{"id":10251,"date":"2022-03-23T16:50:53","date_gmt":"2022-03-23T15:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bird.bg\/?p=10251"},"modified":"2023-04-06T18:07:41","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T16:07:41","slug":"bulgarian-government-brags-about-usd-1bn-investment-by-fund-close-to-putin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bird.bg\/en\/bulgarian-government-brags-about-usd-1bn-investment-by-fund-close-to-putin\/","title":{"rendered":"The government boasts a $1 billion investment from a fund linked to a Putin crony"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the height of the war in Ukraine, the government of Bulgaria signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Gemcorp Fund of Russian oligarch Albert Avdolyan<\/strong>. It’s for a $1 billion investment in clean energy. Avdolyan<\/strong> was monitored for money laundering by US financial intelligence, along with Bulgarian Atanas Bostandzhiev<\/strong>, who signed the deal under the patronage of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov (in the leading photo on the right). Avdolyan is also a close associate and business partner of Sergei Chemezov<\/strong>, the head of Rostec. The latter is considered one of Vladimir Putin’s most trusted people, with whom he served in the KGB in the GDR. Since 2014, Chemezov has been included in the sanctions lists of the EU and the United States.<\/p>\n

On March 23, Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with Gemcorp Capital Management Ltd. and IP3 Corporation. As a result of this partnership, investments worth about EUR 1 billion are expected in Bulgaria. $100 in green energy, he said after the ceremony. The photos circulated show that Prime Minister Kiril Petkov is watching the signing of the memorandum by Minister Nikolov and Atanas Bostandzhiev, who is the Executive Director of Djemcorp.<\/p>\n

The investment is related to the project for an energy storage battery plant, which the government is promoting intensively as an alternative to coal power plants in the Maritsa East basin. This is evident from the presentation of one of the objectives of the Memorandum: “construction of a hybrid industrial complex on the territory of Maritsa East”. The project is also included in the Recovery Plan with European funding.<\/p>\n

The information about who owns “Jamcorp” is public and is found in Russian Wikipedia<\/a>. Co-founder is Russian businessman Albert Avdolyan, <\/strong>close to Sergei Chemezov. <\/strong> Chemezov is Putin’s colleague from his KGB years and one of his most trusted people. It is therefore included in the US and EU sanctions lists.<\/p>\n

FINCEN: Gemcorp launders money of obscure origin<\/h2>\n

There are other, non-public sources about Avdolyan’s participation in the Gemcorp fund, which has $1.75 billion in assets.<\/p>\n

Prior to taking over Gemcorp, Atanas Bostandzhiev was governor of VTB Capital, the investment wing of the bank known as Putin’s bank. It is along with this connection that the Gemcorp<\/strong> Fund, Albert Avdolyan and Atanas Bostandzhiev<\/strong> were included in the reports of the US financial intelligence FINCEN in 2017, which monitors suspicious dollar transactions.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Atanas Bostandzhiev was identified in a FINCEN report as a “Russian political affiliate”.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Because of the connection with the sanctioned VTB, both Avdolyan and Bostandzhiev were identified by US financial intelligence as “Russian politically connected persons”.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The specific reason they were reported were “transactions in jurisdictions with a high risk of money laundering,” but financial intelligence also classified them as “Russian Politically-Exposed Persons” because of their connection to the sanctioned Russian bank VTB.<\/p>\n

“The source of Gemcorp Holdings’ assets is disguised by a complex organizational structure and raises concerns. According to Barclays Jersey, Gemcorp Holdings is 100% \/100%\/ owned by Albert Avdolyan. Avdolyan is an Armenian by nationality, born in Russia. His address is app. 87, block 64, ul. Arami, Yerevan, Armenia. Avdolyan has the number BA1333111,” BIRD said in its confidential report.<\/p>\n

The document also recalls Avdolyan’s joint business with Sergei Adoniev<\/strong> in the telecommunications sector with the company Scartel. Adoniev, who is reported to have been convicted in the United States of drug smuggling, became known as the holder of a Bulgarian merit passport. His passport was subsequently revoked. Adoniev’s children, however, retained their Bulgarian citizenship and appear in the Luxembourg register<\/a> as holders of significant assets with their Bulgarian passports.<\/p>\n

Close business relations with Chemezov<\/h2>\n

Another close associate of Avdolyan, as well as Adoniev, is the head of Rostec, Sergei Chemezov<\/strong>. It is known that Rostec has been involved<\/a> in Avdolyan and Adoniev’s business projects since the time of Scartel, but also in more recent times in coal mining projects<\/a> in the Far East. For example, in 2020, 95% of the Elgin coal field passes into the possession<\/a> of Avdolyan’s A-Property, and 5% goes to Rostec. There is evidence that the deal was financed by Gazprombank.<\/p>\n

In addition to business, Chemezov and Avdolyan are jointly engaged in charity at the Point of the Future educational center in Irkutsk.<\/p>\n

“For Albert Avdolyan and for me, Irkutx is our small homeland,” Chemezov said at the opening of the center in September 2020.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Chemezov on the left and Avdolyan in the middle of the opening of the center in Irkutx.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chemezov and Putin have been close since they served in the KGB in East Germany. After Putin came to power, Chemezov’s career was on the rise. He heads the foreign economic relations of the presidential administration of Russia, and since 2007 he is the head of the military-industrial corporation Rostec.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Chemezov and Putin in 2010 Photo: Kommersant<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As early as 2014, Chemezov was included in the sanctions list<\/a> of the US Treasury Department and the European Union. Since March 3, after Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the United States has also sanctioned its relatives. On March 15, Spain arrested Chemezov’s Valerie yacht in Barcelona, which is valued at $140 million. <\/sup><\/p>\n

In Bulgaria, Chemezov’s son and ex-wife own apartments in the Estreya complex in St. Constantine and Helena. St. Konstantin and Elena showed a joint investigation<\/a> into BIRD.BG and the investigative media iStories declared undesirable in Russia. So far, there is no evidence that Bulgaria has taken action to seize these assets, despite the sanctions of the European Union.<\/p>\n

Washing Putin’s Billion Through the Recovery Plan?<\/h2>\n

The government’s support for a project in which a leading financial role has a fund of Albert Avdolyan is bewildering. Moreover, the investment is related to the widely advertised government battery project for 1.3 billion euros, which will also be financed with European money under the Recovery Plan.<\/p>\n

In practice, this allows Gemcorp to launder through this project a huge amount of money related to individuals from Putin’s inner circle.<\/p>\n

The very fact that there is government support for such an undertaking is a sign of the inability of the Bulgarian services to identify and prevent in time the risks to our national security. Once again, Bulgaria is positioning itself as Russia’s Trojan horse in the European Union and NATO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Warning! This is an automatic translation from Bulgarian. The translation has not been checked by the editor desk and may be inaccurate or ambiguous. The publisher endorses only the Bulgarian version of the article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10223,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[7184,7492,7496,7490,7501,6418,7404,7494,7430],"coauthors":[201],"class_list":["post-10251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investigations-en","tag-2022-en-2","tag-albert-avdolyan","tag-fincen-en-2","tag-gemcorp-en-2","tag-jemcorp","tag-money-laundering-en","tag-russian-oligarchs-en","tag-sergei-adoniev-en","tag-sergei-chemezov-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe government boasts a $1 billion investment from a fund linked to a Putin crony - BIRD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bird.bg\/en\/bulgarian-government-brags-about-usd-1bn-investment-by-fund-close-to-putin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The government boasts a $1 billion investment from a fund linked to a Putin crony\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Warning! 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