Name: Nikolaev Aleksandr Borisovich
Current location: Russia
Citizenship: USSR/Russia
Family status: Married, has two daughters.
Aleksandr Nikolaev is a co-owner of one of the largest Russian alcohol companies Aliance 1892 and distributing company “Trade House 2A” (he also relates to other companies including “ENERGOARM”, Project Financing Bank (BPF), “RUSSIAN RAILROAD ROUTES”). The businesman Aleksandr Nikolaev evaded his including onto the sanction list of legal entities and individuals by Treasury department of the United States, despite his illegal position of co-owner of the company located in the occupied Crimea. Nikolaev’s main business partners are already on the list and there is every reason to suppose that Nikolaev is their proxy.
A distillery and production plant which Nikolaev uses in Ukraine, the Novy Svet plant in the occupied Crimea, is illegally owned and operated by Yury Kovalchuk, who is also under sanctions[1].
This creates the opportunity for Titov, Kovalchuk, Trade House 2A, and Alliance 1892, as well as others distributing through Trade House 2A, or those who funnel money through Nikolaev, to break sanctions regime aimed at enterprises at the occupied territory.
There is every reason to believe that Aleksandr Nikolaev carries out money laundering services: Roman Trotsenko, ex-owner of the Project Financing Bank (BPF), where Nikolaev was included into the Director Board, was investigated for money laundering [2].
Trotsenko is also on the Treasury department’s sanctions list.
To recap – Oligarchs Titov, Trotsenko, Kovalchuk, and any of their trusted associates, can bypass the sanctions by working through Nikolaev.
Details
At the end of January, the US Department of the Treasury sent to Congress the ostensibly public part of the “Kremlin report” – a list of Russian officials and businessmen against whom US sanctions may be applied. [3]
Missing from the list still are a good number of Russian businessmen who are not as public as the defendants of the report, but no less influential and carrying out very questionable operations.
Among those is Alexander Nikolaev, co-owner of one of the largest Russian alcohol companies, “Alliance 1892”.
Moreover, Mr. Nikolayev has a history of doing business with people from the Treasury Department’s sanctions list, including Mr. Roman Trotsenko.
The first affair involving Mr. Nikolayev occurred in December of 2013, when the Russian Central Bank revoked the license from a certain “Project Financing Bank” [4] for money laundering. Mr. Nikolaev was formally a member of the board of directors, and informally represented the interests of the real owner of the bank, Roman Trotsenko. Mr. Trotsenko is a large Russian businessman involved in a lot of dubious operations and is indeed included in the list of the US Department of the Treasury [5]
The case of the revocation of the license from the bank turned out to be highly questionable – the state-appointed provisional administration found empty accounts and information was completely erased from the servers [6]. From this we understand that Mr. Nikolaev knows how to sweep his traces.
The alcohol company, Alliance 1892, co-owned by Nikolaev, also has a business practice that raises some potential problems. For example, in 2016, together with the largest Russian producer of champagne “Abrau-Durso”, they created the distribution company “Trade House 2A” [7]
“Abrau-Durso” is a family enterprise of the Presidential Commissioner for Entrepreneurs’ Rights, Boris Titov. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Titov is also a person who appears on the sanctions list of the Department of the Treasury.
Moreover, “Trade House 2A” does not hesitate to sell champagne produced at the “Novy Svet” plant [8], in Crimea, annexed by Russia. The plant itself, actually stolen from Ukraine and included in the EU sanctions list [9], was bought by billionaire Yury Kovalchuk, who is also under sanctions, at the end of 2017 [10]
“Alliance 1892” again found itself in the epicenter of the scandal – in early March, Russian security officials conducted searches at the company’s office in Moscow [11].
As reported by Russian media, the reasons for these events are still unknown. But two specific details lead to suspicions that they were done by Alexander Nikolaev.
First, the search was conducted by the employees of the Administration for Economic Security and Combating the Corruption, who are the elite of the Russian police, specializing in unraveling the most complex financial schemes of the underworld.
Secondly, Alliance 1892 has still not commented publicly on these events – obviously, the owners of the company simply have nothing to say to the public.
According to Russian law enforcement agencies, there are at least two reasons:
The first – the case of embezzlement of money from government agencies within the framework of the bankruptcy of the taxi company “Asap” at the suit of the state-owned company “VEB-leasing” [12].
Alexander Nikolaev is the main beneficiary of Asap through the offshore Awendale Resources Inc., which is controlled by him, and is registered in Seychelles.
Mr. Nikolaev owns (alone or with partners) a whole network of offshore companies around the world. Among them:
- Peregrina Ventures Limited (Cyprus),
- Pilgrefin B.V. (Netherlands),
- Poitiers Enterprises Limited (Cyprus),
- Les Boissons Royales (Republic of Seychelles),
- Awendale Resources Inc (Republic of Seychelles),
- Melward Investments Limited (Cyprus),
- RRR Holdings Limited (Cyprus),
- SAS Distillerie Tessendier Fils (France),
- Tropic of Capricorn (Republic of Seychelles),
- Aggonar Holdings Limited,
- Lakvero Holdings Limited (Cyprus),
- Esperodal Holdings Limited.
The second reason is tax evasion in the production and sale of alcohol products and the laundering of money obtained via criminal means. The concealment by Alliance 1892 of taxable profits in the amount of more than 159 million rubles (more than $2.7 million USD) is only one of the Court decisions.
Moreover, Alexandr Nikolaev has some interest in the United States. In particular, at the end of 2017, on behalf of one of his companies, with the assistance of a New York law firm, a lawsuit was lodged in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to force the disclosure of information in accordance with Section 1782 of Title 28 of U.S Code. This section allows parties to obtain information from any person or company who is in the jurisdiction of the federal district court, without reference to an international treaty or other international agreement. In this case, deliberately false information about existing criminal and arbitration proceedings in Russia, in which Nikolaev’s company allegedly acts as an aggrieved party, was used and appended to the application. During the trial in the US court, Nikolaev demanded disclosure by large banks, including American banks, including Citibank N.A. New York, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, Bank of America N.A.
Thus, Mr. Nikolaev, using the American system of justice, obtained the information under false pretexts – filing a frivolous suit which allowed him access to otherwise protected information – which he was interested in at the expense of unsuspecting American lawyers and judges.
We believe that the actions of this person deserves deep attention from the US and EU officials.
References:
[1] https://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl23331.aspx
[2] https://www.rospres.com/hearsay/14128/
[3] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-30/u-s-releases-sweeping-list-of-russian-billionaires-officials
[5] https://assets.bwbx.io/documents/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/rJRW6xrdtLJE/v0
[6] http://www.banki.ru/news/lenta/?id=5984867
[7] https://www.rbc.ru/business/01/09/2016/57c851319a794790b9c479e8
[8] http://www.forbes.ru/news/299785-abrau-dyurso-nachnet-prodavat-shampanskoe-svoego-konkurenta-iz-kryma
[9] http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/economic/421880.html
[10] https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/3502420
[11] https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2018/03/05/75700-chto-ischet-politsiya
[12] https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/3542336
[13] http://vsrf.ru/stor_pdf_ec.php?id=1582862
Aleksandr Nikolaev’s companies:
