Alisher Usmanov's criminal record: rape, extortion, embezzlement or fraud? The criminal regime washes away its past. Putin allowed crooks and thieves to clean up the Internet according to Kabbalah recipes For which we are judging Usmanov

Conviction is Usmanov's corn guarded by the army of lawyers

Akhmirova Rimma

"You cannot become famous for good deeds" - this motto of the old woman Shapoklyak was denied by businessman Alisher Usmanov. He became widely known precisely after he returned to Russia cartoons (about Shapoklyak too) and the collection of Russian art by Vishnevskaya and Rostropovich.

Prosecutor's son

The biography of Alisher Usmanov himself is such that it is possible to shoot not a cartoon, but a whole series based on it. The future millionaire was born in the modest city of Chust, Namangan region of Uzbekistan, into a large family by Soviet standards - four children, of which Alisher was the oldest. The future businessman spent his childhood in Tashkent, where his father, a prosecutor's officer, was transferred to work. Soon, my father became the head of the city prosecutor's office, and through the public line he somehow took care of school education. Naturally, his children went to the best school in Tashkent.

“It was prestigious to come to us, and Alisher was still in the physics and mathematics class,” said the director of the Tashkent school Sayhida Yakubzhanova. - His grades were only good and excellent, his father brought them up strictly.

The "golden boy" and hobbies were not easy. While still at school, he enrolled in the fencing section. It was an aristocratic and rather exotic sport for Asia. There is no trace of it in present-day Uzbekistan, sports officials from Tashkent told me. And people, simpler than me, simply asked: "And what is fencing?" Usmanov has a love for "subtle" types of activity. He can still be seen at ballet or at the opera, but not at parties in Courchevel. And training with a sword was not in vain for him: Usmanov became the champion of Uzbekistan in fencing, acquired skills useful for business and life (the main principle of a fencer is to avoid an open fight), and most importantly, he met his future wife in the gym - a famous trainer in art gymnastics by Irina Viner.

Prisoner

Usmanov received his higher education in Moscow, in one of the most prestigious universities of the Soviet era - MGIMO. With one of his classmates, the notorious Sergei Yastrzhembsky, he has been friends all his life. Usmanov even lived in Yastreb's apartment at one time, while Yastrzhembsky himself worked abroad. After MGIMO Usmanov returned to Tashkent, became a Komsomol worker and enthusiastically built socialism.

- He did not have any inclinations for business, - says a colleague in the Komsomol Bakhodir Yuldashev. - He believed in the Soviet distribution system and worked for its prosperity. I remember how he ran at speed all the time across the floors of the Central Committee of the Komsomol - then he was a completely different build: graceful, fit and nimble. He could find a common language with everyone. Very sociable.

This quality - to get along with everyone, not to quarrel with anyone - Usmanov later transferred to business. Although in his industry - metallurgy - the giants fought black.

- I prefer to deal with the entire business community - if you lose, then a little to everyone, if you win, then everyone also has a little.

This tactic of Usmanov is bearing fruit. Gentle and smiling, he has outlived the tough and unyielding titans.

- I am a businessman against my will, - Usmanov likes to say a mysterious phrase. And in fact, the path to big money was more than winding for him. In 1980, the son of the prosecutor Alisher Usmanov ended up in prison. He and the son of the deputy KGB of Uzbekistan were accused of extortion. After a high-profile trial, the fathers lost their posts, and the children received 8 years in prison. The circumstances of the case are vague, and his materials have been destroyed: in July 2000, already a successful businessman, Usmanov obtained the recognition of the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan that his case was fabricated.

Alisher Usmanov spent 6 years in the colony - he was released ahead of time "for good behavior and sincere repentance."

Failed Spy

Yesterday's prisoner had to put an end to the Komsomol and the career of an international lawyer. Business remained.

Thanks to good family ties, Usmanov ended up at the helm of several commercial companies, among which was the organization of vip hunting for rare animals in the Pamirs. Once Usmanov realized that the hunt had begun for him. A wealthy foreign client is said to have unequivocally recruited an Uzbek businessman for a foreign intelligence agency. Usmanov did not agree to spy, but on the contrary, revealed to the KGB the criminal plan of the enemies. They say that it was on this "espionage" basis that Usmanov met an employee, and in the future, an influential KGB general and head of Rosvooruzheniye Yevgeny Ananiev.

