on the road would have a place to pray. He also provided funding for the Hajj for the residents of our Rutul district for several years in a row, for which the entire jamaat of the multinational Rutul district expresses its gratitude to him!
A couple of years ago, in an interview with ND, the director of the Dagagropromproekt Institute, Nazim Khanbalaev, speaking about the cost of mistakes and miscalculations in the design of urban areas, spoke about a certain Grigoriev, who many years ago headed the Daggiprovodkhoz design institute. This comrade, when preparing the project for the reconstruction of the KOR, decided to save three million rubles and did not include in it the work on improving the territory of the water protection zone of the canal. And although Grigoriev was fired from his job for this miscalculation, the consequences of his mistake as a designer still reverberate today. Thanks to him, today we have a vulnerable, constantly polluted KOR, which has turned into a branch of the city garbage dump.
For many years, Makhachkala was built up without a master plan, solely at the whim of our mayors. At the same time, the requirements for the quality of construction were regularly reduced, and as a result, the city was handed over to Maalin developers - specialists in the construction of life-threatening, low-quality, but at the same time very cheap housing. I have written more than once about the direct consequences of such an “urban planning policy,” so I will not repeat myself. I’ll tell you only about one indirect thing.
This week, the Ministry of Construction and Housing and Communal Services of the Russian Federation calculated the average market value of a square meter of housing in the regions for the third quarter of 2018. For Dagestan, this figure has not changed, remaining at the same level - 29 thousand 665 rubles.
This indicator is calculated as follows: builders submit reports to the Statistical Office indicating the cost per square meter of housing in the houses they have built. It is clear that cheap Maalin housing has greatly adjusted this indicator. So much so that former Minister of Construction Ibrahim Kazibekov, at a meeting with builders, tearfully asked developers to urgently redo the reports, maximizing the cost of the “square”. They say that he made the same request to the employees of the Statistical Office, who had cut their teeth on compiling agricultural reports. As a result, through joint efforts we came up with difficulty at 29,665 rubles.
Kazibekov’s concern is easily explained. After all, all federal tranches in the field of construction are calculated using this indicator, and primarily funds for the construction of houses as part of the program for relocating citizens from dilapidated and dilapidated housing.
Senator Suleiman Kerimov: personal life - what is known? Wife, children, their photos?The cheaper the square footage, the less money the republic will receive.
The real cost of building a reliable frame in Dagestan today is estimated at approximately 28-29 thousand rubles per square meter. The most budget “finishing” will cost another 6-7 thousand rubles. It turns out that even at the stage of financing in Dagestan, the same finishing money was stolen from displaced people from dilapidated and dilapidated housing (after all, housing must be delivered “turnkey”).
And if we take into account the appetites of our officials and developers who won the tender, for a “square”, as the experience of constructing the “poor fellows’ quarter” at the Hippodrome shows, less than 20 thousand rubles remain. And it turns out that the Maalin residents not only disfigured the city, but also set new construction standards for many years to come. Such are the things.
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Home for Guli, Amina and SaidNew evidence has been discovered of the involvement of Russian businessman Suleiman Kerimov in villas on the Cote d'Azur in France.
At the end of November, Russian senator and billionaire Suleiman Kerimov was detained in France. He is suspected of fraud in the purchase of luxury villas, from which he could have failed to pay “tens of millions of euros” in taxes. Kerimov himself denies that he owns any real estate on the Cote d'Azur. However, statements by the official owner of the property indicate that the houses are managed by a holding company, which in the 2000s was the focus of the Russian businessman’s business. In addition, the Dozhd TV channel discovered in the architectural plans of one of the French residences a mention of three possible inhabitants of the villa.
Russian senator Suleiman Kerimov was detained at Nice airport on November 20. Two days later, the billionaire ($6.3 billion, according to Forbes) was taken to court and charged with tax evasion and money laundering, Nice prosecutor Jean-Michel Prêtre said. Kerimov’s passport was eventually taken away and he was released on bail of 5 million euros. In addition, the senator must fulfill a number of conditions. “Remain on the territory of the Alpes-Maritimes department, come to the police several times a week and not come into contact with certain persons, the list of whom I cannot tell you,” the prosecutor listed.
According to a Reuters source, Kerimov was charged with laundering money hidden during tax evasion. The senator is accused of purchasing several residences on the Cote d'Azur through shell companies, thanks to which he allegedly saved on taxes. The total damage could amount to “tens of millions of euros,” Le Temps wrote, citing AFP, which cited a source close to the investigation.
How they found Kerimov
The local publication Nice-Matin connects Kerimov’s arrest with the searches at the Hier villa that took place in February this year. The publication wrote that then the police seized the draper's invoice for 580 thousand euros, as well as family photographs and documents that may indicate that the villa actually belongs to Kerimov. French authorities began investigating in 2014 when they were tracking a lawyer linked to Kerimov suspected of fraud and money laundering. From his wiretapping it followed that the cost of the villa could be 127 million euros, and the purchase price was deliberately lowered to reduce taxes.
Suleiman Kerimov - biography, information, personal life61 million euros could have been transferred to the seller’s Swiss bank account, Nice-Matin wrote, citing the case materials.
According to documents, the owner of the villa is Swiss businessman Alexander Studhalter. He confirmed that he bought it in 2008 for 35 million euros. “Suleiman Kerimov, with whom I have also had business and personal relationships for many years, is neither the owner nor the economic beneficiary of Villa Hier,” Studhalter responded.
French authorities suspect that through a “labyrinth” of offshore companies, French banks and Luxembourg companies, the villa actually belongs to Kerimov, Nice-Matin wrote, citing investigative documents. The senator himself, through a representative, rejected these accusations, emphasizing that all of Kerimov’s property was indicated in his declaration. In 2016, it listed two apartments in Russia, with an area of 37 and 53 square meters.
Four villas in the "Billionaires' Bay"
The area in the south of Cape Antibes, where Villa Hier is located, is called “Billionaires’ Bay” by locals. The most expensive residences are located here, some of which belong to Russian oligarchs and businessmen from the Middle East, real estate agent Olivier Maugery-Pont told The Telegraph. Roman Abramovich, Andrei Melnichenko and Minister for North Caucasus Affairs Lev Kuznetsov, who indicates a plot in France in his declaration, live in the neighboring villas. Realtors call Kerimov “the Russian Gatsby” because of the parties he hosted here. In 2005, at Cape Antibes, a search was carried out at the residence of Boris Berezovsky. Forbes wrote in 2015 that one of the neighboring villas belonged to Kerimov.
According to Nice-Matin, French authorities suspect that the senator owns four villas: Hier, Medy Roc, Florella and Lexa. Their total area is more than 90 thousand square meters. One of the most famous villas, Medy Roc, is included in the French list of cultural heritage sites. After a change of ownership in 2008, a separate exhibition was put together in New York from the interior items removed from it.
In the neighboring Villa Hier, where the searches took place in February this year, director Frank Oz filmed the film “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” in 1988. All four villas are located next to each other and, according to documents, belong to the Swiss entrepreneur Alexander Studhalter.
Familiar name
As follows from the French registry, the Hier villa, where the searches took place, is registered to the company VH Antibes SAS registered in the name of a Swiss entrepreneur. The Swiss's name is also included in the founding documents of the nearby villas Medy Roc, Florella and Lexa.
As follows from Studhalter’s words, he manages the villas through the Swiss holding company Swiru. Studhalter is the sole beneficiary of the Swiru holding and “the property that he manages through subsidiaries,” including villas, the businessman said.
The name of this company appeared in publications about Kerimov’s business in the 2000s. Since 2008, the Swiss has also headed Kerimov’s charitable foundation, the Suleyman Kerimov Foundation, which has managed the senator’s assets since 2013, including through a complex network of offshore companies in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Cyprus and the USA. The fact that the villas in the “bay of billionaires” and the Kerimov foundation are managed by the same person is evidenced by Studhalter’s signatures on the company documents:
Studhalter said that he came to the Russian market back in the 90s, and then, having created the Swiru holding (from two words SWIss and RUssian), he began investing in Gazprom, Nafta Moscow OJSC, Vnukovo Airlines and Sberbank. All these assets were in one way or another connected with Kerimov: in 1997-1998 he owned Vnukovo Airlines, in 1999 he acquired the oil trader Nafta-Moscow, and in the period from 2003 to 2008 he owned 4.24% of the shares Gazprom and 5.6% of Sberbank.
In 2005, Kommersant wrote, citing sources, that “Kerimov’s business is confined to the Swiru holding.” In 2012, both Kommersant and Forbes, also citing sources, claimed that the entrepreneur’s personal assets were registered in this holding. “Mansions in France and England, two yachts, several planes, perhaps some money in the accounts,” Forbes said. At that time, Studhalter was already listed as the owner of villas on the Cote d'Azur.
Even more information about Kerimov’s connection with Studhalter and Swiru became known after the publication of the “Panama” and “Paradise Papers” in 2016 and 2017. From these documents it followed that Swiru was the founder of the Bermudian company Altitude 41, of which Kerimov was a co-owner. The senator reported in his declaration in 2011 that he owns 5% of the Altitude company in Bermuda.
Swiru is also connected with Russia by another offshore company with a similar name - Altitude X3 Ltd, the shareholder of which was a Swiss holding. As it became known after the publication of the Panama Archives, this company owned the plane that, as Alexey Navalny claimed in his investigation, Igor Shuvalov and his wife use. Another owner of the offshore was Nariman Gadzhiev, the namesake of the ex-Minister of Press and Information of Dagestan, whom Forbes calls a relative of Kerimov.
