Andrei Vladimirovich Skotsch

Andrei Skotsch

Andrei Vladimirovich Skotsch ( Russian Андрей Владимирович Скоч ; born January 30, 1966 in the village of Nikolskoye, Moscow Oblast , Soviet Union ) is a Russian entrepreneur , politician and billionaire.

According to the US Forbes Magazine , Skotsch is one of the richest Russians and is listed in The World's Billionaires in 2012 .

Life

Skotsch studied psychology at the Moscow State Pedagogical University and wrote his dissertation there.

Entrepreneurial activity

In the early 1990s, Skotsch began his entrepreneurial activity together with his friend Lev Matwejewitsch Kvetnoi. They started a computer and computer accessories business. Later they got into the oil industry.

His further career was to a large extent connected with that of the oligarch Alischer Burchanowitsch Usmanow . Skotsch met Usmanov in the early 1990s when he was in a financial crisis. With his cigarette company, Usmanov ran into debt of $ 26 million due to the strong dollar. Skotsch and Kvetnoi vouched for Usmanov with all their assets, which enabled him to take out a bank loan of $ 14 million and repay the loan after just four months. Usmanov's business acumen impressed Skotsch and Kvetnoi so much that the two became his partners in the investment company Interfin (or Interfinservice ). According to official figures, Interfin’s shareholders in 1998 included the British Middlesex Holdings plc (40%), the Russian MAPO bank (40%) and the Russian gas giant Gazprom (20%). Usmanow, Skotsch and Kvetnoi eventually became sole owners of Interfin through a management buyout . In the mid-1990s, Interfin already owned 40% of the electric steel mill in Stary Oskol and 51% of Arkhangelskgeologdobytscha , a geological mining company in Arkhangelsk that had oil and diamond deposits in northern Europe, Russia. In 2001 they sold their stake in the Arkhangelsk company for $ 150 million.

Usmanov built together with Skotsch and Kvetnoi, who was later paid out, the Russian company Metalloinwest , which became the largest iron producer in Russia. In 2012 Usmanow founded USM Holdings , which bundled his other companies, such as Metalloinwest , MegaFon , Skartel , Mail.Ru Group and the television stations Disney Russia , MUZ-TW and JU . In 2018 the company was renamed USM . The shareholders since then have been Usmanov with 49%, Skotsch with 30%, the British-Iranian businessman Farhad Moshiri with 8% and the general manager of USM Management Ivan Streschinski with 3%; Usmanow reserved 10% for himself in order to hand this over to the heads of the holding company in the future. USM is the acronym of Usmanov-Skotsch-Moshiri.

When the Panama Papers were published in April 2016, Usmanov's name came up as a shareholder in several offshore companies. Above all, the data leak showed how complex and opaque the organizational structure of Usmanov's companies is. This is also illustrated by the database of offshore leaks, where the connections between the individual letterbox companies (including Hovigton Enterprises Ltd. ) become visible. This is remarkable because Usmanows Hovigton through the mediation of the service provider Bridgewaters (IOM) Ltd. , who gained questionable fame in 2017 through the Paradise Papers , was registered to Vladimir Skotsch, the father of Andrei Skotsch, between 2011 and 2015. Hovigton was a shareholder in Gallagher Holdings Ltd., registered in Cyprus . (also a company owned by Usmanov), from which Usmanov's steel empire USM later emerged.

Charity

In 1996, Skotsch established the “Zdorowoje pokolenije” (Healthy Generation) foundation, which was later renamed “Pokolenije”. It supports cultural workers and scientists , families with three or more children, veterans of World War II , senior citizens and many others. The foundation also finances the construction of medical facilities in Belgorod Oblast and provides financial support for the reconstruction and restoration of military cemeteries .

Political career

In 1999 Skotsch became a member of the Duma . In December 2007 he was re-elected to the State Duma for the United Russia party.

capital

According to Forbes, Skotsch ranked 241st in the list of the richest people in the world in 2020 with $ 7.4 billion.

