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Russian liquor baron Tariko a distributor of Rothschild winery

In August, it became known that the Rust holding would become a distributor of the Rothschild winery in Russia. Experts consider their wine too expensive for its quality, so the choice of Rustam Tariko looked strange. It is unlikely that this project could be considered as a successful investment, but it could be used as a channel for withdrawing money from Russian Standard Bank.

The Rothschilds are considered the unspoken owners of the global financial system. Maybe Rustam Tariko became a distributor in exchange for financial assistance from the United States?

A1 "clung" to the banker Tariko?

In the photo: Rustam Tariko
Author: Roman Streletsky

14-10-2021, 15:31

Will Mikhail Fridman's company take Russian Standard Bank from its owner Rustam Tariko ?

Say no to madness!

A new turn took place in the confrontation between the owner of Russian Standard Bank and the holders of Russian Standard Ltd bonds , in which 49% of the bank was pledged. The conflict has been going on since 2015, when Rustam Tariko managed to persuade investors to restructure securities. In 2017, they defaulted.

Investors created a group of 27% bondholders that blocked the second restructuring. Tariko offered to pay 25% of the value of the securities, but this did not suit investors. To date, debts on bonds, including interest, amount to $850 million .

Apparently, desperate investors sold their bonds to Mikhail Fridman 's Alfa Group investment division of A1, a company specializing in corporate conflicts, mergers and acquisitions. She was often suspected of raider takeovers of the business, but the company has never been charged.

A1 became the owner of 30% of defaulted bonds, and now not harmless investors, but financial sharks, who have swallowed their opponents more than once, will “fight” with Rustam Tariko.

Previously, bondholders turned to A1 for help, but there was no sense in it. The company operates according to a clear scheme - it becomes a shareholder, after which the business owners lose part or all of it. Is this waiting for Rustam Tariko?

Does the bank's money go offshore?

The bondholders fought like fish on ice for several years, but all their efforts to take the bank from Rustam Tariko were unsuccessful. At the same time, the banker could withdraw money from the bank to his Rust alcohol holding, allegedly investing in his new projects.

In the fall of 2020, Rossiyskaya Gazeta  wrote that since 2015, 23 billion rubles could be withdrawn from the bank . This was shown by an independent examination conducted by the expert legal center "Financial Investigations and Forensic Examinations" commissioned by investors.

It is not clear what the experts thought, because the financial indicators of the bank, posted in the public domain on the Banki.Ru website , show numbers much higher.

From January 2016 to September 2021, Russian Standard Bank lost 224.9 billion rubles . of its assets, 16 billion rubles . profit, which is 97% , the bank's fixed capital decreased by 24.7 billion rubles , funds of enterprises and organizations - by 80.2 billion rubles . ( 96.3% ).

The latter indicator may indicate that money from the bank could be withdrawn to structures affiliated with it, including the Rust alcohol holding.

Money could be withdrawn from Rust Russia JSC to offshore companies, with which the holding's structures are hung like a Christmas tree with toys. The proof of this is the financial performance of Rust Russia JSC. In 2020, with a revenue of 32 billion rubles , the company's loss amounted to 3.8 billion rubles , it has not had a profit since 2014.

A1 "clung" to the banker Tariko?

In November last year, information appeared that the prosecutor's office would check the Russian Standard bank against the backdrop of Tariko's conflict with investors. Almost a year has passed, and there is no information about the results of the check.

In January, the Moscow Arbitration Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by the London branch of Citibank to recover a 49% stake in Russian Standard from companies owned by Russian Standard Ltd. The defendants in the case were Russian Standard Invest and Russian Standard Company.

In April, the Court of Appeal upheld the court's decision and left the appeal unsatisfied. In June, the cassation trough was adopted. Since then, the court hearing has been postponed several times. The next meeting of the Arbitration Court of the Moscow District is to be held on October 19.

In July 2020, the Moscow Arbitration Court dismissed the claims of Pala Assets Holding Limited and Aleia Trading Inc. to the main owner of the Russian Standard holding, Rustam Tariko.