The Chekist and his ward will meet again and again. After moving to Moscow, Usmanov organized a workshop for the production of cellophane bags, which almost burned out during one of the checks. Ananyev seems to have come to the rescue. Having escaped the second landing, Usmanov entered a new stage in business - he successively created several banks, on the board of which the generals of the SVR and the KGB sat. Friendship with the security forces turned out to be useful for business, but did not prevent Usmanov from creating another financial company, the founders of which were individuals who appeared in newspaper publications as members of the Solntsevo group. "He knows how to get along with everyone."

Philanthropist

In 1997, Usmanov made a timely turn towards "eternal values" - he chose gas and metal, acting on the principle: gas - to the country, metal - to himself. The then head of Gazprom, Rem Vyakhirev, entrusted Usmanov with a delicate mission: to return to the state corporation the assets that were sold to private pockets. This was done by a specially created Gazprominvestholding. Usmanov coped with the task so successfully that he stayed with Gazprom even after the change of the head and almost the entire team.

Usmanov stumbled only once - when he launched a "raider attack" on the famous Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Plant. Usmanov has just seriously taken up the metallurgical topic, and such a trump card in the deck, like Magnitka, would have made him invincible. True, he did not take into account that the head of Magnitka regularly goes downhill skiing with President Vladimir Putin. Usmanov quickly realized who he had “crossed the track” to, he didn’t even look towards Magnitka any more, and after a while he firmly demonstrated the “social responsibility” of his business - he bought Soviet cartoons from American captivity. But the MULTI-millionaire did not see the fabulous life. Former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, Mr. Murray, never tires of exposing Mr. Usmanov, especially after a Russian businessman announced that he was going to buy the English football club Arsenal. The ex-ambassador recalled everything to the richest Uzbek - and the conviction in his youth, and the closeness to the ruling clan of Uzbekistan, and the deal with the rich and influential daughter of the president of this eastern country, Gulnara Karimova, and the acquaintance with controversial persons like Sergei Mikhailov, nicknamed Mikhas. A criminal record is Usmanov's corn, which is carefully guarded by an army of specially hired lawyers. Through their efforts, the Internet blog with the ambassador's revelations was closed.

Some experts believe that Usmanov's outburst of charity is a screen to distract attention from the British scandal, as well as from his firm intentions to break into the “metallurgical kings” of Russia and his desire to acquire a foreign football club (for a similar purchase, Roman Abramovich is still hiccuped). But it is unlikely that Usmanov suffers heavily from the money spent on charity - they say that he was not stingy before. He made expensive gifts to the best pupils of his wife - gymnasts: someone a car, someone an apartment.

What Usmanov owns

Metallurgical holding "Metalloinvest"

Publishing house "Kommersant"

