Mystery at the Heart of £1 Billion UK Legal Offensive Against Top Putin Ally
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For decades, London's courthouses have served as cherished hubs for powerful Russian interests seeking to advance their business, shield their assets, silence critics, and shuffle dirty cash around.
Drawn by the UK legal system's reputation as a global leader in dispute resolution, coupled with the capital's less illustrious role as veritable haven for illicit finances, many are the Kremlin allies who've turned to the British courts with "collusive litigation" over the years, suing one another on secretly pre-agreed terms so as to launder their wealth through the resulting settlement fees.
Others still have taken advantage of the nation's punitive defamation laws, bringing vexatious claims against critical journalists and activists so as to both intimidate them from further reporting or campaigning, and to drain their resources through lengthy and costly legal proceedings.
Perhaps the most spectacular cases of such 'lawfare', however, are those that have seen Russian oligarchs engaged in the vicious pursuit of strategic lawsuits as part of wider wars of attrition waged against their business rivals, with the promise of handsome profits for the droves of lawyers, consultants and litigation funders only too willing to help them along the way.
Byline Times' new investigation delves deep into the latest of these bitter and winding legal sagas, laying out how Russian businessman Alexander Gorbachev's litigation against former Kremlin politician Andrey Guriev for lucrative shares in a Moscow fertiliser company was bankrolled by a controversial Israeli businessman, a UK group owned by "enablers" of Georgia's autocratic regime, and a scandal-ridden Miami firm that once held sizable investments in several European football clubs.
That these actors held a stake in the lawsuit is no secret to Guriev himself, who was sanctioned in 2022 for his control of assets generating significant revenue for Russia's war in Ukraine. But the Vladimir Putin ally now believes that another, perhaps more powerful set of hands may ultimately have been behind Gorbachev's claims - and he is determined to find out who.
Assets, Dirt Cheap
With holdings worth more than $7.6 billion, PhosAgro is one of the world's largest producers of phosphate fertilisers. Based in Moscow, its roots go back to the early 1990s, with oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky's purchase of a lucrative mining complex in Russia's far northwest during the anarchic privatisation of state assets that followed the Soviet collapse.
Better known by his reputation now as one of Putin's harshest critics, Khodorkovsky would eventually flee Russia in 2013 for exile in London, having served eight years on fraud, embezzlement and money laundering charges he says were politically motivated.
Guriev, a co-director at Khodorkovsky's holding company and a member of the Russian Federation Council who built PhosAgro during the wildcat years of Russian capitalism, was joined there by Gorbachev, an old friend from his days as a Communist Party youth secretary, as vice-president of the new firm.
After prosecutors seized Khordokovsky's mining interests following his 2003 arrest, PhosAgro moved swiftly to purchase those assets from the state at below-market rates. Guriev went on to become a wealthy man - with a current net worth of roughly $9.5 billion, he was at one point the owner of the $450 million Witanhurst estate in Highgate, London's second largest private residence after Buckingham Palace.
He eventually stepped back from politics in 2013. While some of his shares in PhosAgro have since been sold back to the Kremlin, he and his family continue to control a sizable portion of the group through an offshore trust, which saw them targeted with Western sanctions following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine for ownership of assets feeding Russia's war machine.
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Packed with exclusive investigations, analysis, and features
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For decades, London's courthouses have served as cherished hubs for powerful Russian interests seeking to advance their business, shield their assets, silence critics, and shuffle dirty cash around.
Drawn by the UK legal system's reputation as a global leader in dispute resolution, coupled with the capital's less illustrious role as veritable haven for illicit finances, many are the Kremlin allies who've turned to the British courts with "collusive litigation" over the years, suing one another on secretly pre-agreed terms so as to launder their wealth through the resulting settlement fees.
Others still have taken advantage of the nation's punitive defamation laws, bringing vexatious claims against critical journalists and activists so as to both intimidate them from further reporting or campaigning, and to drain their resources through lengthy and costly legal proceedings.
Perhaps the most spectacular cases of such 'lawfare', however, are those that have seen Russian oligarchs engaged in the vicious pursuit of strategic lawsuits as part of wider wars of attrition waged against their business rivals, with the promise of handsome profits for the droves of lawyers, consultants and litigation funders only too willing to help them along the way.
Byline Times' new investigation delves deep into the latest of these bitter and winding legal sagas, laying out how Russian businessman Alexander Gorbachev's litigation against former Kremlin politician Andrey Guriev for lucrative shares in a Moscow fertiliser company was bankrolled by a controversial Israeli businessman, a UK group owned by "enablers" of Georgia's autocratic regime, and a scandal-ridden Miami firm that once held sizable investments in several European football clubs.
That these actors held a stake in the lawsuit is no secret to Guriev himself, who was sanctioned in 2022 for his control of assets generating significant revenue for Russia's war in Ukraine. But the Vladimir Putin ally now believes that another, perhaps more powerful set of hands may ultimately have been behind Gorbachev's claims - and he is determined to find out who.
Assets, Dirt Cheap
With holdings worth more than $7.6 billion, PhosAgro is one of the world's largest producers of phosphate fertilisers. Based in Moscow, its roots go back to the early 1990s, with oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky's purchase of a lucrative mining complex in Russia's far northwest during the anarchic privatisation of state assets that followed the Soviet collapse.
Better known by his reputation now as one of Putin's harshest critics, Khodorkovsky would eventually flee Russia in 2013 for exile in London, having served eight years on fraud, embezzlement and money laundering charges he says were politically motivated.
Guriev, a co-director at Khodorkovsky's holding company and a member of the Russian Federation Council who built PhosAgro during the wildcat years of Russian capitalism, was joined there by Gorbachev, an old friend from his days as a Communist Party youth secretary, as vice-president of the new firm.
After prosecutors seized Khordokovsky's mining interests following his 2003 arrest, PhosAgro moved swiftly to purchase those assets from the state at below-market rates. Guriev went on to become a wealthy man - with a current net worth of roughly $9.5 billion, he was at one point the owner of the $450 million Witanhurst estate in Highgate, London's second largest private residence after Buckingham Palace.
He eventually stepped back from politics in 2013. While some of his shares in PhosAgro have since been sold back to the Kremlin, he and his family continue to control a sizable portion of the group through an offshore trust, which saw them targeted with Western sanctions following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine for ownership of assets feeding Russia's war machine.
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