Home for Guli, Amina and Said
In 2009, the London design bureau MMM architects was approached by a “client” with a request to create a design for his residence in Antibes. We were talking about Villa Medy Roc. The bureau published the proposed design on its website, along with handwritten notes. Among them are the signatures “Gulas bedroom” (Guli’s room), “Eminas bedroom” (Emina’s room) and “entrance to Saids” (entrance to Said). Kerimov has three children: daughters Gulnara and Amina and son Said. The description of the villa states that the proposal to develop the design came while working on a London project for the same client. Forbes wrote in 2012 that Kerimov also has property in London.
MMM architects did not answer Dozhd’s written question about who the customer was.
Work on this and the neighboring villa in 2010 was also carried out by the architectural bureau CAP Architecture group. In the company’s portfolio, the Medy Roc villa garden project is simply labeled “oligarch.” The following year, the bureau published another project, this time at Villa Florella, the description says that this is the territory of Medy Roc.
Kerimov's representative Alexey Krasovsky did not respond to Dozhd's emailed questions.
In total, four people are involved in the Kerimov case: in addition to the Russian senator and Studhalter, charges were brought against Philippe Borghetti and French tax lawyer Philippe Chiaverini, Le Temps wrote, citing the lawyer of one of them. If Kerimov’s guilt is proven, he faces up to 10 years in prison, Forbes writes.
Ordinary Russian oligarchs. A story of non-trivial success: Suleiman Kerimov
Articles on management - Popular management - Ordinary Russian oligarchs. A story of non-trivial success: Suleiman Kerimov
“You love money, but I have a lot of it, and I part with it easily”
Suleiman Kerimov (according to his entourage)Suleiman Kerimov became, as many experts believe, the true cause of the “potassium war” between Belarus and Russia; it was because of Kerimov that the decision was allegedly made to organize the United Football Championship (UCF) at all costs, which we will talk about separately. . And also - a scandalous accident in a luxury supercar with Tina Kandelaki, fifteen billion (at least) dollars of personal assets at the peak of her business career and many, many, and even too many other aspects. The success story of this man is quite worthy of attention.
StartSuleiman Abusaidovich Kerimov was born on March 12, 1966 in a far from simple family in Derbent (Dagestan): his mother held a very significant position in Sberbank, and his father was an employee of the criminal investigation department. In the North Caucasus, a child with such parents was automatically guaranteed a secure life, both then and today.
Suleiman was a sporty and intelligent child: he was involved in weightlifting, wrestling, and had obvious inclinations in the exact sciences. Admission to the Polytechnic Institute (not in Moscow - in Dagestan) after school ended a year later with conscription into the army and service in the Missile Forces and, by the way, their elite unit. After the army, Kerimov resumes his studies, but is transferred to the Faculty of Economics, where he meets his future wife Feruza. Feruza’s father was a match for Suleiman’s own parents: a prominent party worker who helped his son-in-law take the position of economist at the prestigious Dagestan enterprise Eltav. The plant produced products from a category of great shortage - electronic equipment. In 1993, this successful enterprise needed its own bank. This was created and received the name “Federal Industrial Bank” (Fedbank), its representative was sent to Moscow. The representative was none other than Suleiman Kerimov.
Moscow. Great startAfter a couple of years of Moscow life, Suleiman Abusaidovich became the general director of the Soyuz-Finance company. In 1998, the businessman invested fifty million dollars in acquiring a controlling stake in the future Nafta-Moscow holding. After another 2 years, cooperation with Roman Abramovich and Oleg Deripaska allows Kerimov to receive part of the profits from companies such as Ingosstrakh, Avtobank, Nosta and others - no less successful. Stop! Here we need to analyze what is happening in much more detail.
FedprombankAs we remember, Suleiman Kerimov was in Moscow a representative of Fedprombank, created for the Eltav plant. His “countrymen” helped the Dagestan bank extremely actively, as a result of which the financial institution quickly grew and developed. And Kerimov actively bought his shares. At the same time, the charismatic businessman acquired useful connections in the Russian capital, tried to seek happiness in large and new projects, and even took part in the sale of Vnukovo Airlines. True, the Accounts Chamber had many uncomfortable questions about the deal, but Suleiman Abusaidovich avoided trouble.
Over the course of “a couple of years,” the purchase of shares in an ever-growing bank gave excellent growth to the initial capital of the future billionaire.
Oil and Naphtha. Nafta-MoscowThe end of the 90s in Russia was the era of a great war for resources. At that time, Suleiman Kerimov did not yet have sufficient “muscles” in business for large wars, so he concentrated his efforts on a relatively “small” object by the standards of billionaires - the Varieganneft company, which, of course, dealt with oil. Having won the property, Kerimov did what he would do in the future with all captured assets: he sold it (in this particular case, to Mikhail Gurtsiev).
And then there was the Nafta company. Suleiman Abusaidovich got this once powerful flagship of the business “on the cheap”: for $50 million in 1998. The businessman acted in the style of Sam Zell's "Bone Dancer", taking advantage of other people's problems.
Remark: Nafta was initially headed by CEO Anatoly Kolotilin. His son worked at the Unibest bank, through which Kolotilin thought it was profitable for his family to circulate money. But - 1998, crisis. Unibest collapsed, and Nafta lost $400 million of its funds because of this and still remained $100 million in debt to Surgutneft. In a word, Nafta would be happy to sell itself to anyone, just to resolve the issue of its debts.
Suleiman Abusaidovich did not like trading oil. The assets of the company, purchased for 50 million, were quickly sold by Kerimov for $400 million. And then a new campaign for money began.
Raiding and takeovers: find the differences if you have enough healthNow this is called a “hostile takeover”, no one goes to the law enforcement agencies to complain about anything, silence remains. But behind such a businesslike name were hidden boys with bats and crowbars, decisions of courts in very distant regions on the appointment of new boards of directors, criminal cases against intractable owners and things that are generally not customary to talk about out loud.
year 2001. Avtobank was lucky with the assets of dozens of promising enterprises, including an entire iron and steel plant, Ingosstrakh, Ingosstrakh-Soyuz, etc. I was unlucky with something else: the attention of the three main sharks of that time: Roman Abramovich, Oleg Deripaska and, of course, Suleiman Kerimov. The latter eventually won, and the owner of Avtobank, Andrei Andreev, according to him, received nothing except the prefix “ex” to the status of the owner.
In 2005, Kerimov already became the owner of billions of dollars, but still begins the hunt for another object: Mosmontazhspetsstroy, Glavmosstroy, Mospromstroy - all three corporations were part of the Razvitie SEC, whose office was located a couple of hundred meters from the Kremlin . But cute boys with heavy bats and crowbars came to visit this office, while Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov demonstrably demonstrated: “Come on, it’s a simple economic dispute that has nothing to do with us.” True, it was Luzhkov himself who asked Suleiman to “sort out a little” with the presumptuous leadership of Development, who loved forceful methods. Kerimov “figured it out,” very quickly reselling the extracted object for $80-85 million.
Forbes once wrote that the businessman’s acquaintances often mentioned one ethnic trait of Suleiman Abusaidovich: he certainly strove to take what was “bad,” and he needed forceful actions psychologically. Hot Dagestan mentality of a calm, pretty businessman.
Investing in RussianIf Kerimov had relied on “takeovers” alone, he would not have been the Kerimov he is.
Do you remember how it all began in Moscow? Connections and investments in your own bank. And also my mother, who worked at Sberbank. It was along this line that Suleiman Abusaidovich began to build an interesting game.
It’s one thing to buy shares in Fedprombank, which has enough of its own capital, but it’s another thing to buy “bundles” of shares in Gazprom and Sberbank of Russia. From 2004 to 2006, the cost of the first increased by 4 times, and the second - by all 12, and the businessman during this period (or rather, at the beginning) already managed to buy 4.25% and 5.26% of their shares, respectively. How? Very simple. He borrowed money and bought shares with it. And he left as collateral... Purchased shares. The shares rose in price, the amount of collateral increased, the opportunities grew - and so on in a circle.
And who borrowed, you ask. Well, first VEB, then “some other” banks. But the bet was made on Sberbank. It was so simple: you take money from Sberbank, buy its shares, leave them as collateral - and again buy shares from it. All risks go to Sberbank, all profits... That's right.
Filaret Galchev and Vadim Moshkovich worked with Sberbank according to a similar scheme, but it was to Kerimov that this bank paid real curtsies. For example, Sberbank does not consider it possible to issue more than 25% of its capital to one lender.
Suleiman Kerimov...“Nafta” approached the limit and, when it seemed that it was absolutely impossible to take out new loans, the rule worked: if it is impossible, but it is strongly necessary, then it is possible. Since 2005, the company ZAO New Project took out loans instead of Nafta-Moscow, and although the owner was the same, the bank did not notice this. Why? Firstly, business in Russian allows this, and secondly, re-read the words in the epigraph again.
In 2007, it became clear that Sberbank of Russia was coming under the control of German Gref. Kerimov repays loans (which eliminated the awkward questions “who sanctioned?”, “who will be responsible?”, etc.) for 4 billion dollars and leaves himself a huge profit.
In addition, there is another state bank that is ready to lend to a dear client with all generosity - VTB. Maybe Kerimov’s connections at that moment were already extremely powerful, or maybe it was just an accident and VTB credited all the businessman’s ideas without a second thought and “just like that.”