75% of the Muz-TV channel

23% of the English football club Arsenal

THE TRIAL OF ALISHER USMANOV: RAPE, EXTORTION, THEFT OR FRAUD? Cleaning up the past billionaire Alisher Usmanov is a dollar billionaire. The son of the prosecutor of the city of Tashkent. In August 1980, he was sentenced by the Military Tribunal of the Turkestan Military District to eight years in a forced labor camp. In 1986, Usmanov was released on parole, and subsequently, through the family of President Islam Karimov, he cleared information about his criminal record. In 2000, the billionaire was officially rehabilitated by the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan, at the same time, the Uzbek archives stopped storing all the documents compromising Usmanov. As a result, Usmanov's past has changed over the years. Earlier in Uzbekistan, according to the British Ambassador to Tashkent, Craig Murray, most of his Uzbek interlocutors were well aware that Alisher Usmanov was convicted on several episodes and several articles of the Criminal Code, including for gang rape that occurred during an alcoholic party for the children of senior republican officials. According to the data, before the purge of Usmanov's past, which was constantly published in the press, the second episode had a military specificity - the future businessman, together with his friend, the son of the Deputy Chairman of the KGB of the Uzbek SSR, the operative of special departments of the KGB, Bakhadyr Nasymov, extorted 30 thousand rubles from army officer Andrei Mayorov. The arrest of his son ended in the collapse of the career of the father of one of the convicts, major general of the KGB, deputy chairman of the KGB of Uzbekistan, Muhammad-Amin Nasymov. Another close friend of the current billionaire, with whom they spent their lives together in Tashkent, was the son of the future first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan and chairman of the Council of Nationalities of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Rafik Nishanov, Sobir Nishanov. Now he is employed by Usmanov on the board of directors of OJSC Telecominvest, through which the oligarch controls the mobile operator Megafon. Alisher Usmanov now claims that he was convicted only of “fraud and embezzlement”. It is curious, however, that the convict promised to publish a copy of the judgment, even in its newest version, but did not dare to do so. In addition, the oligarch says that he became a victim of political repression in the totalitarian USSR, since his father, being the prosecutor of Tashkent, fell under the wheel of checks of Gdlyan and Ivanov. In 2007, Usmanov told the Guardian newspaper that a special operation was carried out against Bakhadyr Nasimov: “His bosses ordered to accept a bribe from a guy involved in smuggling in order to catch him red-handed ... Nasimov told me that since the guy knew that we were friends , he might try to give me money. “If he does it, take it,” he said, “and bring it to me.” This story does not stand up to criticism. In February 1983, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU adopted a resolution to investigate abuses in cotton growing in Uzbekistan and instructed the USSR Prosecutor General's Office to create an investigation Commission headed by Telman Gdlyan and Nikolai Ivanov. On April 25, she arrived in Tashkent in full force and began large-scale work on the investigation of criminal cases, which was called the “cotton case.” In other words, Alisher Umanov was convicted three years before the start of Gdlyan's activities and Ivanov, as a result of which, according to him, a criminal record was allegedly fabricated.The Arsenal football club tried to verify the story of its Russian shareholder and sent a private detective to Tashkent, instructing him to establish the structure of the businessman's crimes. authorities.http: //www.rospres.com/politics/10189/ PS. "Chic" biography of one of the pillars of modern immemorial oligarchy, the closest circle of the president. The patron, probably, with her patronage, forgives the sins of youth.

On May 26, the press service of Alisher Usmanov accused Alexei Navalny of a "triple lie" and that he did not provide evidence of his earlier words that the businessman was convicted of rape. For the first time, such information appeared back in 2007 in the blog of the former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray. His blog was blocked, and the billionaire was involved in a scandal with British bloggers

Alisher Usmanov (Photo: Denis Sinyakov / Reuters)

Who is Craig Murray

Former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan. He held this post from 2002 to 2004, leaving it with a scandal. In 2006, he published the book Murder in Samarkand, in which he accused then-President Islam Karimov of human rights violations, torture and murder. “Trying to tell the truth about Uzbekistan cost me my job. Continuing these attempts, I found myself in the Kafkaesque world, ”Murray told The Washington Post.

How Craig Murray and Alisher Usmanov are related

In April, on the air on the Navalny.Live channel, Navalny, talking about Usmanov, stated : “In the 1990s he served, in my opinion, six years in Uzbekistan for either rape or fraud, therefore, firstly, Alisher Usmanov, of course, is legally a criminal and was a criminal.” Later, on another broadcast, on May 18, Navalny explained where the information about Usmanov's accusation of rape came from: “Fortunately, I did not sit with him in the same cell in an Uzbek prison, but the story about rape is a book by the British Ambassador to Uzbekistan. those times. This man is a historian by profession, he is now teaching history. I completely trust the British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, who described all this, who wrote that Usmanov was imprisoned for rape. "

In 1980, the military tribunal of Uzbekistan Usmanov to eight years in prison (of which he served six) on economic charges - for fraud and complicity in receiving a bribe (rape, as the businessman said in his video, was not mentioned in the documents). In 2000, Usmanov was rehabilitated.

On the morning of May 18, a preliminary hearing on Usmanov's claim began in the Lublin Court. At the same time, Usmanov posted a video message to Navalny on the VKontakte social network.

“You are lying that I am a criminal and trying to hide the fact that I was in prison. Unlike you, I spent six years in prison on a really fabricated case - for the plundering of socialist property, ”the businessman said. Navalny went live on his YouTube channel and that he was not going to apologize to Usmanov for allegations of corruption and tax evasion, and reproached the billionaire for not providing documents to prove his words.

