07 October 2007

Alisher Usmanov accused of fraud


Wow here's some news about Jabba the Uzbek which has nothing to to with the Craig Murray allegations! Alisher Usmanov has been accused in court papers of “fraud” and “unjust enrichment” in a dispute over one of the world’s most lucrative diamond mines.


Usmanov has been named in documents filed by lawyers acting for a firm controlled by the Oppenheimer family, the billionaire dynasty behind the De Beers diamond corporation. The action is being in Denver. At stake is the ownership of the Grib Pipe, a fabulously rich diamond mine in the Arkhangelsk region of northern Russia. The mining firm, Archangel Diamond Corporation (ADC) in which De Beers owns a controlling stake, claims it is entitled to an interest in the Grib Pipe, which was discovered in 1996. The Grib Pipe is now said to be one of the largest diamond mines in the world, with a prospective value of £4.5 billion.


ADC has alleged that Usmanov and other Russian interests “engaged in fraud in order to deceive” it over an agreement it says it had to take a 40% interest in the mine. (Usmanov was AGD, a Russian firm which is said to have benefited from the alleged fraud. Usmanov is said to have personally represented AGD in talks with ADC.


Foreign firms had been encouraged to develop exploration and mining concessions with a view to improving the local economy. Few in Russia expected that anyone would strike diamonds in the remote area. andmany companies withdrew after finding little of value. But in 1996 ADC unexpectedly struck a rich vein. It was shortly after this, the court papers allege, that Usmanov and others who were involved with a big Russian oil firm became party to a scheme to drive ADC out of Russia and take over the diamond project for themselves. The Russian firm in the joint venture was privatised and after this, ADC was denied access to develop the mine. The De Beers firm claims it has lost the $30m investment “as well as over $400m in profits” which it expected to win as a result of its 40% stake in a joint venture


Rollo Head, a spokesman at the public relations firm Finsbury, which represents Usmanov (wow and I thought Schillings was his PR firm given the way they have increased his public profile recently), said the case was not against his client and he was not a defendant. “Mr Usmanov refutes and rejects any allegations of fraud or other wrongdoing in relation to the case..

9 comments:

Siani said...

He really is an abysmal piece of detritus, isn't he? As much as I loathe football - I'd hate to see this vile mobster getting his filthy hands on any of our clubs. We've enough white-collar scum of our own in the UK, without drafting in this creature.

James Higham said...

These sorts of people always eventually bring themselves down and others with them.

jams o donnell said...

He almost certainly isn't the honest businessman he claims to be, Siani. He did time for cuorruption in the old USSR. His statement that he was pardoned after Gorbachev came to power is true but it intimates that Gorby had something to dom with it. He was pardoned by teh supreme court of Uzbekistan, a nation ruled by an ugly tyrant, Islom Karimov.

Sadly so LHJ and he will spread a load of shit on a lot of people before he's done

Jeremy Jacobs said...

Siani

Careful, you may get a letter from Schillings.

Jeremy Jacobs said...

J

But will he s**t on Arsenal?

Siani said...

A letter from Schillings? I hope so, Jeremy! I think I might post Craig Murray's allegations on my own blog. I wrote something a year or so ago about the UK gas industry being too tied up with the Russian industry - around about the time Russia cut off the Ukraine's gas supply. And now I've discovered old Usmanov was up to his eyeballs in that.

jams o donnell said...

Haha Siani. Recently his crass muzzling actions have meant the story has spread far wider, with hundreds of bloggers and fora repeating the allegations! Any futher muzzlign will spread the allegations even further!

Siani said...

Silly old sod - doesn't he realise that the West does things a little differently? He doesn't have a legal leg to stand on if he tries to claim he's being defamed. The only time he would have the chance of a successful defamation claim is if someone said he's Satan, and that he spit-roasts babies on the ends of pitchforks. Even that might prove a moot point!

jams o donnell said...

In Russia, I'm sure he could find some shaved apes to have Murray "vanished". Here he has our insane libel laws to protect him. His lawyers are stifling sites on teh basis that the comments are defamatory. HOWEVER, he refuses to sue Murray for defamation. He says he doesn't want to give Murray the place to air his statements. I thus suspect Murray is at least partly correct.