A former director of the state arms export agency is wanted in Italy on charges of money laundering in an investigation that raises a new ghost in the multimillion-dollar state corruption scandals that haunted the late 1990s.
The Trento Finance Police issued an arrest warrant for former Rosvooruzheniye chief Yevgeny Ananyev on Thursday, Andrea Bergamo, chief of the Finance Police in the northern Italian city, said Friday.
Ananyev, his girlfriend Olga Beltsova and his financial consultant Giulio Rizzi tried to launder millions of dollars through provincial Italian banks, he said.
The money came from a $117 million deal in which Ananyev oversaw the sale of three MiG-29 fighter jets to Peru via Belarus in 1998, Bergamo said. Ananyev and his Peruvian partner, then-National Intelligence Service chief Vladimiro Montesinos Torres, diverted $18 million of that amount, he said.
"Everybody got a piece of the pie," Bergamo said by telephone from Trento, adding that Ananyev got $7.5 million.
A Peruvian court convicted Montesinos Torres of corruption and drug trafficking in 2002 and sentenced him to nine years in prison.
The investigation into Ananyev, dubbed Matryoshka by the Italians, started in 2001 after Peru asked Swiss authorities to check and freeze the bank accounts of individuals close to Montesinos Torres.
Ananyev's money was first deposited in an account belonging to Beltsova at a bank in Lugano, Switzerland, from which it was to be surreptitiously transferred in smaller amounts to various banks in Italy, Bergamo said.
Some of the money was sent to a bank account held by Beltsova in the Milan suburb of Arese, where she now lives, Bergamo said. The money was then forwarded to her account in a bank in the Trentino Alto Adige region.
But the Arese bank reported the transfer to the Italian Exchange Office. Under Italian law, transactions of more than $12,500 must be reported to the Italian Exchange Office.
The transfer in question totaled $650,000, Bergamo said.
He said that Rizzi, the consultant, has been detained and that Beltsova, who has a baby, is under house arrest.
In accordance with Italy's strict money laundering laws, police have confiscated two cars and a villa belonging to Ananyev and Beltsova, he said.
The Trento Finance Police believe that Ananyev has fled to Russia. "If we had found him, we would have detained him," Bergamo said.
If tried and convicted, Ananyev faces four to 12 years in prison, he said.
Ananyev, 56, has a reputation for being a charismatic leader with an entrepreneurial flair.
But his stint at Rosvooruzheniye, from August 1997 to November 1998, was mired in scandal. Under his leadership, already sliding revenues fell from $3.6 billion in 1996 to $2.6 billion in 1997 and $2.3 billion in 1998.
In 1998, the presidential administration's control department, then headed by Vladimir Putin, carried out a thorough audit of Rosvooruzheniye. The findings remain classified.
The media, however, reported at the time that numerous financial violations had been uncovered, including a budget of about $100,000 per month for Ananyev's personal bodyguards and a $500,000 renovation of Ananyev's office. During Ananyev's tenure, the country's arms-selling business was under Economics Minister Yakov Urinson, now the deputy chairman of Unified Energy Systems.
Ananyev, a graduate of Moscow Engineering and Construction Institute and the Finance Academy, served from 1993 to 1997 as chairman of MAPO-Bank, then an offshoot of what is now the MiG Corporation. He was an economic adviser to MiG's general director in 1992, and before that served in the Foreign Intelligence Service.
After leaving Rosvooruzheniye, Ananyev worked for a short time as an adviser to Sergei Chemezov, the head of another arms exporting agency, Promexport. Chemezov was recently appointed head of Rosoboronexport, which now oversees virtually all arms exports.
Ananyev was very opaque in his dealings as director of Rosvooruzheniye, so the Italian charges are not surprising, said Ruslan Pukhov, head of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies. "In a lucrative industry like arms exports, there were always a lot of opportunities for abuse in President Boris Yeltsin's era," he said.
Pukhov said the investigation could deal a blow to MiG's reputation and jeopardize contracts that are currently under negotiation.
He said the timing of the announcement of the arrest warrant was interesting, as Peru may be negotiating a substantial defense deal with Russia. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak, who helps oversee arms trade, visited Lima in April and signed a military and technical cooperation agreement.