On the morning of May 26, the press service of Usmanov was a video message from Navalny, accusing him of "triple lies" The press service recalled that in his second video message, the businessman gave an example of Navalny's “concrete false” statement that the billionaire was serving a sentence in prison for rape. Usmanov's representatives pointed out that Navalny found information about the rape in a book by former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray. “There is no such data in the specified book, which can be easily checked by anyone, since the book is in the public domain,” the press service said.

Navalny reacted to this on Twitter.

Fugitive convict Alisher Usmanov emigrated from Russia.

The owner of the USM holding, close to the Solntsevo community Alisher Usmanov was born in the family of the prosecutor of the Soviet city of Tashkent. In August 1980, Usmanov was sentenced to eight years in a forced labor camp by the Military Tribunal of the Turkestan Military District. In 1986 he was released on parole; after the collapse of the USSR, he cleared information about his criminal record. In 2000, the billionaire was rehabilitated by the Supreme Court of independent Uzbekistan, at the same time the Uzbek archives ceased to store all documents compromising the oligarch.

As a result, the tycoon turned out to be a man with an unpredictable past. According to Ambassador of Great Britain in Tashkent, earlier, most of his Uzbek interlocutors were well aware - Usmanov was convicted, among other things, of gang rape that occurred during an alcohol party for the children of senior republican officials. Before cleaning up the archives, the business press repeatedly mentionedthat the second episode of the Usmanov case had a military specificity - the future businessman, together with his friend, the son of the deputy chairman of the KGB of the Uzbek SSR, extorted 30 thousand rubles from an army officer. The investigation ended with the collapse of the career of the father of the accomplice - Major General of the KGB Muhammad-Amin Nasymov.

Now Alisher Usmanov claims that he was convicted only for “fraud and embezzlement”. The billionaire has been promising to publish the latest Uzbek version of the old court judgment for several years, but he still cannot.

The problem is that Usmanov emigrated from Russia to the West last year. In Switzerland, Monaco, Germany, Italy and other countries where a native of sunny Tashkent now lives, the real biography of the guest is well known.

In Moscow, the oligarch is rare, the border crosses through his own and others "Solntsevsky" airport Vnukovo. This week the press service of the USM holding announced that the main shareholder has already ceased to be a tax resident of the Russian Federation. In his new homeland, Alisher Usmanov "concentrated on sports and philanthropic activities", which he is engaged in on his 156-meter yacht Dilbar... “For this reason, as well as for medical reasons, in 2015, he did not spend 183 days in Russia required by the Tax Code of the Russian Federation to confirm the status of a tax resident of Russia,” USM says.

In recent years, Alisher Usmanov, as an individual, has paid $ 350 million in taxes in Russia - for the oligarch's capital, this amount is scanty.

“Because he [Usmanov] has lost his tax resident status, he is losing some of the responsibilities that he used to have,” senior lawyer Herbert Smith Freehills explained to RBC. “For example, under the law on controlled foreign companies, if earlier he had to notify about them and pay taxes on their profits, now he should not do this. If you are not a resident, you pay tax in Russia only on certain types of income, such as dividends, royalties, etc., ”said the lawyer.

Emigration may require Alisher Usmanov to change the ownership structure of his key media asset - the Kommersant publishing house, which the businessman personally owns through Kommersant Holding LLC. According to the federal law “On the Procedure for Making Foreign Investments in Business Companies of Strategic Importance for Ensuring the Defense of the Country and Security of the State”, a citizen of Russia who is not a tax resident of Russia is automatically equated to the number of foreign investors. As a result, in relation to the emigrant Alisher Usmanov, restrictions should be introduced, provided for by Article 7 of Law No. 2124-I "On the Mass Media". The most dangerous of them, lawyers say, is the reduction in the specific share of Usmanov's shares in Russian media to 20%.