Among other things, Skotsch is the owner of the motor yacht Madame Gu, which was built in 2013 .

family

Skotsch was married twice. From his first marriage he has five children, four of whom were born in 1994. Skotsch has four children with his second wife Jelena Lichatsch, who brought their daughter Darja with her into the marriage: three daughters Aleksandra, Sofja and Julia and a son Nikita.

Belonging to organized crime

Andrei Skotsch has long-term ties with Russian organized crime groups, according to the US Treasury Department . For example, in 2012 Skotsch told the Financial Times that in the 1990s he negotiated oil deals with two men whom the FBI counts as leaders of the Solnzewo Brotherhood . 2012 The Guardian published a photograph, taken in 1994, on the Skotsch alongside Sergei Mikhailov (code name: Micah) and Viktor Averin (code name: Awera), the most notorious gangsters of post-Soviet Russia and bosses, is to see the Solnzewo Brotherhood.

Because, in the opinion of the US Treasury Department, in addition to his post as a Duma deputy, Skotsch has long had ties to organized crime and is even said to have headed a criminal group himself for a while, he was accepted by the USA along with other Russian people in the wake of the sanctions against Russia Oligarchs, all of whom are close to the Kremlin and therefore have to bear the consequences of the political action of their government, have been added to the list of sanctions.

Leonid Roitman, a former member of the Magadan Brigade, named after the leader Oleg Asmakov (alias: Magadan), confirmed in an interview with the Russian-American journalist Seva Kaplan in 2019 that Skotsch has always been a Solnzewo leader and remains to this day is. Skotsch began his criminal activity in Moscow together with Oleg Asmakov. Skotsch fulfilled the function of a coordinator within the Solnzewo Brotherhood and gave, among other things, the orders for contract killings. For example, he showed his subordinates how to dispose of corpses by burning them. Today, according to Roitman, he has more influence in the Bratwa than Mikhailov. Roitman also confirmed that Alisher Usmanov's business is still under the protection of Skotsch and his Solntsevskaya group, as well as Lev Kvetnoi and Oleg Ibragimowitsch Sheikhametov.

Web links

• Forbes Magazine: Andrei Skoch

Individual evidence

1. ↑ tadviser.ru: Скоч Андрей Владимирович , accessed on May 27, 2020.
2. ↑ Usmanov's biography on forbes.ru: Алишер Усманов: миллиарды и человеческие отношения , accessed May 2, 2020; Usmanov's biography on svpressa.ru: Алишер Усманов. Бизнесмен и управленец , accessed May 4, 2020 (Russian).
3. ↑ Usmanov's biography on svpressa.ru: Алишер Усманов. Бизнесмен и управленец , accessed May 4, 2020 (Russian).
4. ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung: Das Netzwerk - Putin and his closest circles , accessed on May 1, 2020.
5. ^ Offshore Leaks Database by ICIJ: Alisher Usmanov , accessed May 14, 2020.
6. ↑ Offshore Leaks Database by ICIJ: Vladimir Skoch , accessed on May 14, 2020.
7. ↑ tadviser.ru: Скоч Андрей Владимирович , accessed on May 27, 2020.
8. ↑ Forbes: # 241 Andrei Skoch & family , accessed May 27, 2020.
9. ↑ Tatler: Миллиардер Андрей Скоч и Елена Лихач ждут пятого ребенка , tadviser.ru: Скоч Андрей Владимирович , accessed on May 27, 2020.
10. ↑ Kathrin Hille, Max Seddon, Courtney Weaver: Search for rationale behind US sanctions list , Financial Times, April 9, 2018, accessed May 8, 2020.
11. ↑ Simon Goodley, Luke Harding, Miriam Elder: Man behind MegaFon pictured with alleged Russian gangsters , November 28, 2012, accessed May 8, 2020.
12. ↑ US Department of the Treasury: Treasury Designates Russian Oligarchs, Officials, and Entities in Response to Worldwide Malign Activity , April 6, 2018, accessed May 14, 2020.
13. ↑ Seva Kaplan's YouTube channel: 5 лет спустя: Леонид Ройтман в Толковище с Севой Капланом. , from March 22, 2019, accessed on May 28, 2020.