Will foreign countries help us?Indeed, it’s somehow frivolous: everything is Russia and Russia. But what about the expansion of capital to the West? In fact, the question was not the desire of Kerimov himself: he wanted, he believed that “there will be more there.” By 2006, his business was going so well that he could take on the world. But... “There” were not particularly in a hurry to cooperate with the oligarch “from the dashing Russian 90s.”
And here we must certainly introduce a new character: Allen Wine was not just a top manager, but a director of the Russian branch of Merrill Lynch. Later he met Kerimov, they struck up a friendship, and over time, a partnership. Wine leaves Merrill Lynch and heads one of the oligarch’s structures, the Millennium Group. Vine became Kerimov’s guide to the West. He will be his translator and the “key” to enter those offices in which the young and rich Dagestani was not particularly wanted to be seen before.
The task was simple: Morgan Stanley was the first to decide to check the “purity” of Kerimov’s assets. This decision of the bank was partly due to the fact that Wine and the head of MS, John Mack, were old friends, and partly due to the natural charisma of the oligarch. In addition, no one dug very hard, and it was impossible to find real buyers for a number of transactions. After the first “due diligence”, 12 more banks in Europe and the USA began to cooperate with Suleiman Abusaidovich.
At this time, a lover of fast driving and thrilling experiences gets into a serious accident together with Tina Kandelaki. A businessman receives severe burns, he is treated in the best clinics in the world, he maintains the business rhythm against all odds and partly thanks to a special silicone suit.
From 2007 to 2008, Western bankers helped the oligarch sell off assets in Russia, buying assets abroad. 26 billion were received, 20 billion went to debts and other expenses, 6 billion went “as change.”
The package of new acquisitions by Suleiman Kerimov looked like an exhibition: there were shares of almost all structures with large assets and a big name. Deutsche Bank, British Petroleumm, Royal Bank of Scotland, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, E.On, Deutsche Telekom, Barclays, Boeing, Credit Suisse, Fortis and more, more, more...
Then it was a big game, Kerimov became the largest private shareholder in the history of Morgan Stanley itself, he began to play a significant role in voting in the key concerns of the planet. And then there was ruin and revival, a conflict between Moscow and Minsk due to the actions of a businessman and the epic with Anzhi Makhachkala, the story of the OC and other scandals. No one has written about much of what we will tell before, but this will be in the next article.
One of the richest people in Russia, deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Suleiman Kerimov, was born on March 12, 1966 in the city of Derbent, Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (now the Republic of Dagestan). Father is a lawyer, worked in the criminal investigation department; mother worked as an accountant in the Sberbank of the Russian Federation system.
In 1983, S. Kerimov entered the construction department of the Dagestan Polytechnic Institute, and in 1984, after completing the first year of the institute, he was drafted into the army and completed compulsory military service in the Strategic Missile Forces of the USSR Armed Forces (RVSN Armed Forces of the USSR). After being transferred to the reserve, he continued his studies at the Faculty of Economics of Dagestan State University (DSU) named after. V.I. Lenin, who graduated in 1989 with a degree in Accounting and Analysis of Economic Activities.
In 1989-1995 he worked in positions from economist to assistant general director for economic issues of the Eltav plant of the Ministry of Electronic Industry.
Since 1995 - General Director of the Soyuz-Finance company (Moscow).
Since April 1997, he has been engaged in scientific activities.
In February-December 1999, he was deputy director of the autonomous non-profit organization International Institute of Corporations.
Since December 1999 - deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the third convocation on the federal list of the electoral bloc "Zhirinovsky Bloc", was a member of the State Duma Committee of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on Security.
On December 7, 2003, he was elected as a deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the fourth convocation on the federal list of the LDPR electoral association. In the State Duma, he became a member of the LDPR faction and is deputy chairman of the Committee of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on Physical Culture and Sports.
In April 2007, he left the LDPR faction and became an independent deputy.
Suleiman Kerimov heads the Board of Trustees of the Russian Wrestling Federation. In his youth, he was fond of judo and kettlebell lifting, and was a multiple champion of various championships. The International Federation of United Styles of Wrestling (FILA) awarded him the “Golden Order” - one of the most prestigious awards.
On April 19, 2007, the Russian version of Forbes magazine published a ranking of the richest citizens of Russia, in which Kerimov took seventh place with $12.8 billion.
Under his control through OJSC GNK Nafta-Moscow and other companies - the mining holding Polymetal (99.5%), National Cable Networks, the Moscow cable operator Mostelecom. He owns 4.5% of the shares of Gazprom ", 5.7% of shares of Sberbank, about 2% of shares of MGTS. Invests in the Moscow region town of Rublevo-Arkhangelskoye (2 million sq. m of luxury housing).
He is the owner of the yacht Ice, built at the Lürssen shipyard in Bremen, Germany. This is a four-deck ship, the length of which is 90 meters. The seven bathtubs and vanities in the owner's and guest cabins are made from solid pieces of limestone, with oak interiors. The owner's bedroom extends from one side of the yacht to the other. On board there is a swimming pool and a helipad. The cruising range is more than 11,000 km. According to some reports, the interior decor alone, including painting, cost $25 million, and the total cost of the yacht could be about $170 million.
As a personal airliner, Suleiman Kerimov uses a luxuriously decorated medium-haul passenger airliner Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) 737-700, which accepts only 16 people on board, and the owner has an office, a shower room and a bedroom on board. The cost of such an aircraft reaches $50 million, its non-stop flight range is up to 12,000 km.
Suleiman Kerimov is married. His wife, Firuza, is the daughter of a high-ranking Dagestan official. He met her while studying in Derbent, and soon the lovers got married. According to rumors, Kerimov’s father-in-law helped him get a good job as an economist at the Eltav electronics plant, one of the largest enterprises in Dagestan. Firuza has always been a real “Oriental” wife, she does not like to appear in public, and does not want to communicate with the press. She is raising three children.
Suleiman Kerimov loves social events, parties with pop stars, and sailing on his own yacht, Ice, off the coast of Spain. He loves to throw luxurious parties and give beautiful gifts. He is credited with having affairs with famous singers, ballerinas, and actresses. Kerimov’s name has recently appeared frequently in the press in connection with the accident in France.
On November 25, 2006, on the Promenade des Anglais embankment in Nice, the billionaire and his companion, who, according to some media reports, was the famous Russian TV presenter Tina Kandelaki, were involved in a car accident. For an unknown reason, in a section where the maximum permissible speed is 50 km/h, Kerimov’s Enzo Ferrari super sports car lost control, flew off the road at high speed, crashed into a tree and caught fire. Engulfed in flames, Kerimov was able to get out of the cabin on his own and rolled on the grass, trying to put out the fire. Eyewitnesses of the accident helped him. Only firefighters from Nice Airport were able to extinguish the burning car. The Ferrari, worth about 675 thousand euros, cannot be restored. His companion, Tina Kandelaki, escaped with minor burns and injuries. She was admitted to the Saint-Roch hospital. and after providing her with medical assistance, she flew to Moscow that same evening. Kerimov, who received severe burns, was sent by helicopter to one of the Marseille clinics, and then transported to a clinic in Belgium, where he underwent treatment and returned to Moscow at the end of January 2007 and began work. Today he has fully recovered from the accident and is working daily and at full capacity.
Suleiman Kerimov is a Russian entrepreneur, co-owner of a number of large companies, shareholder of Uralkali, member of the Federation Council from Dagestan.
On January 30, 2018, Suleiman Kerimov, as a Russian oligarch with a fortune of more than a billion dollars, was included in the so-called “Kremlin list” compiled by the US Treasury at the request of a new law on countering opponents of this country .
In December 1999, Suleiman Kerimov became a deputy of the Russian State Duma of the third convocation on the federal list of the Zhirinovsky Bloc electoral bloc, joining the Security Committee.
On December 7, 2003, Suleiman Kerimov was elected to the State Duma of the fourth convocation on the federal list of the LDPR electoral association. In the State Duma, he joined the LDPR faction and took the post of deputy chairman of the committee on physical culture and sports, and was also included in the security committee.
In April 2007, Suleiman Kerimov left the LDPR faction and became an independent deputy, and a week later he submitted an application to join the United Russia faction. On May 11, 2007, Kerimov became a member of the United Russia faction.
In December 2007, at the proposal of the speaker of the Dagestan parliament Magomed Suleymanov, Kerimov was unanimously elected as a representative of the People's Assembly of Dagestan in the Federation Council. In February 2008, the upper house of the Russian parliament confirmed his powers.
BusinessIn October 1998, Suleiman Kerimov, for $50 million, acquired 55% of its shares from the management of the investment company OJSC Nafta-Moscow - the heiress of Soyuznefteexport, an oil trading monopolist that exported 200 million tons of oil and petroleum products annually during Soviet times. The company was going through difficult times - after the August crisis of 1998, Nafta-Moskva's money was stuck in several collapsed banks, debts amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars, and management led by former Deputy Minister of Oil and Gas Industry Anatoly Kolotilin had to put Nafta-Moskva up for sale . Over the course of a year (according to other sources, one and a half years), Kerimov increased his stake in the company’s shares to 100%.
In June 2000, Nafta-Moscow bought the company Varyeganneftegaz, a subsidiary of SIDANCO, in respect of which bankruptcy proceedings were initiated.
