Name: Andrey Guryev (1960).
Position: Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of PJSC PhosAgro
Education: St. Petersburg State Mining Institute named after
G.V. Plekhanov (“Economics and Management at the enterprise in the mining industry and geological exploration”) and the State Central Institute of Physical Culture,
specializing in “physical culture and sports.”
Capital: the owner of the largest stake in PJSC PhosAgro
Partners: Igor Antoshin, Vladimir Litvinenko.
• 1978 to 1987 Judo instructor and secretary of the Komsomol organization at sports and fitness society Dynamo
• 1987 to 1990 heads the Frunzensky District Committee of the Komsomol (Moscow).
• 1990 to 1995 Deputy Director of the International Financial Association MENATEP.
• 1995 to 2000 Head of the Department of Mining and Chemical Production, Deputy General Manager of CJSC ROSPROM
• 2000 to 2001 is the head of the Samoylov Scientific and Research Institute for Fertilizers and Insectofungicides
• 2001 to June 2013, a member of the Federation Council from the executive body of state power in the Murmansk region.
• Since June 2013, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of PJSC PhosAgro.
• Vice-President of the Russian Union of Chemists,
Chairman of the DROZD programme (Educated and Healthy Children of Russia)
Master of sports of international class in judo, honored coach of Russia.
• Awarded with the Order of Honor, Honorary Diploma of the President of the Russian Federation, Honorary Diploma of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation and Russian Orthodox Church Orders.
In the education section of his official resume can be found one crucial detail. First, the Mining Institute is noted and the Institute of Physical Culture after it. In life, it was the other way around. By education, Guryev is an athlete who has spent his entire life in Moscow. But the second time he received education at the Mining Institute, where the rector is his business partner in PhosAgro – V. Litvinenko. As it is known, since 1994, the Mining Institute has organized the production of doctoral candidate and doctoral dissertations and diplomas for money, or for high officials and that reached even industrial volume. Rector Litvinenko personally did a dissertation for Putin in 1997, which later turned out to be plagiarism. It is likely that the miner diploma for Guriev was also obtained in approximately the same way.
The fact that Andrei Guryev is the majority shareholder of one of the most significant Russian holdings for the production of fertilizers PhosAgro has been known for a long time. The businessman was once a partner of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whom he had known since the 1980s. When hard times came in the life of the Yukos owner, the block of shares passed over to the management of PhosAgro. The main asset of this company is the Murmansk plant of the apatite concentrate “Apatite” production, built in the Soviet years. Andrey Guryev once headed the board of directors of this enterprise. What is the price the senator around the millennium paid for the shares of the chemical holding company from the Menatep group – is unknown? Legal owners sold the shares at a deliberately low price. Guryev and Litvinenko directly participated in the acquisition of shares of the super-profitable enterprise, exerting pressure on the legitimate owners through threats and blackmail.
The Khodorkovsky case began with Apatit. The former leader of Menatep Platon Lebedev was arrested on charges of embezzlement of the plant’s shares and concealment of taxes.
During the proceeding of the criminal case against Khodorkovsky and Lebedev, the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow established the following sequence of actions of Andrei Guriev:
1. A. Guriev in 1996 became a member of the Board of Directors of JSC Apatite.
2. In 1999 an agreement between Khodorkovsky and Guryev was concluded on the creation of a united mining holding.
3. The functions of selling apatite concentrate were transferred to a representative of CJSC Rosprom, namely to A. Guryev.
4. The profit from the sale of apatite concentrate was distributed as follows: 50% to Khodorkovsky – 50% to the manager’s team of Guriev.
5. Revenues from sales of products received on the accounts of CJSC Apatit-Trade became the property of the managerial group of A. Guriev.
6. The management group of Guriev controls the fake Swiss company APATIT FERTILIZERS S.A.
7. A. Krainov provided front-line firms to Guriev’s management team (Varyag Ltd, Askold-Sever Ltd., Fosko Ltd and Phosphate Trading House Ltd, Fostrade Ltd, Fosmarket Ltd, Agrochemical Company Ltd, Agrokhimkorporatsiya Ltd, and Agrokhimtrade Ltd) for apatite concentrates’ documentation movement with the purpose of lowering the cost of product and subsequent appropriation of revenues from the sale of product.
Taking into account all of the above, we can summarize that the numerous volumes of the criminal case on which M. Khodorkovsky and P. Lebedev were convicted give more than enough material for Senator Andrei Guryev to appear in front of the court.
