Arcadi Gaydamak

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Arcadi Gaydamak, 2008
Arcadi Gaydamak

Arcadi Gaydamak ( Russian Аркадий Александрович Гайдамак , Hebrew ארקדי גאידמק; * April 8, 1952 in Moscow , Soviet Union) is an Israeli billionaire of Russian descent who made his fortune through speculation on the stock market, oil deals and illegal arms trade worth millions . He is the father of the French businessman Alexandre Gaydamak and has passports for France , Israel , Canada and Angola . He acts as an advisor to the Angolan government.

Life and accomplishments

Various information is circulating about the birthplace of Arcadi Gaydamak, and it is certain that he grew up in Moscow . At the age of 20 - during Brezhnev's reign - he was one of the first Jews to officially emigrate to Israel. There he lived for six months in a kibbutz before he was hired as a sailor and in 1973 he traveled to France , where he lived until December 2000. In France he first worked as a bricklayer and gardener and in 1976 opened the Russian-French translation agency "Gaydamak Translations" near Paris. From then on he took care of Russian envoys and Russian business delegations and thus established contacts with large, well-known French corporations. Ten years later, he opened a branch of his translation office in Canada and concentrated increasingly on more lucrative import and export business with the former Soviet Union and other former socialist brother states. Through various stock market speculations and opaque deals, he became a wealthy man.

"Angolagate" - The gun scandal

In 2000, Gaydamak came into the focus of the public when an illegal arms deal by the French businessman Pierre Falcone was exposed, who delivered large quantities of arms to Angola, an African country with a civil war, for lucrative shares in the oil and diamond production. Gaydamak, who was Falcone's most important employee at the time, as well as the former French interior minister Charles Pasqua and his right-hand man Jean-Charles Marchiani , but also the president's son Jean-Christophe Mitterrand were also involved in the scandal. This arms trade scandal known as " Angolagate " caused a sensation at the time. Because of his participation in this arms deal, as well as outstanding tax debts of 80 million euros, Gaydamak has been wanted by the police in France since then; even with an international arrest warrant since 2000 after he was sentenced to six years in prison for illegal arms deliveries worth $ 800 million to Angolan civil war parties .

As a result, Gaydamak fled his adopted country of France in December 2000, left his wife and two daughters behind and moved to Israel, whose citizenship he has alongside those of Russia, Canada and Angola. This enabled him to avoid being arrested, as Israel only surrenders its citizens to other states in exceptional cases. Since then, Gaydamak has only been traveling with an Angolan diplomatic passport that he received from the Angolan government for his “chief advisor” role.

Political commitment

In his new “forced home” Israel, Gaydamak quickly became popular by launching several large PR campaigns during the 2006 Lebanon War . So he had a tent city built on the beach in the port city of Askalon for the north of Israel, which was plagued by rocket fire , where the residents could relax. The same happened to around 2,000 residents of the small town of Sderot , who spent a week in the holiday paradise of Eilat on the Red Sea to recover from the rocket fire from the Gaza Strip .

At the end of February 2007, Gaydamak announced that he would found a new organization called “Social Justice” as the basis for a new political party in Israel , as, in his opinion, the current government “managed the Lebanon war only poorly” and contributed to the general disaffection with politics have. In the first polls in 2007 he was able to outstrip the Kadima party, which is part of the government . Meanwhile, according to surveys, his party would not make it into the Israeli parliament .

In the mayoral election in Jerusalem on November 11, 2008, he came in third place with 3.6% of the vote.

Engagement in sport

On July 10, 2005, Gaydamak announced his entry into the sports business. He became a sponsor of the Hapoel Jerusalem basketball team . A month later, he donated $ 400,000 to the Arab soccer club FC Bnei Sachnin, which played in Israel . Two days later, Gaydamak announced that it would buy the Beitar Jerusalem football club . His commitment is very controversial among the fans of the club.

Web links

Commons : Arcadi Gaydamak  - collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

  1. ↑ Аркадий Гайдамак: СЛОЖНО БЫТЬ РАЗВЕДЧИКОМ В 19 ЛЕТ. (Russian)
  2. ↑ a b Benjamin Bidder: Arms dealer But: Haulier of death. In: Spiegel Online . August 20, 2010.
  3. ^ Manfred Quiring: Printed loyalty show. In: Welt online. October 17, 2005.
  4. ↑ cf. Archive link ( memento of August 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) of February 22, 2001 (French)
  5. ↑ a b c see Thorsten Schmidt in the Süddeutsche Zeitung , No. 46 from Saturday / Sunday, 24./25. February 2007, p. 8
  6. ↑ The Russian friend. on: FAZ net February 26, 2007.
  7. ↑ cf. http://www.tagesschau.de:80/ausland/meldung30652.html ( Memento from October 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) from May 18, 2007
  8. ↑ 4 polls Likud 25-31 Kadima 22-31, Israelis oppose negotiating Jerusalem 55%: 36%. on: imra.org November 2nd, 2008.
personal data
SURNAME Gaydamak, Arcadi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gaydamak, Arkadi; ארקדי גאידמק (Hebrew); Аркадий Александрович Гайдамак (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli-French billionaire of Russian descent
DATE OF BIRTH April 8, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Moscow