At the end of 2003 and 2004, Nafta began buying land in the Moscow region on Novorizhskoye Highway. On these lands it was planned to build 2.7 million square meters of luxury housing and entertainment complexes. The cost of the project was estimated at $3 billion. The project was named: the private city "Rublevo-Arkhangelskoye". By 2006, it already occupied 430 hectares of land.
In July 2005, Kerimov, together with Deripaska and Abramovich, acquired a stake in the state oil company Rosneft (the company that at the end of 2004 bought the former subsidiary of the Yukos oil company, Yuganskneftegaz).
In 2005, the Nafta-Moscow company became one of the sponsors of the Russian Football Union and the general sponsor of the Russian national freestyle wrestling team. In November 2005, the President of the International Federation of United Styles of Wrestling (FILA) Rafael Martinetti presented Suleiman Kerimov with one of the most prestigious awards - the “Golden Order”.
At the end of 2005, Nafta bought the Polymetal company, which occupies a leading position in Russia in terms of silver production and second place in gold production, for $900 million.
On May 24, 2006, Suleiman Kerimov was elected chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Russian Wrestling Federation. According to the president of the federation, Mikheil Mamiashvili, the decision to establish the Board of Trustees and appoint its head was made because long-term interaction with state sports governing bodies and large national business structures has become crucial for the effective implementation of the tasks facing the federation.
In February 2006, Kerimov decided to turn Nafta-Moskva into a full-fledged investment company, turning it into a leading private equity fund.
On November 21, 2006, the Nafta-Moscow company and the Moscow government announced the creation of OJSC United Hotel Company (OGK), to which the shares of more than 20 hotels on the city’s balance sheet (including Balchug, Metropol) were to be transferred , "National" and "Radisson-Slavyanskaya"). The authorized capital of the new company was to be at least $2 billion: 49% was to belong to the city, 51% to Nafta-Moscow. However, at the end of January 2007, the Moscow government announced its intention to interrupt the joint hotel business with the Nafta-Moscow company. According to officials, the reason for terminating the contract with Kerimov was an accurate assessment of the shareholdings of municipal hotels, which established that the total value of the assets of all Moscow hotels (which were to be included in the OGK) amounted to almost $7 billion.
In the fall of 2007, Suleiman Kerimov unexpectedly began to sell off his Russian assets: the first company to be sold was Metronom AG (operator of the Mercado supermarket chain). In April 2008, it became known that Kerimov had agreed to sell National Telecommunications to the National Media Group. From January to May 2008, through the mediation of foreign banks Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse, S. Kerimov sold large blocks of shares in Sberbank and Gazprom (according to unofficial information, in total the Nafta-Moscow company owned 6% of the shares of Sberbank and 4.5 % shares of Gazprom).
According to experts, Suleiman Kerimov's fortune in 2007 was $14.4 billion. According to the Forbes magazine rating, Kerimov took 35th place in the list of the richest people in the world.
In the second half of May 2008, Polymetal officially announced that Suleiman Kerimov was negotiating the sale of his stake in the company. In addition, Kerimov planned to sell the elite village Rublevo-Arkhangelskoye, which is under construction. The businessman invested the freed funds in foreign financial institutions - as of June 2008, he had already acquired about 3% of the shares of Deutsche Bank, as well as securities of Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and UBS.
However, since February 2009, publications about Kerimov’s acquisitions in Russia have appeared in the media. It was reported that his Nafta-Moscow became the owner of 75% of Glavstroy SPb (the construction division of Deripaska’s Basic Element). In the same month, it became known that the Moscow government offered Nafta-Moskva a controlling stake in Dekmos OJSC, which was engaged in the construction of the Moscow Hotel.
In March 2009, Kommersant reported that the owner of the Interros holding, Vladimir Potanin, was selling 22% of the shares of Polyus Gold OJSC to Kerimov's structures. In June, the leadership of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) announced that the purchase of a stake in Polyus Gold by Kerimov's company had been approved by the government commission on foreign investment. In July 2009, when Polyus Gold revealed its ownership structure, it became known that Kerimov is the beneficiary of 36.88% of the company's shares: it was reported that he controls this stake through Wandle Holdings Limited.
In April 2009, one of the country's largest developers - the PIK group of companies - officially admitted that Nafta-Moscow had received 25% of its shares and submitted a petition to the FAS to purchase another 20% of PIK. And in August 2009, it became known that in 2008 the Nafta Co group of companies became the owner of almost 100% of CJSC Trading House TSVUM (Voentorg).
Shareholder of UralkaliIn June 2010, Kerimov became the owner of 25 percent of the shares of the world's sixth largest producer of potash fertilizers, Uralkali OJSC, whose main shareholder was Dmitry Rybolovlev. According to experts, he paid $2.5 billion for a blocking stake in the company.
On September 2, 2013, the Investigative Committee of Belarus put Suleiman Kerimov on the wanted list. Kerimov’s actions were qualified by the investigation as an organization of abuse of power and official authority (clause 4 of article 16 and part 3 of article 424 of the Criminal Code). According to the Investigative Committee of Belarus, a number of managers of the Belarusian Potash Company (a joint venture of Uralkali and Belaruskali) implemented a scheme that caused damage to the interests of Belarus in the amount of $100 million. Investigators suggest that some time before Uralkali broke off cooperation with Belaruskali, managers of the Belarusian Potash Company, secretly from the Belarusian side, provided buyers with discounts and broke lucrative contracts in order to then re-sign them with Uralkali.
On September 3, the Russian bureau of Interpol received information from the organization’s Central Office about the international wanted list for the senator from Dagestan Suleiman Kerimov.
Owner of AnjiIn January 2011, at a meeting between Kerimov and the President of Dagestan Magomedsalam Magomedov, it was decided to transfer the Dagestan football club Anzhi (Makhachkala) to the control of the senator, which enabled the club to acquire such famous players as Yuri Zhirkov (Chelsea London), Roberto Carlos (Corinthians Sao Paulo), Balazs Dzsudzsak, Eindhoven (PSV Netherlands), Odil Akhmedov (Pakhtakor Uzbekistan), Mubarak Boussoufa (Anderlecht Belgium) and the main acquisition - the purchase in August 2011 from Milan Internazionale" Cameroonian super forward Samuel Eto'o. In December 2016, Kerimov transferred FC Anji to the new owner Osman Kadiev.
VTB shareholderIn February 2011, Kerimov acquired about 1.5 percent of the shares of the state-owned VTB Bank for $500 million, becoming its largest private shareholder.
In March 2011, Kerimov took part in the elections to the People's Assembly of Dagestan as part of the United Russia list. On March 31, 2011, the new composition of the Dagestan parliament reaffirmed Kerimov as a senator.
In 2013, Suleiman Kerimov took 20th place in the ranking of the 200 richest businessmen in Russia according to Forbes. His fortune is estimated at $7.1 billion. Kerimov owns large blocks of shares in a number of Russian enterprises - Uralkali (18.1%), VTB (6%), Polyus Gold (40.2%), PIK (47%).
LawsuitsOn April 14, 2015, it was reported that the Nicosia District Court froze some of the assets of Suleiman Kerimov at the suit of entrepreneur Ashot Yeghiazaryan, who was seeking compensation for the costs of building a hotel in the center of Moscow. According to the decision of the London Court of International Arbitration (01/13/2015), Kerimov was ordered to pay Yeghiazaryan $250 million, but the first tranche was not paid in November 2014. The exact list of frozen assets is not known. One of the newspaper's sources claimed, citing a court decision, that the list, among other things, includes shares of Polyus Gold, as well as the Cinema Park cinema chain (formally its owner is the son of businessman Said Kerimov) and FC Anzhi.
Accident in FranceOn November 25, 2006, Suleiman Kerimov was in a car accident in France, in Nice. The Ferrari Enzo car (worth 675 thousand euros), in which Suleiman Kerimov, together with the TV presenter of the STS channel Tina Kandelaki, was driving along the embankment, crashed into a tree and caught fire. Kerimov was taken to the De la Timone specialized hospital in Marseille with severe burns. According to eyewitnesses of the accident, he managed to get out of the car himself and tried to knock out the flames from his clothes. Kandelaki suffered less damage - she was taken to the Saint-Roch hospital and was discharged the same day.
On January 24, 2007, after long-term treatment at the Queen Astrid military hospital in Brussels, Kerimov returned to Moscow and began work.
Arrest in FranceIn November 2017, Suleiman Kerimov was detained by French police in Nice on tax evasion charges. According to the police, Kerimov committed these actions through real estate fraud. The judge decided to launch an investigation against Suleiman Kerimov, as well as a bail of 5 million euros, according to which the senator was released. At the same time, the court decided that Kerimov must surrender his passport, cannot leave the Alpes-Maritimes department, and must also regularly report to the police.
According to French laws, tax evasion and money laundering can be punished with imprisonment for up to ten years, but, as practice shows, the case may not come to trial if the defendant compensates for the damage caused.
On November 28, 2017, Nice prosecutor Jean-Michel Prétre said that an appeal had been filed against Kerimov's release on bail, since the prosecutor's office considers it necessary for the Russian businessman to be in pre-trial detention.
On December 4, 2017, Nice prosecutor Jean-Michel Prétre accused Kerimov of importing between 500 million and 750 million euros into France for the purpose of money laundering.
CharityIn October 2009, Suleiman Kerimov financed a trip to Moscow for the Yakubov family from the Kizlyar region of Dagestan, on the body of whose nine-month-old son, Ali, lines from the Koran appear in an unknown way.
