http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4272509.ece
Roman Abramovich admits paying out billions on political favours
July 5, 2008 Dominic Kennedy
Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea Football Club, has admitted
agreeing to pay billions of dollars for political favours and protection
fees to get his hands on the former Soviet Union's mineral wealth.
The puzzle of how the penniless street trader rose to amass an ￡11.4
billion fortune is explained for the first time in his own words in court
papers seen by The Times.
Mr Abramovich paid older oligarchs so that he could obtain a big share of
Russia's oil and aluminium assets and to escape unscathed from the deadly
post-communist carve-up. He famously emerged triumphant after the
“aluminium wars”, in which more than 100 people believed to have been
killed in gangland feuds over control of the lucrative smelters. He
avoided the fate of a rival oligarch who annoyed the Kremlin and ended up
being transported to jail in Siberia for ten years.
Mr Abramovich, 41, has been forced to tell his story because he is being
sued for $4 billion by his mentor Boris Berezovsky, 62, a refugee in
Britain, at the London Commercial Court. The exile claims that
Mr Abramovich became an enforcer-type figure for Vladimir Putin, passing
on alleged threats of confiscation - and the jailing of a friend - to
pressure him into selling shares in former state assets cheaply.
Mr Abramovich has retorted with a 53-page defence that accuses
Mr Berezovsky and a Georgian oligarch of demanding huge sums for helping
him to rise from obscurity.
The man from Georgia, Arkady “Badri” Patarkatsishvili, emerges as the
key intermediary, passing messages between the former friends.
Mr Patarkatsishvili was offered $500 million by Mr Abramovich, the defence
papers admit, for protecting him in the aluminium wars.
The Georgian was found dead in the bedroom of his country house in
Leatherhead, Surrey, five months ago. Tests showed that he had advanced
heart disease. He was 52.
Mr Abramovich launches his defence with an icy riposte to his old pal.
Mr Berezovsky's signed particulars of claim state that the football boss
was formerly his “trusted friend and close business associate”.
Mr Abramovich is loath to accept that there was any trust. “Save that it
is admitted that the defendant and Mr Berezovsky were friends, no
admissions are made,” he states.
Mr Abramovich's vast wealth is founded on the Siberian oil company
Sibneft, which was privatised by President Yeltsin in 1995 in an auction
that some experts suspect of having been rigged. The Chelsea owner now
admits paying Mr Berezovsky, then nicknamed “Godfather of the Kremlin”
because of his influence over President Yeltsin, to secure the oil
business.
“Prior to the August 1995 decree, the defendant informed Mr Berezovsky
that he wished to acquire a controlling interest in Sibneft on its
creation,” the defence states. “In return for the defendant agreeing to
provide Mr Berezovsky with funds he required in connection with the cash
flow of [his TV company] ORT, Mr Berezovsky agreed he would use his
personal and political influence to support the project and assist in the
passage of the necessary legislative steps leading to the creation of
Sibneft.”
The Chelsea owner's next target was the aluminium industry. After
privatisation, smelter managers, metals traders and journalists were
reported to have been killed as groups battled for control.
Mr Abramovich now admits that he owed his success to the late Georgian
oligarch. “Mr Patarkatsishvili did ... provide assistance to the
defendant in the defendant's acquisition of assets in the Russian
aluminium industry,” he states.
The Georgian had a reputation as a go-between with organised crime. He was
employed by a car business to ensure debt repayment and provide protection
against gangsters, according to a former head of the Russian Presidential
Security Service. Aleksandr Korzhakov is quoted in the book Godfather of
the Kremlin saying: “Badri has an alias, like any gangster. In the
criminal underworld he is known as "Badar".
Mr Berezovsky's legal action accuses Mr Abramovich of being “close to
President Vladimir Putin”. In Mr Abramovich's first public declaration of
his relationship with the former president, he states that he “has had,
and continues to have, a good working relationship with Mr Putin”. He
formally denies, however, that they were close.
Mr Berezovsky escaped Russia after criticising President Putin.
Mr Abramovich says that Mr Berezovsky asked him to buy his interests in
ORT for $150 million. “The defendant agreed to do so, although the amount
increased to approximately $175 million, which was greater than the value
of those interests.” No explanation is given why he paid so much over the
odds.