MiG, whose image was tarnished in several financial scandals in the 1990s, is in confirmed talks with Algeria for what would be its biggest post-Soviet deal, the sale of 49 MiG-29 jets for about $1.5 billion. Unlike most defense companies, MiG has a license to sell independently of Rosoboronexport. Last year, it earned some $190 million but remains heavily in debt, primarily to the Finance Ministry.
Rosoboronexport reported revenues of $5.4 billion for 2003, the fourth consecutive year that it has set a new post-Soviet record in revenues.
MiG was unavailable for comment Friday, and Rosoboronexport spokesman Alexander Smelyakov stressed that "Ananyev at the moment has no relation whatsoever to Rosoboronexport."
Russian law enforcement officials also were tight-lipped Friday.
"The Italian police have not involved Interpol and did not turn to Russian law enforcement agencies for help in the search for Ananyev," the deputy head of Interpol's Russian bureau, Alexei Abramov, told Interfax.
The Trento Finance Police said investigators would probably ask Moscow for documents to assist them in their probe.
Beltsova, 37, said she has done nothing wrong and that she is not under house arrest. She also denied that any property had been confiscated, Izvestia reported Saturday.
Asked whether she personally knew Ananyev or Rizzo, she told the newspaper, "You are asking personal questions. I will not answer them."
She did say, however, that Ananyev is now in Russia.
But Ananyev could be hiding just about anywhere, said a defense industry official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "He could be anywhere in the world. After holding this senior position, he has connections in many countries," the official said.
The official said that since he left Rosvooruzheniye, Ananyev has dabbled in a number of businesses, including pharmaceuticals. "He is able to pick up any business that comes his way," the official said.
Beltsova's name has surfaced before in a money-laundering investigation, Izvestia reported. It was on a list of 15 names forwarded to the Prosecutor General's Office in 2000 as part of a Swiss money laundering investigation into alleged kickbacks paid for Kremlin renovations, Izvestia said. At the top of the list was Pavel Borodin, the former head of the presidential property department.
Swiss investigators found that a Liechtenstein-registered firm owned by Beltsova received $2.7 million from Swiss firm Mercata Trading, which repaired the Grand Kremlin Palace, Izvestia said.
The Trento Finance Police issued an arrest warrant for former Rosvooruzheniye chief Yevgeny Ananyev on Thursday, Andrea Bergamo, chief of the Finance Police in the northern Italian city, said Friday.
Ananyev, his girlfriend Olga Beltsova and his financial consultant Giulio Rizzi tried to launder millions of dollars through provincial Italian banks, he said.
The money came from a $117 million deal in which Ananyev oversaw the sale of three MiG-29 fighter jets to Peru via Belarus in 1998, Bergamo said. Ananyev and his Peruvian partner, then-National Intelligence Service chief Vladimiro Montesinos Torres, diverted $18 million of that amount, he said.
"Everybody got a piece of the pie," Bergamo said by telephone from Trento, adding that Ananyev got $7.5 million.
A Peruvian court convicted Montesinos Torres of corruption and drug trafficking in 2002 and sentenced him to nine years in prison.
The investigation into Ananyev, dubbed Matryoshka by the Italians, started in 2001 after Peru asked Swiss authorities to check and freeze the bank accounts of individuals close to Montesinos Torres.
Ananyev's money was first deposited in an account belonging to Beltsova at a bank in Lugano, Switzerland, from which it was to be surreptitiously transferred in smaller amounts to various banks in Italy, Bergamo said.
Some of the money was sent to a bank account held by Beltsova in the Milan suburb of Arese, where she now lives, Bergamo said. The money was then forwarded to her account in a bank in the Trentino Alto Adige region.
But the Arese bank reported the transfer to the Italian Exchange Office. Under Italian law, transactions of more than $12,500 must be reported to the Italian Exchange Office.
The transfer in question totaled $650,000, Bergamo said.
He said that Rizzi, the consultant, has been detained and that Beltsova, who has a baby, is under house arrest.
In accordance with Italy's strict money laundering laws, police have confiscated two cars and a villa belonging to Ananyev and Beltsova, he said.
The Trento Finance Police believe that Ananyev has fled to Russia. "If we had found him, we would have detained him," Bergamo said.
If tried and convicted, Ananyev faces four to 12 years in prison, he said.
Ananyev, 56, has a reputation for being a charismatic leader with an entrepreneurial flair.