Kerimov is a regular at Moscow bohemian clubs. He enjoys hosting lavish social events, parties with pop stars, and sailing on his own yacht, Ice, off the coast of Spain (built at the Lürssen shipyard in Bremen, Germany; this four-deck vessel is 90 meters long). Suleiman Kerimov's personal aircraft is the Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) 737-700 - a luxuriously finished medium-haul passenger airliner with a non-stop flight range of up to 12,000 km (in the standard commercial configuration, the Boeing 737 carries more than 100 passengers, but in the BBJ modification it takes on board only 16 people , and on board there is an office, a shower room and a bedroom).
Marital status: wife Firuza is the daughter of a high-ranking Dagestan official. The family has three children - a son and two daughters.
Hajj according to Kerimov's programSuleiman Kerimov is involved in charity work, donating large sums to social events, in particular to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In April 2007, Kerimov donated $100 million for the construction of the Cathedral Mosque in Moscow, and in May of the same year he allocated funds to send 5 thousand Russians to the Hajj.
Every year the number of pilgrims going on Hajj to Mecca from Dagestan through the charity of Senator Suleiman Kerimov ranges from 2.5 to 3 thousand people. Their exact number depends on the general hajj quotas allocated to the republic. The charity project is carried out by the Marva-Tour company.
BiographyBorn on March 12, 1966 in the city of Derbent (according to other sources - in the village of Karakyure, Dokuzparinsky district) of the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. By nationality - Lezgin. Father is a lawyer, worked in the criminal investigation department; mother is an accountant at Sberbank of Russia. In his youth, Suleiman Kerimov was fond of judo and kettlebell lifting, and was a repeated champion of various championships.
After graduating from high school in Derbent in 1983 (certificate with honors, favorite subject - mathematics), he entered the construction department of the Dagestan Polytechnic Institute. In 1984, after completing the first year of the institute, Suleiman Kerimov was drafted into the army and completed compulsory military service in the Strategic Missile Forces of the USSR Armed Forces (Strategic Missile Forces of the USSR Armed Forces), where he was a crew chief with the rank of senior sergeant. During his military service, Kerimov was the division champion in kettlebell lifting.
After being transferred to the reserve in 1986, Kerimov continued his studies at the Faculty of Economics of the Dagestan State University (DSU) named after. IN AND. Lenin, who graduated in 1989 with a degree in Accounting and Analysis of Economic Activities. In parallel with his studies, Kerimov served as deputy chairman of the trade union committee of the DSU.
In 1989-1995, Suleiman Kerimov worked in positions from economist to assistant general director for economic issues of the Eltav plant of the Ministry of Electronic Industry.
Since 1995, Suleiman Kerimov has been the general director of the investment company Soyuz-finance LLC (Moscow). This Moscow company worked in the domestic aviation business, raw materials industries and the banking sector. It was during this time (from 1995 to 1998) that Kerimov, according to media reports, earned his initial capital.
In April 1997, Kerimov became a researcher at the International Institute of Corporations (Moscow), and in February 1999 he was appointed vice president of this non-profit organization.
NotesFamily
Born into a prosperous Soviet family: Father is a policeman, worked in the criminal investigation department; mother was an accountant at Sberbank. The older brother is a doctor. My sister is a teacher of Russian language and literature.
Wife Firuza Nazimovna Khanbalaeva (b. 1968) classmate at the Faculty of Economics of DSU named after. V.I. Lenin.
Three children: daughter Gulnara (1990), son Abusaid (1995) - MGIMO student, daughter Aminat (2003).
Biography
In his youth, Kerimov was involved in judo and kettlebell lifting, and was a champion of various competitions.
After graduating with honors from secondary school No. 19 in Derbent in 1983, he entered the construction department of the Dagestan Polytechnic Institute. After the first course he was drafted into the army. In 1984-1986 he served in the Strategic Missile Forces in Moscow, senior sergeant as crew chief.
After returning from the army, Suleiman Kerimov transferred to the Faculty of Economics of the Dagestan State University, from which he graduated in 1989. He was deputy chairman of the university trade union committee.
While still a student, Suleiman married fellow student Firuza. His wife's father, a major party functionary Nazim Khanbalaev, helped him get a job as an economist at the Eltav plant.
From 1989 to 1995, Kerimov made major steps in his career, moving from an ordinary economist to assistant general director for economic issues.
In 1993, in order to conduct mutual settlements with consumers, Eltav and its associates established the Federal Industrial Bank and registered it in Moscow. Suleiman was sent there to represent the interests of Eltava. Since then, Kerimov has settled in Moscow.
In 1995, Kerimov accepted an offer to become deputy general director of the Soyuz-finance company. This Moscow company worked in the domestic aviation business, raw materials industries and the banking sector.
In April 1997, he began working as a research assistant at the International Institute of Corporations (Moscow), and in February 1999, he became vice-president of this autonomous non-profit organization.
It was in the 1990s that Kerimov earned his initial capital. In October 1998, for $50 million, Kerimov acquired 55 percent of the shares of the investment company OJSC Nafta-Moscow (traded oil and petroleum products, was created on the basis of the Soyuznefteexport association) from its management, within a year he increased his stake in the company to 100 percent and became the owner of the company.
In December 1999, he was elected to the State Duma of the Russian Federation.
Having become a deputy, Karimov still had full control of his company, and the source of Kerimov’s capital was the purchase of assets. During that period, according to media reports, a business alliance was formed between Kerimov and, and later business relations were established with.
In 2000, Nafta-Moscow bought the company Varyoganneftegaz. In 2001, Kerimov, together with the structures of Abramovich and Deripaska, received a share in Andreev’s business, which consisted of more than a hundred companies. It is interesting that Kerimov’s company, which was once one of the largest oil traders in Russia, moved away from its original activities and in 2002 practically curtailed oil trading.
At the end of 2003, Nafta began buying land in the Moscow region on Novorizhskoe Highway in order to build 2.7 million square meters of luxury housing and entertainment complexes. The cost of the project was estimated at $3 billion. The project was named the private city "Rublevo-Arkhangelskoye". By 2006, it already occupied 430 hectares of land. However, Kerimov later sold the project to the president of Bin-Bank, Mikhail Shishkhanov.
At the end of 2005, Nafta bought Polymetal, Russia's second gold mining company, for $900 million and planned to list about 25 percent of its shares on the stock exchange. In February 2006, Kerimov decided to turn Nafta-Moscow into a full-fledged investment company, turning it into a leading private equity fund.
By 2006, Nafta, according to official data, owned more than 6 percent of the shares of Sberbank (about $1.6 billion at current prices) and more than 4 percent of the shares of Gazprom ($10.4 billion), cable television operators in Moscow and St. Petersburg - Mosteleset (Nafta owns 59 percent of the shares of the enterprise) and National Cable Networks, almost 20 percent of the shares of Bin-Bank, two percent of the shares of OJSC MGTS and 91 percent of the shares of the Krasnopresnensky Sugar Refinery Plant (in August 2006, shares of the plant, bought by Nafta from two rival companies were sold to the PIK group (according to media reports, Kerimov made money on resale.) In addition, the company owned 50 percent of the shares of the Mercado supermarket chain.
By that time, resale transactions, including in the real estate market, had become Kerimov’s main “trick”. In April 2006, Nafta became a co-owner of Mosstroyekonombank, which owns Smolensky Passage, in June it gained control of the Razvitie SEC, which unites three construction companies, and in July notified the mayor's office that it owns 17 percent of the shares of the Mospromstroy holding. . None of these acquisitions later remained with Nafta: Development was bought by Deripaska's Basic Element, Mospromstroy and Mosstroyekonombank - the BIN group.
In July, Kerimov, together with Deripaska and Abramovich, acquired a stake in the state oil company Rosneft (which, at the end of 2004, bought the former subsidiary of Yukos, Yuganskneftegaz). And in August 2006, reports appeared in the press that Nafta-Moscow intended to buy out the debts of NK YUKOS. It was alleged that Kerimov negotiated such a possibility with Yukos President Stephen Theede. Later, the Nafta press service officially denied these reports.
On November 21, 2006, the Nafta company and the Moscow government announced the creation of the United Hotel Company OJSC (authorized capital - $ 2 billion), to which the shares of more than 20 hotels on the city's balance sheet were transferred (including Balchug, Metropol ", "National" and "Radisson-Slavyanskaya"). It was assumed that participation in the project would make Nafta one of the leaders in the Moscow hotel market.
In June 2008, the Kommersant newspaper reported that structures controlled by Kerimov sold large stakes in Gazprom and Sberbank that they owned. The share price at the beginning of the year was $15.37 and $5.4 billion, respectively.
The newspaper also reported that Kerimov’s structures have sold or are negotiating the sale of other Russian assets of the businessman - the company Metronom AG, the operator of the Mercado supermarket chain (sold to X5 Retail Group in the fall of 2007 for $200 million), National Telecommunications (the acquirer was called the National Media Group, the main shareholder of which was Yuri Kovalchuk's Rossiya Bank) and shares in the Polymetal company (the founder of the ICT group Alexander Nesis, as well as a Russian financier and structures of the Czech PPF fund were mentioned as acquirers). After the sale of land, telecommunications, metallurgical and other assets, according to the publication, the businessman should have virtually no investments left in Russia.