But Guriev did not go to trial, because he received protection from Litvinenko, a man from the closest associates of Putin.
Moreover, Guryev began to control all PhosAgro and becomes more prosperous every year.
Information from Forbes.
200 wealthiest businessmen of Russia (Andrey Guryev – place, year, wealth)
|
26 место |
2017 |
$4500 млн. |
|
25 место |
2016 |
$3600 млн. |
|
28 место |
2015 |
$3500 млн. |
|
32 место |
2014 |
$3400 млн. |
|
28 место |
2013 |
$4000 млн. |
|
29 место |
2012 |
$3500 млн. |
|
41 место |
2011 |
$2300 млн. |
In 1991, the realtor company Lars was established where 30% belonged to Guriev and 70% to the Menatep group. The firm was engaged in the construction and reconstruction of buildings in the center of Moscow. In particular, Lars built a complex of Menatep buildings on Kolpachny Lane.
Together with his family, he owns the fertilizer producer PJSC PhosAgro (48.48%) and AgroGard holding (agriculture). Under the management of AgroGuard there are around 150’000 hectares of land.
Gurievs’ heir is his son Andrey Guriev – Chairman of the Board, General Manager, member of the board of directors of PJSC PhosAgro.
In February 2017, the company controlled by Guriev and his family members sold 4.5% of shares of PhosAgro for 14.9 billion rubles and then bought 2.7% of shares from another shareholder – Igor Antoshin.
The Gurievs’ family real estate is the beneficiaries of the trust investing in real estate. Among the acquisitions of the faith is the famous London mansion Witanhurst.
Holding PJSC PhosAgro places shares on the London Stock Exchange. At the same time, grandiose schemes of tax avoidance are being carried out inside the organization. This is done with the encouragement of the Russian authorities because it is merely impossible not to notice the use of these illegal schemes.
Guriev and his companions Litvinenko and Antoshin are intensively investing the illegal capital in the real estate abroad (in Cyprus, London).
Here is one of the examples of these “investments”:
The New Yorker published an article on the London estate Witanhurst, the largest mansion in London after Buckingham Palace and quite possibly the most expensive one, as for today its cost is estimated at around 450 million dollars.
Many famous people have owned this mansion including English aristocrats and the family of Assad Bashar.
In 2008, it was sold offshore, and rumors started that the new owner was someone from Russia. The mansion was attributed to both Putin and Baturina, but the real owner of the 25-bedroom house remained unknown.
Since 2008, the estate has been renovated – the greenhouse and ‘some underground catacombs’ with a swimming pool, home cinema, servants’ premises, etc. are being completed.
Neighbors do not know who the owner is. So does local authorities and thousands of Londoners walking by every day do not know either. The New Yorker conducted an investigation and was able to find the mysterious owner of the mansion – it is Andrei Grigoryevich Guryev, a man who for 12 (!!!) years has been a senator from the Murmansk region, has never spoken in public in these 12 years, has not given a single interview and in 2013 left the Federation Council due to the decision to concentrate on business again.
In none of the available declarations of Guriev, his estate in London can be found.
Declaration of 2012
There is as well another apartment in London, which, according to The New Yorker, also belongs to the Guryevs’ offshore. And this apartment is not declared anywhere as well.
This is a three-story apartment in one of the elite residential complexes. The condo was purchased in 2008 for 7 million pounds and also recorded on the same offshore, located at the same address as the offshore for the mansion.
Guryev successfully hid these two assets. They, undoubtedly, should have been indicated in the declarations, if not in the property (offshore), then certainly in the use section. Also on the pages of this The New Yorker article, you can find the name of the well-known Andrei Yakunin, the son of V. Yakunin, Putin’s companion in the KGB, the chief of Russian Railways in the recent past.
It turned out that he lives very close to Guriev.
Recently, the so-called Kremlin list was published in the USA, and it includes Andrei Guriev as Number 29.
All of the above suggests that Guryev is one of Putin’s and his family “purses.”
Using illegal schemes for personal enrichment, realized through the assets of the company that places shares on the LSE, this person along with his accomplices Litvinenko and Antoshin, laundries a massive amount of financial resources in the territories and jurisdictions of Western countries.
Taking into account such activity of Guryev, there are all the grounds for including this person in the sanctions lists.