In the legal department of the publishing house "Kommersant" they assure that the change of tax residency will not lead to a change in the capital structure. According to the editorial staff, “the provisions of the Federal Law No. 57“ On Foreign Investments ”relate to upcoming transactions of foreign investors to acquire control in strategic media. Usmanov has been the owner of Kommersant for a long time. As for Article 19.1 of the Law "On Mass Media" (restricts the participation of foreigners in the capital of the media at the level of 20%), this law does not apply the concept of a non-resident at all. "

Alisher Usmanov remains the ultimate beneficiary of 53.05% of New Media Holding LLC (other blocks of shares - from his partner Ivana Tavrin). The holding unites TV channels "Yu", Disney, "Muz TV" and 75% "CTC Media"... Through the USM holding, the businessman and his partners own 15.2% of the Internet company Mail.Ru Group (social networks "In contact with" and Odnoklassniki). At the same time, the voting share of USM in Mail.Ru Group is 63.8%.

In Russia, domestic tax residents pay taxes on their worldwide income. People who are not Russian residents must pay in the country only taxes on income from domestic Russian sources. According to the law on the taxation of controlled foreign companies (CFC), which has been in effect since 2015, Russians are required to notify the tax authorities that they have a share of more than 10% in such a company. If the share of a shareholder in a CFC exceeds 50%, and the company's profit is more than 50 million rubles (from January 1, 2016 - if more than 25% and 30 million rubles), additional income taxes will have to be paid: 20% for companies and 13% for individuals ...

On August 19, 1980, the military tribunal of the Turkestan Military District sentenced Alisher Usmanov, the son of the Tashkent prosecutor, to 8 years in prison for fraud and complicity in taking a bribe. Together with Usmanov, his friends were convicted - Bakhadyr Nasimov, the son of the Deputy Chairman of the KGB of Uzbekistan, and Ilham Shaikov, the son of the Minister of Agriculture. On March 26, 1986, Usmanov was released on parole due to "sincere remorse" and "for exemplary behavior." According to Usmanov, such formulations were standard legal practice of that time, and his case was completely fabricated.

On May 3, 2000, the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan overturned the tribunal's verdict on exonerating grounds. According to Usmanov, his friends appealed the verdict: he himself could not do it, since he did not have Uzbek citizenship.

One of the first mentions that Usmanov was convicted allegedly not only for economic crimes, but also for rape, appeared in the magazine Business People (No. 87). In one of the following issues, the publication denied this information.

In October 2004, a publication appeared on the Kompromat.ru website under the heading "Usmanov Alisher Burkhanovich (nickname -" Uzbek "), General Director of CJSC" Gazprominvestholding ". Reference". The text mentioned that Usmanov was convicted in 1980, including for rape. Representatives of the businessman suggested that the owner of the site publish the refutation they sent them - in this case, they promised to dispense with legal proceedings. "Compromising" published the document.

Usmanov was talked about a lot in Great Britain when he wanted to acquire (and eventually acquired) shares of the London football club Arsenal. Former British ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray then wrote on his blog, citing "widespread belief" that Usmanov was convicted of a particularly heinous rape, with the victim and a number of other characters disappearing.

Usmanov's representatives got the London ISP to block Murray's blog. At the same time, several more blogs were accidentally blocked, including the future mayor of London and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. Johnson then gave an indignant comment to The Guardian: "This is London, not Uzbekistan!" As The Times wrote, Usmanov did not sue Craig Murray in the British court.

At the same time, The Guardian published a text about Usmanov, where rumors of rape were mentioned with the proviso that the journalists had no intelligible confirmation of these accusations. The businessman himself told the publication that he would provide a copy of the verdict, in which this article does not appear.

The Guardian wrote that one of the companies working for the Arsenal club tried to verify the allegations against Alisher Usmanov. And she even hired a private detective for this (her name is not mentioned in the publication), who spent six months in Tashkent. The detective later stated that she faced opposition from the Uzbek authorities. Usmanov was outraged to learn that such an investigation was conducted at all.

In 2012, Megafon, of which Alisher Usmanov was the main shareholder, conducted a not very successful IPO on the London Stock Exchange. The Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper assumed that Usmanov's failure was related to information about his past. The note also mentioned the businessman's conviction for blackmail and rape. Six months later, the newspaper published a refutation, admitting that Usmanov had never been accused of rape.

On the eve of Megafon's IPO, The Times found out that the British PR company RLM Finsbury cleaned up Usmanov's biography on Wikipedia. The PR people removed the description of the criminal case, adding information about the entrepreneur's philanthropic activities. Finsbury has apologized for its actions, but said the changes were not made at Usmanov's request.