It was also reported that Kerimov would invest the funds freed up as a result of the sale of Russian assets in foreign financial institutions (according to the newspaper, at that time he had already acquired about 3 percent of the shares of Deutsche Bank, as well as securities of Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, UBS).
However, in February 2009, information about Kerimov’s acquisitions in Russia was published. It was reported that his Nafta-Moscow became the owner of 75 percent of Glavstroy SPb, a company that in St. Petersburg owns development projects of the Glavstroy corporation (the construction division of Deripaska's Basic Element).
In the same month, it became known that the Moscow government offered Nafta-Moscow a controlling stake in Dekmos OJSC, which was engaged in the construction of the Moscow Hotel. However, Nafta-Moscow gained partial control over Dekmos OJSC only in January 2010, when it acquired 50 percent of the shares of Konk Select Partners, a company that owned 51 percent of Dekmos OJSC shares.
In August 2009, the financial director of Nafta Co confirmed the information that Nafta Co owned almost 100 percent of CJSC Trading House TSVUM. He added that the deal was closed in the fall of 2008. The amount was not mentioned, but Vedomosti's source reported that the department store cost Kerimov's company approximately $300 million - with the condition that it would enter the project only after the reconstruction of Voentorg was completed.
In March 2009, Kommersant reported that the owner of the Interros holding was selling 22 percent of the shares of Polyus Gold OJSC to Kerimov's structures. It was assumed that Kerimov acquired these assets “for a certain period of time for further resale.” In June, the leadership of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) announced that the purchase of a stake in Polyus Gold by Kerimov's company was approved by the government commission on foreign investment.
In July 2009, when Polyus Gold revealed its ownership structure, it became known that Kerimov is the beneficiary of 36.88 percent of the company's shares: it was reported that he controls this stake through Wandle Holdings Limited. Despite the fact that 24.59 percent of the shares from this package were sold under a repo transaction, Kerimov retained the right to vote on it.
In February 2010, the Polyus Gold company, which Kerimov owned together with, acquired 11.4 percent of the shares of RBC Information Systems OJSC, the parent company of the RBC media holding. In April of the same year, Kerimov, having bought 19.71 percent of the shares, became one of the co-owners of the International Financial Club bank (IFC), part of the Onexim group owned by Prokhorov.
In April 2013, Kerimov transferred beneficial rights to his business assets to the Suleyman Kerimov Foundation.
In the fall of 2013, after the scandal between Uralkali and Belaruskali, Kerimov began selling assets. The scandal broke out when the Russian company refused to sell potash through a trading joint venture with Belaruskali. After this, criminal cases were opened against the general director of Uralkali, Vladislav Baumgertner, and Kerimov himself in Belarus.
This story acquired political implications; President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that he would not work with Kerimov. As a result, the oligarch sold his officially 21.75% (and unofficially 27%) shares. Also last year, Kerimov’s structures sold about 1% of Alrosa with a market value of $40.8 million.
In December 2014, President V. Putin met with 40 major Russian entrepreneurs, among whom was Suleiman Kerimov. At the meeting, they discussed, in particular, the amnesty of capital.
In early September 2015, the twenty-year-old son of the famous businessman Suleiman Kerimov, Said Kerimov, received full control of Wandle Holdings, which owns a 40.2% stake in Polyus Gold. At the same time, it became known that Wandle Holdings was considering the possibility of purchasing all shares of Polyus Gold that it did not own. If the deal is concluded, the price per share could be $2.97. The authorized capital of Polyus Gold consists of 3.0322 billion shares.
Polyus Gold is an international company engaged in gold mining and production in Russia. The company's headquarters are located in London. Polyus Gold shares are traded on the premium segment of the London Stock Exchange.
At the end of September 2015, construction of the largest mosque in Europe was completed in Moscow. According to media reports, Kerimov took on the main financial burden in its construction.
Political activity
He was a deputy of the third convocation (2000-2003) on the federal list from the Zhirinovsky Bloc.
In 2003, Kerimov played a prominent role in political processes in Dagestan. On December 7 of this year, in the elections to the State Duma in the Buinaksky single-mandate constituency of the republic, a former high-ranking tax police officer Magomed Gadzhiev, considered a person close to Kerimov, won a convincing victory over a candidate supported by official Makhachkala.
Before the cancellation of the popular elections of the heads of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, it was assumed that it would be Kerimov who would promote for the presidency of Dagestan a candidate opposed to the then leader of this republic, Magomedali Magomedov. Subsequently, Kerimov’s visible political activity in his homeland began to decline.
On December 7, 2003, Kerimov was again elected to the State Duma and again from the federal list. Appointed Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture and Sports, and also included in the Security Committee.
On April 6, 2007, it became known that Kerimov wrote a statement about leaving the LDPR faction. As a representative of the State Duma Committee on Regulations stated, Kerimov did not justify his decision in any way. , told reporters that the reason for his departure from the faction was a gross violation of party discipline: the deputy allegedly did not take proper part in election campaigns in his region.
In December 2007, Kerimov was elected as a representative of the People's Assembly of Dagestan in the Federation Council. His candidacy was supported by all 56 deputies present at the meeting of the republican parliament. The speaker of the Dagestan parliament, Magomed Suleymanov, proposed electing Kerimov.
According to him, Kerimov is a fairly well-known politician who provides support to Dagestan, especially to the republic’s athletes. On February 20, 2008, Kerimov became a senator.
In March 2011, Kerimov was elected as a deputy of the People's Assembly of Dagestan on the list of United Russia and was again confirmed as the representative of Dagestan in the Federation Council of the Russian Federation.
Suleiman Abusaidovich heads the Board of Trustees of the Russian Wrestling Federation.
Since January 2011, Suleiman Kerimov has been the owner of the Anzhi football club from Makhachkala.
State
With a personal fortune of $7.8 billion, in 2011 he took 19th place in the list of the 200 richest businessmen in Russia (according to Forbes magazine).
In 2012, with a declared family income of 983 million rubles, he took 8th place in the ranking of income of Russian officials compiled by Forbes magazine.
Scandals
At the end of November 2006, he was involved in a serious accident in Nice: a Ferrari Enzo, driven by Kerimov, for an unknown reason drove off the road and crashed into a tree; burning gasoline spilled from the burst fuel tank of the car onto Kerimov’s back. Kerimov ran out, engulfed in flames and rolled on the ground, trying to put out the fire; this was only possible after three teenagers who were playing baseball nearby ran up to him.
The helicopter took Kerimov with severe burns to a specialized department of the Conception hospital in Marseille, where he was connected to a ventilator. The victim was in a state of artificial coma. At the same time, Kerimov’s companion, a famous TV presenter, was practically unharmed.
year 2014. Russian authorities are especially looking at Russian entrepreneurs who have their own business in Ukraine and cooperate with Ukrainian oligarchs who support EuroMaidan. Suleiman Kerimov continues to conduct his business with the Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Pinchuk, one of the sponsors of the Maidan.
On May 12, 2014, it became known that the state-owned Rostelecom could buy the private Wimax operator Freshtel. It is known that the real owners of Freshtel are considered to be the structures of Suleiman Kerimov and Ukrainian billionaire Viktor Pinchuk.
That is, thanks to Kerimov’s influence, part of the Russian budget money, since Rostelecom is owned by the state, can be received by a Ukrainian oligarch who supports EuroMaidan and the current government of Ukraine.
Kerimov, according to experts, was the main culprit in the conflict between Russia and Belarus over the supply of potassium by the Russian company Uralkali, which Kerimov almost destroyed.
Attempts to manage an international company using methods inherited from the semi-gangster 90s caused a quarrel between Kerimov and almost all his partners and significantly eroded his client base. This was the beginning of the end - the company began to slowly but surely lose its position.
As a result, Kerimov fell out with Lukashenko when Uralkali left the tandem with the Belarusian potassium producer, which led to political disputes between Russia and Belarus. At the same time, Belaruskali, after breaking the agreement with Uralkali, found a Qatari trader for export supplies. That is, a split was introduced into an important area of the economic space of the Customs Union, now transformed into the Eurasian Union.
This conflict spread to the political plane, since the Kremlin believed that it was Kerimov who was to blame for the deterioration of relations between Moscow and Minsk. As a result, Kerimov was forced to sell Uralkali, but, according to rumors, he was never forgiven “at the highest level.” In Belarus, a criminal case was opened against S. Kermov.
As soon as Kerimov’s economic activities ran counter to state policy, legal claims immediately arose against the businessman. On June 10, 2014, journalists, citing a source close to Suleiman Kerimov, reported that the oligarch intended to leave Russia.
The authoritative Forbes magazine conducted its own journalistic investigation into the emergence of capital from Kerimov and found out: at the end of 2004, the owner of Nafta, Kerimov, entered into a big game - buying up Russian blue chips, primarily Gazprom and Sberbank.
The purchase was carried out first with our own funds, then with borrowed funds. The Russian stock market was constantly growing, so the scheme was a win-win. Kerimov pledged shares against a bank loan, the value of the collateral grew, which made it possible to take out new loans, buy more shares, pledge them, etc.
By 2006, Kerimov had collected 4.25% of Gazprom shares and 5.64% of Sberbank shares. During 2004–2006, the capitalization of Gazprom grew fourfold, and that of Sberbank almost 12-fold. Having borrowed about $3.2 billion to purchase shares, Kerimov became the owner of securities, which by the end of 2006 were worth more than $15 billion and continued to grow.
