Gemcorp investor in Russian battery company along with Abramovich’s banker and Putin adviser

“There is nothing related to batteries” and “there are no Russians” – this is what the Gemcorp Fund and the Bulgarian government say after the signing of a memorandum on investments in Bulgarian energy and the revelation of the BIRD.BG that the founder of Gemcorp is Russian billionaire Albert Avdolyan, close to the Kremlin. However, these statements differ from reality. Gemcorp is an investor in battery firm OCSiAl, where the main shareholders are a Russian banker linked to oligarch Roman Abramovich and a Putin appointed entrepreneurship adviser, a review by the BRRD found.

In July 2021, Atanas Bostandzhiev announced

a strategic investment by Daikin Industries in OCSiAl,

a Gemcorp portfolio. The purpose of the investment is to jointly support the global development of battery materials.
OCSiAl
is a Russian company and this means that it had Gemcorp money in it at least until 8 months ago. Bostandzhiev was present in a report by US financial intelligence Fincen about Gemcorp as a “Russian political liaior” because of his work as a director in the investment wing of Russian bank VTB. He himself in an interview with Capital admitted to this fact and specified that he will remain on this list at least until 2023.

Suspicions that the appearance of Gemcorp with a $1 billion investment was linked to the government’s plans to build a battery plant with European money arose because of the streamlined wording of official announcements and were subsequently denied by both the government and Gemcorp.

However, in the annex to the memorandum, point 7, it is written that it includes “planning of projects for low-carbon technologies in support of the implementation of the European Green Deal and the Bulgarian Reconstruction and Sustainability Plan”.

OCSiAl: Startup with state money and investments from Kremlin oligarchs

OCSiAl Group was founded in 2010 as a startup

under the patronage of Anatoly Chubais Advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The company is registered in Luxembourg by private Russian investors. The main production is located in Novosibirsk and is related to graphene nanotechnology, which is used in electric vehicle batteries.

The initial investment in OCSiAL is 20m euros. Interest in the company was high, and it became the first Russian “unicorn” – a startup valued at over $ 1 billion. Among the big investors are Russia’s state-owned company Rosnano and billionaire Alexandr Mamut, a Kremlin billionaire that pushes Moscow’s propaganda line.

The size of Gemcorp’s financial portfolio is unknown. The BRRD sent questions to OCSiAL and Gemcorp about their financial relationships, but no response had been received by the editorial end of the article.

A check of the BRRD in the Register of Business Owners in Luxembourg showed that OCSiAl S.A. currently has four declared end owners. This is Igor Kim. Yuri Zelvensky, Oleg Kirilov and Yuri Koropechinsky.

Banker of Abramovich and adviser to the Russian government

Igor Kim is a Kazakh-Russian investor who received the honorary title of Honored Economist of the Russian Federation in 2018. His career as a banker began with
scandals and accusations
that he created a financial pyramid. Kim’s main asset is Russia’s Expobank, which in April 2014 came under Canadian sanctions

, subsequently lifted. He controls 18.2% of OCSiAl’s capital and, in addition to Russian, has Cypriot citizenship.

The Russian Business Edition “PayrollsBerezovsky’s lawyer said in his case against Abramovich, according to whom Abramovich’s money from a tax avoidance scheme was piled up in the Latvian Commercial Bank (LBT), which at the time of these transfers was owned by Aleksandr Mammoth and subsequently became the property of Igor Kim.

According to a study by the Center for the Study of Democracy, Kim is also the owner of the second largest bank in the Czech Republic with Russian capital, Expobank CZ. CSD believes that Igor Kim is “close to Putin”. However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine forced Russian shareholders in Expobank to Sell 100% of your shares in the bank. The Latvian subsidiary of Expobank, which was fined in 2015 for non-compliance with money laundering regulations, also had problems with the authorities.

Igor Kim recently sued YouTube for removing video content. The lawsuit filed with the Court of Arbitration shows that the reason for Kim’s claims is the following text from the video: “Kim’s patrons are Senator Dmitry Sablin, deputy head of the Brotherhood and the oligarch. Roman Abramovich.”

Another power-related shareholder in OCSiAL is Yuri Koropechinsky. He is a Russian statesman and businessman associated with companies in the oil industry of Russia. In 2002, he was an adviser to the governor of Krasnoyarsk, and from 2005-2006 member of the board of directors of Uralvneshtorgbank.

In 2008, Vladimir Putin appointed Koropechinsky to the Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship Council of the Government of the Russian Federation along with Gazprom chief Alexei Miller and oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Koropechinsky also holds Australian citizenship. It controls 6.01%. of OCSiAl.

OCSiAL has two other Russian co-owners with 5.03% shares. These are Oleg Kirilov and Yuri Zelvensky. Zelvensky is also an Israeli citizen. He has an oil company and other business in the Tomsk region. Kirilov is Koropechinsky’s partner in several Russian companies and lives in Australia.

BRRD
revealed
As early as 28.03.2022, that Gemcorp Holdings Limited (GHL) is not British, but an offshore from the island of Jersey. Gemcorp never provided evidence of a transfer of ownership or exemption from Russian capital, for which We informed earlier. After these revelations, which provoked intense media and government comments, Prime Minister Kiril Petkov announced that the inspection of Gemcorp will be dealt with by SANS, covering the last five years.

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