Mr Abramovich discloses that there was a showdown at St Moritz airport in
Switzerland in 2001 when Mr Patarkatsishvili asked him to pay $1.3 billion
to Mr Berezovsky. “The defendant agreed to pay this amount on the basis
that it would be the final request for payment by Mr Berezovsky and that
he and Mr Patarkatsishvili would cease to associate themselves publicly
with him and his business interests.” The payment was duly made.
Mr Abramovich was also willing to pay off Mr Patarkatsishvili. He states
that he agreed to pay $585 million “by way of final payment”.
Mr Abramovich denies that he helped himself to Mr Berezovsky's interests
in Sibneft and aluminium or that he threatened a friend of the exile. “It
is denied that Mr Abramovich made or was party to the alleged explicit or
implicit coercive threats or intimidation,” he states.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://sports.163.com/08/0706/09/4G5IJIQ100051CCV.html
2008-07-06 09:01:51
來源: 大洋網(廣州)
俄羅斯前首富阿布拉莫維奇在英國一家法庭的辯護書中承認，在上世紀90年代俄
羅斯實施私有化進程中，他耗費數十億美元用於打通政治關節或付保護費，攫取石油
和鋁業資源，為自己的財富王國奠定了基礎。
http://img1.cache.netease.com/sports/2008/7/6/20080706092710b7f2f.jpg
數十億美金是多少，上圖是2.5億美元現金，不難想像……
英國《泰晤士報》5日報導，在與流亡英國的俄羅斯前寡頭鮑里斯˙別列佐夫斯
基的一場世紀官司中，阿布首次親口承認，為獲得俄羅斯的油田和鋁業資源，他在別
列佐夫斯基和一名格魯吉亞前寡頭身上耗費巨資，以爭取他們的政界人脈支持和人身
保護。
阿布與別氏的官司今年4月在英國倫敦商事法院開審。原告別氏在訴狀中稱，
2000年8月，阿布以財產充公、親友入獄等威脅手段，強迫他以遠低於市值的價錢出
售俄羅斯西伯利亞石油公司、俄羅斯鋁業公司及俄羅斯公共電視台的股票。
http://sports.163.com/07/1010/11/3QELFDE400051CCV.html
精彩劇情回顧：阿布倫敦遭對頭討債20億 雙方保鏢猶如黑幫對峙
別氏向阿布提出20.3億英鎊（約合40億美元）索賠。如果勝訴，這將是英國司法
判案上最大一筆賠償金額。阿布則在長達53頁的辯護書中反擊說，別氏和已故格魯吉
亞寡頭阿爾卡季˙巴德里˙帕塔爾卡齊什維利以幫助他為由，向他索取了巨額錢財。
西伯利亞石油公司是奠定阿布財富王國的第一塊基石。為拿到這一聚寶盆，阿布
在當時與克里姆林宮關係密切的別氏身上下了血本。如願拿到西伯利亞石油公司後，
阿布的下一個獵物是俄羅斯鋁業公司。這回粉墨登場替阿布開路的是格魯吉亞寡頭帕
塔爾卡齊什維。法庭文件顯示，阿布向帕氏奉上了5億美元“保護費”，確保自己在
血腥的“鋁業戰爭”中笑到最後。
現年41歲的阿布是英超切爾西俱樂部老闆，去年以總資產234億美元名列《福布
斯》富豪榜第15位，也是俄第二大富豪。
http://cimg2.163.com/sports/2007/10/10/2007101012102159034.jpg
俄羅斯巨富、切爾西老闆阿布拉莫維奇
http://cimg2.163.com/sports/2007/10/10/200710101210349e19c.jpg
流亡英國的俄羅斯寡頭別列佐夫斯基
--
光看長相也知道誰會贏 XD
--
當我漫遊在斯坦弗森林時，我看見了雀爾西，米爾斯的女兒，在傍晚初升的明月中，
在泰晤士河旁一處林地空間上翩然舞蹈。所有痛苦的記憶都離開了我，我像落入迷離
幻境中一般，因為雀爾西是伊露維塔兒女中最美的一位。她身上那襲藍色的衣裳宛如
萬里無雲的晴空，她灰色的眼睛像是傍晚群星閃爍的天空；她的斗篷上繡著金色的花
朵，她的頭髮漆黑如暮色中的陰影。她的榮光與美好，就像樹葉上的光芒，像是潺潺
流水，像是這迷離世界上方閃爍的繁星；她臉上有閃亮的光輝。
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 118.171.0.81