With loans from Sberbank, Kerimov bought most of his numerous assets: from a controlling stake in Polymetal to shares in Gazprom and Sberbank itself. In those years, the bank approved flawed schemes under which it issued loans for the purchase of its shares on the security of its own shares - under this scheme, Sber worked not only with Kerimov, but also with Vadim Moshkovich and Filaret Galchev.
But just for the sake of Kerimov, Sberbank violated one of the strictest rules by exceeding the loan limit (the bank can issue loans to one borrower in the amount of no more than 25% of its capital).
By May 2005, Nafta Moscow had practically chosen this limit, and another Kerimov company, New Project CJSC, began taking loans from Sberbank. And the bank “decided” that these companies were not related to each other. By the end of the year, the limit for the second company was also exhausted: the loan debt of Nafta Moscow amounted to 54.6 billion rubles, New Project - 59.8 billion rubles, this is 21.5% and 23.5% (in total 45% ) from the capital of Sberbank at that time.
By mid-October 2007, when it became clear that Sberbank would be headed, Kerimov managed to pay off almost all debts to Sber - more than $4 billion. By that time, investments had brought Kerimov hundreds of percent of profit.
However, according to rumors, with the arrival of Gref at Sberbank, Kerimov’s cooperation with Sberbank only intensified. However, Gref’s contract expires in 2015, which means that Sberbank will soon be headed by a new top manager.
It seems that Kerimov understands that after Gref’s resignation, the security forces will check the validity of lending to his (Kerimov’s) structures in Sberbank. Apparently, this is why he decided to flee Russia in advance, in order to avoid the expected arrest.
Member of the Federation Council from the Republic of Dagestan. In the past, he was a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation of the fourth convocation, a member of the United Russia faction (until April 2007, a member of the LDPR faction). Owner of the Nafta-Moscow company. According to media reports, he is one of the richest people in Russia.
Suleiman Abusaidovich Kerimov was born on March 12, 1966 in Derbent (Dagestan). In 1983 he graduated from high school (with a gold medal) and entered the construction department of the Dagestan Polytechnic Institute. After the first year, he was drafted into the army (deferment for full-time university students was then cancelled). In 1984-1986 he served in the Strategic Missile Forces. He received the rank of senior sergeant and was the head of the Strategic Missile Forces crew. In the army I did a lot of sports - I became the champion of the division in kettlebell lifting.
Returning from the army in 1986, Kerimov transferred to the Faculty of Economics of the Dagestan State University (DSU). During his studies, he was deputy chairman of the university trade union committee. In 1989, he graduated from high school with a diploma in “Accounting and Business Analysis” and went to work at the Eltav plant of the Ministry of Electronic Industry, one of the best enterprises in the defense industry. He worked at the plant until 1995, rising from an ordinary economist to assistant general director for economic issues.
In 1995, thanks to the established circle of acquaintances among Moscow businessmen and officials, Kerimov received an offer to become deputy general director of the Soyuz-Finance company. This Moscow company worked in the domestic aviation business, raw materials industries and the banking sector. Kerimov accepted the offer.
In April 1997, Kerimov became a researcher at the International Institute of Corporations (Moscow), and in February 1999 he was appointed vice president of this non-profit organization.
It was in the 1990s that Kerimov, according to media reports, earned his initial capital. In October 1998, for $50 million, Kerimov acquired 55 percent of the shares of the investment company OJSC Nafta-Moscow (traded oil and petroleum products, was created on the basis of the Soyuznefteexport association) from its management, and within a year increased his stake in the company to 100 percent] and so became the owner of the company.
In December 1999, Kerimov was dismissed from the post of vice-president of the International Institute of Corporations in connection with his election as a deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation (he entered the Duma of the third convocation on the federal list from the Zhirinovsky Bloc).
Having become a deputy, Karimov did not retire. According to his friends, he still had full control of his company, and the source of Kerimov’s capital was the purchase of assets. At that time, according to media reports, a “soft” (without affiliated structures) business alliance developed between Kerimov and Roman Abramovich, and later business relations were established with the owner of Basic Element, Oleg Deripaska (according to some reports, the alliance existed by November 2006).
In 2000, Nafta-Moscow bought the Varyeganneftegaz company. In 2001, Kerimov, together with the structures of Abramovich and Deripaska, received a share in the business of Andrei Andreev, which consisted of more than a hundred companies: Avtobank (by 2006 it became part of the Uralsib corporation), Ingosstrakh, Ingosstrakh-Russia Insurance Company (now Russia"), Ingosstrakh-Soyuz Bank (now Soyuz), Nosta and others. At the same time, Kerimov’s company, which was once one of the largest oil traders in Russia, moved further and further from its original activities and in 2002 practically curtailed oil trading.
On December 7, 2003, Kerimov was re-elected to the State Duma. He entered the Duma of the fourth convocation on the federal list from the LDPR. The deputy was appointed deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture and Sports, and was also included in the security committee.
At the end of 2003 and in 2004, Nafta began buying land in the Moscow region on Novorizhskoye Highway. On these lands it was planned to build 2.7 million square meters of luxury housing and entertainment complexes. The cost of the project was estimated at $3 billion. The project was named the private city "Rublevo-Arkhangelskoye". By 2006, it already occupied 430 hectares of land.
In November 2005, the International Federation of United Wrestling Styles (FILA) presented Kerimov with one of the most prestigious awards - the “Golden Order”. FILA President Rafael Martinetti expressed a desire to personally present the award to the deputy in order to “express gratitude and respect to the person who supports wrestling in Russia and around the world” (by 2005, Nafta-Moscow became the general sponsor of the Russian national freestyle wrestling team).
At the end of 2005, Nafta bought Polymetal, Russia's second gold mining company, for $900 million and planned to list about 25 percent of its shares on the stock exchange. In February 2006, Kerimov decided to turn Nafta-Moscow into a full-fledged investment company, turning it into a leading private equity fund.
By 2006, Nafta, according to official data, owned more than 6 percent of the shares of Sberbank (about $1.6 billion at current prices) and more than 4 percent of the shares of Gazprom ($10.4 billion), cable television operators in Moscow and St. Petersburg - Mosteleset (Nafta owns 59 percent of the shares of the enterprise) and National Cable Networks, almost 20 percent of the shares of Bin-Bank, two percent of the shares of OJSC MGTS and 91 percent of the shares of the Krasnopresnensky Sugar Refinery Plant (in August 2006, shares of the plant, bought by Nafta from two rival companies were sold to the PIK group (according to media reports, Kerimov made money on resale.) In addition, the company owned 50 percent of the shares of the Mercado supermarket chain.
By that time, resale transactions, including in the real estate market, had become Kerimov’s strong point. In April 2006, his Nafta became a co-owner of Mosstroyekonombank, which owns Smolensky Passage, in June it gained control of the Razvitie SEC, which unites three construction companies, and in July notified the mayor of Moscow that it owns 17 percent of the holding's shares." Mospromstroy". None of these acquisitions remained with Nafta: Development was bought by Deripaska's Basic Element, Mospromstroy and Mosstroyekonombank - the BIN group.
In May 2006, Kerimov headed the Board of Trustees of the Russian Wrestling Federation. According to the president of the federation, Mikhail Mamiashvili, the decision to establish a Board of Trustees and appoint its head was made because, for the effective implementation of the tasks facing the Russian Wrestling Federation, long-term interaction with state sports management bodies and large national business structures has become crucial.
Soon after this, information appeared in the press that the Dynamo football club could be bought by Kerimov, since the owner of this club and the Fedcominvest company, Alexey Fedorychev, intended to completely abandon his sports business in Russia. This information was based on the fact that Kerimov had already tried to enter the football business more than once. In 2004, representatives of Nafta-Moscow negotiated the purchase of a controlling stake in the Italian Roma (the deal did not take place); a little later, Kerimov almost concluded an agreement with the government of the Moscow region on financing the Saturn football club (a deal worth 60 million dollars fell through at the last moment). In 2005, the Nafta-Moscow company became one of the sponsors of the Russian Football Union.
In July, Kerimov, together with Deripaska and Abramovich, acquired a stake in the state oil company Rosneft (the company that at the end of 2004 bought the former subsidiary of the Yukos oil company, Yuganskneftegaz). And in August 2006, reports appeared in the press that Nafta-Moscow intended to buy out the debts of NK YUKOS (On August 1, the Moscow Arbitration Court declared YUKOS bankrupt, and from that moment on, any third-party investor could pay off creditors " Yukos" to actually gain control over its assets). It was alleged that Kerimov negotiated such a possibility with Yukos President Stephen Theede. Later, the Nafta press service officially denied these reports.
In mid-November 2006, journalists learned that Kerimov had decided to start a hotel business in Moscow. On November 21, 2006, the Nafta company and the Moscow government announced the creation of the United Hotel Company OJSC (authorized capital - $ 2 billion), to which the shares of more than 20 hotels on the city's balance sheet were transferred (including Balchug, Metropol ", "National" and "Radisson-Slavyanskaya"). It was assumed that participation in the project would make Nafta one of the leaders in the Moscow hotel market.
In the list of the richest people in the world compiled by Forbes magazine in 2006, Kerimov took 72nd place. His fortune, according to the magazine, reached $7.1 billion. In addition, according to media reports, back in August 2005, Kerimov became one of the 50 richest Russians who have their own aircraft - he purchased a BBJ airliner (a business version of the Boeing 737-700, worth approximately $50 million).