But his stint at Rosvooruzheniye, from August 1997 to November 1998, was mired in scandal. Under his leadership, already sliding revenues fell from $3.6 billion in 1996 to $2.6 billion in 1997 and $2.3 billion in 1998.
In 1998, the presidential administration's control department, then headed by Vladimir Putin, carried out a thorough audit of Rosvooruzheniye. The findings remain classified.
The media, however, reported at the time that numerous financial violations had been uncovered, including a budget of about $100,000 per month for Ananyev's personal bodyguards and a $500,000 renovation of Ananyev's office. During Ananyev's tenure, the country's arms-selling business was under Economics Minister Yakov Urinson, now the deputy chairman of Unified Energy Systems.
Ananyev, a graduate of Moscow Engineering and Construction Institute and the Finance Academy, served from 1993 to 1997 as chairman of MAPO-Bank, then an offshoot of what is now the MiG Corporation. He was an economic adviser to MiG's general director in 1992, and before that served in the Foreign Intelligence Service.
After leaving Rosvooruzheniye, Ananyev worked for a short time as an adviser to Sergei Chemezov, the head of another arms exporting agency, Promexport. Chemezov was recently appointed head of Rosoboronexport, which now oversees virtually all arms exports.
Ananyev was very opaque in his dealings as director of Rosvooruzheniye, so the Italian charges are not surprising, said Ruslan Pukhov, head of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies. "In a lucrative industry like arms exports, there were always a lot of opportunities for abuse in President Boris Yeltsin's era," he said.
Pukhov said the investigation could deal a blow to MiG's reputation and jeopardize contracts that are currently under negotiation.
He said the timing of the announcement of the arrest warrant was interesting, as Peru may be negotiating a substantial defense deal with Russia. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak, who helps oversee arms trade, visited Lima in April and signed a military and technical cooperation agreement.
MiG, whose image was tarnished in several financial scandals in the 1990s, is in confirmed talks with Algeria for what would be its biggest post-Soviet deal, the sale of 49 MiG-29 jets for about $1.5 billion. Unlike most defense companies, MiG has a license to sell independently of Rosoboronexport. Last year, it earned some $190 million but remains heavily in debt, primarily to the Finance Ministry.
Rosoboronexport reported revenues of $5.4 billion for 2003, the fourth consecutive year that it has set a new post-Soviet record in revenues.
MiG was unavailable for comment Friday, and Rosoboronexport spokesman Alexander Smelyakov stressed that "Ananyev at the moment has no relation whatsoever to Rosoboronexport."
Russian law enforcement officials also were tight-lipped Friday.
"The Italian police have not involved Interpol and did not turn to Russian law enforcement agencies for help in the search for Ananyev," the deputy head of Interpol's Russian bureau, Alexei Abramov, told Interfax.
The Trento Finance Police said investigators would probably ask Moscow for documents to assist them in their probe.
Beltsova, 37, said she has done nothing wrong and that she is not under house arrest. She also denied that any property had been confiscated, Izvestia reported Saturday.
Asked whether she personally knew Ananyev or Rizzo, she told the newspaper, "You are asking personal questions. I will not answer them."
She did say, however, that Ananyev is now in Russia.
But Ananyev could be hiding just about anywhere, said a defense industry official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "He could be anywhere in the world. After holding this senior position, he has connections in many countries," the official said.
The official said that since he left Rosvooruzheniye, Ananyev has dabbled in a number of businesses, including pharmaceuticals. "He is able to pick up any business that comes his way," the official said.
Beltsova's name has surfaced before in a money-laundering investigation, Izvestia reported. It was on a list of 15 names forwarded to the Prosecutor General's Office in 2000 as part of a Swiss money laundering investigation into alleged kickbacks paid for Kremlin renovations, Izvestia said. At the top of the list was Pavel Borodin, the former head of the presidential property department.
Swiss investigators found that a Liechtenstein-registered firm owned by Beltsova received $2.7 million from Swiss firm Mercata Trading, which repaired the Grand Kremlin Palace, Izvestia said.
A Message from The Moscow Times:
Dear readers,
We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent."
These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia.
We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help.
Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact.
By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us.
Not ready to support today?
Remind me later.
Remind me later.
×
Remind me next month
Thank you! Your reminder is set.
We will send you one reminder email a month from now. For details on the personal data we collect and how it is used, please see our Privacy Policy.