Then a member of the board of A1 Kirill Babaev , representing the interests of investors, was sure that the court decision would be canceled on appeal. Vedomosti wrote about it .

“In the presence of a debt of $0.5 billion, gigantic money is hastily and openly withdrawn from the bank. The defendants did not argue with this, in fact admitting that all the considered transactions took place and were of a vicious nature. Such decisions harm, first of all, the reputation of the court itself.”

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Kirill Babaev made a mistake; in June of this year, the Supreme Court refused to transfer the cassation appeal to the Judicial Collegium of the RF Armed Forces.

It seems that Rustam Tariko has powerful patrons who prevented the transfer of Russian Standard Bank to bondholders, which is why they sold their A1 papers.

Mysterious patrons of "Russian Standard"?

One of the patrons of Rustam Tariko may be the oligarch Arkady Rotenberg , whose man is rumored to be the ex-head of Rosalkogolregulirovanie Igor Chuyan , who fled Russia in 2018 . In that year, the Status Group vodka company, which could have been backed by an oligarch, went bankrupt. And he may have had to look for a new channel for the realization of his vodka interests.

In February, Sergey Berestovoy became the chairman of the board of Russian Standard Bank , who had previously held the position of deputy chairman of the board since 2017. From 2011 to 2013, Berestovoy was vice president of Novikombank, which is part of Sergei Chemezov 's Rostec . Prior to that, Berestovoy worked at Russian Standard.

It would be naive to think that the owner of one of the largest alcohol holdings in the world can work without the support of people close to President Vladimir Putin . Such "feeders" do not go unnoticed.

An indirect confirmation of this version may be the court lost against common sense by bondholders. There is one very interesting moment in this story, which for some reason no one focuses on.

As RBC wrote  in the pledge agreement for Russian Standard shares with Citibank, it turns out that there was a defect due to which the bank could not be considered a creditor, which is why it was denied the claim for the recovery of 49% of Russian Standard shares.

This is where the dog may be buried. Who made a mistake in the contract? Citibank is the largest international bank, founded in 1812, is a division of Citigroup, a giant international corporation in the field of financial services.

The London branch of the bank took part in the court with the companies of Rustam Tariko. Could his lawyers have made a mistake in preparing the contract? This seems unlikely, given how western banks value their reputation.

However, the London lawyers could have given the buyout agreement to the Russian branch, AO Citibank. Its president and chairman of the board is Maria Ivanova , who studied at Champlain College (Vermont, USA). She has been an employee of Citigroup for over 20 years.

Prior to joining the bank in 2008, Chairman of the Board of Russian Standard Sergey Berestovoy worked for PwC - PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international network of consulting and audit companies headquartered in London.

After this company, Berestovoy worked at Deloitte, which is also an international network and, together with PwC , is one of the Big Four audit companies.

In August, it became known that the Rust holding would become a distributor of the Rothschild winery in Russia. Experts consider their wine too expensive for its quality, so the choice of Rustam Tariko looked strange. It is unlikely that this project could be considered as a successful investment, but it could be used as a channel for withdrawing money from Russian Standard Bank.

The Rothschilds are considered the unspoken owners of the global financial system. Maybe Rustam Tariko became a distributor in exchange for financial assistance from the United States?

Could Sergey Berestova, who has worked in international companies for a long time, and Maria Ivanova, who works in the Russian branch of Citibank, be related? Somehow I can not believe in an accidental defect in the contract at such a high financial level. However, the litigation is not over yet.

“We confirm that A1 has become the largest creditor. We believe in the investment potential of bonds and believe that control should not belong to a foreign, but to a domestic company.”


The statement of the representative of the company A1 sounds optimistic. Is the company sure that in the end it will be able to gain control over Russian Standard?

A1 worked closely with the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) in searching for the assets of runaway banker Georgy Bedzhamov , the former head of Vneshprombank. Doesn't this mean that the Russian authorities, through A1, decided to take away the Russian Standard from Rustam Tariko?

If he loses the bank, then an audit in it may reveal the withdrawal of hundreds of billions of rubles. And then Rustam Tariko will have one option left - London, which has long been a haven for runaway bankers.