On November 25, 2006, Kerimov was in a car accident. According to the newspaper Nice Matin, the car in which the deputy and his companion were driving along the Promenade des Anglais in Nice crashed into a tree and caught fire. Kerimov was taken to the specialized hospital de la Timone in Marseille with severe burns. According to eyewitnesses of the accident, he managed to get out of the car himself and tried to knock out the flames from his clothes. The businessman's companion, TV presenter of the STS channel Tina Kandelaki, according to journalists, suffered less. She was taken to Saint-Roch Hospital and discharged the same day.
Sources close to Kerimov told reporters that his life was not in danger. At the same time, an employee in the management of the hospital de la Timone told Vedomosti that Kerimov was connected to an artificial respiration apparatus and was in an induced coma. The doctor did not predict the patient’s condition, saying only that Kerimov “is stable and is under medical supervision.” It was also reported that in addition to burns, the deputy also received a traumatic brain injury. As for Kerimov’s companion, according to Alexander Rodnyansky, president of CTC Media (the company where Kandelaki works), on November 26 she was already in Moscow.
Initially, the investigation assumed that Kerimov, who was driving the car, lost control when he overtook. The police were inclined to this version because the speed limit on the embankment was 50 miles per hour, that is, about 70 kilometers per hour. According to the police, as a result of Kerimov's maneuver, the car - a Ferrari Enzo, worth 675 thousand euros - hit the pavement, then it was thrown into a tree, and the impact hit the gas tank.
Kandelaki did not confirm her participation in the road accident for some time, insisting that she had not been to Nice at all, but was at home in Moscow because she had contracted the mumps. Later, the TV presenter admitted that she was with Kerimov in his car, and added that she told about the mumps only to hide her relationship with the deputy. Kandelaki told reporters that a man suddenly jumped out onto the road in front of Karimov’s car. To avoid hitting him, the deputy turned the steering wheel sharply, and this caused the accident.
On December 5, 2006, the Belgian newspaper RTL, citing a representative of the Belgian Ministry of Defense, announced that Kerimov was transported to the Queen Astrid military hospital in Brussels. According to the publication, Kerimov was transported to Belgium at the request of Professor Jean-Louis Vincennes from the Erasme hospital, who even asked the Belgian Defense Minister Andre Flahaut to allocate “as an exception” a specially equipped aircraft and a team of Belgian military doctors to transport “one patient.” In addition, the professor promised that all costs associated with transportation “will be fully reimbursed by the patient or his relatives.”
On January 24, 2007, it became known that Kerimov returned to Moscow and began work. As a source close to the management of OJSC GNK (formerly Nafta-Moscow), which Kerimov owns, told the Interfax news agency, the businessman has “almost completely recovered after the accident” and “works on a daily basis and in full.”
On April 6, 2007, it became known that Kerimov wrote a statement about leaving the LDPR faction. As a representative of the State Duma Committee on Regulations stated, Kerimov did not justify his decision in any way. According to the Rules Committee, Kerimov did not write any additional statements about joining another Duma faction. On the same day, it became known that deputy Oleg Malyshkin, who ran for the presidency of Russia in 2004 from the LDPR, left the faction (and at the same time the LDPR party). The parliamentarian told reporters that he intends to continue to remain an independent deputy. Vice Speaker of the State Duma, leader of the Liberal Democrats Vladimir Zhirinovsky, commenting on Kerimov’s departure, told reporters that the reason for his departure from the faction was a gross violation of party discipline. According to Zhirinovsky, the deputy did not take proper part in election campaigns in his region.
On April 12, 2007, the media reported that Kerimov wrote another statement - this time about joining the United Russia faction (its consideration was scheduled for April 17).
On April 19, 2007, the Russian version of Forbes magazine published a ranking of the richest citizens of Russia. The list of the hundred richest Russians was headed by Chukotka Governor Roman Abramovich, whose fortune by the spring of 2007 reached $19.2 billion. Kerimov took seventh place with $12.8 billion.
On May 11, 2007, it became known that the presidium of the United Russia faction decided to accept the deputy into the faction. Formally, the issue of accepting Kerimov should have been discussed at a meeting of subgroups of factions, but in fact the issue could already be considered resolved.
In December 2007, Kerimov was elected as a representative of the People's Assembly of Dagestan in the Federation Council. His candidacy was supported by all 56 deputies present at the meeting of the republican parliament. The speaker of the Dagestan parliament, Magomed Suleymanov, proposed electing Kerimov. According to him, Kerimov is a fairly well-known politician who “provides support to Dagestan, especially to the republic’s athletes.” On February 20, 2008, Kerimov became a senator: the Federation Council confirmed his powers as a representative of the People's Assembly of Dagestan.
In June 2008, the Kommersant newspaper reported that structures controlled by Kerimov sold large stakes in Gazprom and Sberbank that they owned. The share price at the beginning of the year was $15.37 and $5.4 billion, respectively. The newspaper also reported that Kerimov’s structures “sold or are negotiating the sale” of other Russian assets of the businessman - the company Metronom AG, the operator of the Mercado supermarket chain (sold to X5 Retail Group in the fall of 2007 for $200 million), National Telecommunications (the acquirer was the National Media Group, the main shareholder of which was Bank Rossiya of Yuri Kovalchuk) and shares in the Polymetal company (the founder of the ICT group Alexander Nesis, as well as Russian financier Alexander Mamut and structures of the Czech fund PPF were mentioned as acquirers). In addition, according to Kommersant’s sources, Kerimov was going to sell the elite village of Rublevo-Arkhangelskoye, which is under construction. After the sale of land, telecommunications, metallurgical and other assets, according to the publication, the businessman should have virtually no investments left in Russia. It was also reported that Kerimov would invest the funds freed up as a result of the sale of Russian assets in foreign financial institutions (according to the newspaper, at that time he had already acquired about 3 percent of the shares of Deutsche Bank, as well as securities of Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, UBS).
However, in February 2009, information about Kerimov’s acquisitions in Russia was published. It was reported that his Nafta-Moscow became the owner of 75 percent of Glavstroy SPb, a company that in St. Petersburg owns development projects of the Glavstroy corporation (the construction division of Deripaska's Basic Element). A source close to Kerimov’s company from the Kommersant newspaper, which reported on the purchase, confirmed that Nafta-Moscow was “interested in consolidating” all shares of Glavstroy SPb LLC, whose portfolio of projects was estimated at 6 million square meters of various real estate. In the same month, it became known that the Moscow government offered Nafta-Moscow a controlling stake in Dekmos OJSC, which was engaged in the construction of the Moscow Hotel. However, Nafta-Moskva gained partial control over Dekmos OJSC only in January 2010, when it acquired 50 percent of the shares of Konk Select Partners, a company that owned 51 percent of Dekmos OJSC shares.
In March 2009, Kommersant reported that the owner of the Interros holding, Vladimir Potanin, was selling 22 percent of the shares of Polyus Gold OJSC to Kerimov's structures. The amount of the transaction was not reported, but the newspaper provided data on the value of Polyus shares based on market quotes on the date of the transaction - 22 percent cost $1.42 billion. Analysts agreed that Kerimov acquired these assets “for a certain period for further resale.” In June, the leadership of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) announced that the purchase of a stake in Polyus Gold by Kerimov's company was approved by the government commission on foreign investment. In July 2009, when Polyus Gold revealed its ownership structure, it became known that Kerimov is the beneficiary of 36.88 percent of the company's shares: it was reported that he controls this stake through Wandle Holdings Limited. Despite the fact that 24.59 percent of the shares from this block were sold under a repo transaction (a type of loan, a transaction for the sale of securities with a mandatory subsequent repurchase of securities of the same issue in the same quantity after a certain period at a predetermined, higher price - editor's note), Kerimov retained the right to vote on it. It was not reported with whom the repurchase agreement was concluded and when the businessman has the right to return these shares. In February 2010, Polyus Gold, which Kerimov actually owned together with Mikhail Prokhorov, acquired 11.4 percent of the shares of RBC Information Systems OJSC, the parent company of the RBC media holding.
Subsequently, Kerimov continued to buy up Russian development companies. Thus, in April 2009, one of the country's largest developers - the PIK group of companies - officially admitted that Nafta-Moscow had received 25 percent of its shares and submitted a petition to the FAS to purchase another 20 percent of PIK. In May of the same year, a source from the Vedomosti newspaper reported that Nafta Co. Kerimova became a co-owner of the Moscow Voentorg, and several of its representatives joined the board of directors of CJSC Trading House TSVUM, which owns Voentorg. In August, the financial director of Nafta Co. confirmed the information that Nafta Co. owns almost 100 percent of CJSC Trading House TSVUM (Voentorg). He added that the deal was closed in the fall of 2008. Amount it was not named, but Vedomosti's source reported that the department store cost Kerimov's company approximately $300 million - with the condition that it would enter the project only after the reconstruction of Voentorg was completed.
Suleiman Kerimov is the youngest child in the family. He has a brother, a doctor by profession, and a sister, a teacher of Russian language and literature. Kerimov's parents and other relatives live in Moscow. The entrepreneur's wife Firuza Kerimova is the daughter of a CPSU functionary; According to some reports, it was to his marriage with her that Kerimov owed much of his early career. According to various sources, Suleiman and Firuza have two or three children. Pop singer Natalya Vetlitskaya, who, according to some sources, has a daughter from him, was also mistakenly indicated as Kerimov’s wife. In 2008, it was reported that another passion of Kerimov, designer Katya Gomiashvili, was expecting a daughter from him.