By James Rossiter, Evening Standard Last updated at 17:51pm on 15.07.03
RUSSIAN tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, under threat of arrest as a result of a widening probe into the country’s flagship oil major Yukos, has named Lord (Jacob) Rothschild as a possible successor at the helm of the company.
The fraud and tax investigations could draw in a tranche of top Yukos executives, and in these circumstances the group would approach the London banker, a company official told Russia’s Kommersant newspaper.
Lord Rothschild, 66, has a host of high-profile international corporate, political and banking contacts in keeping with his position as a member of the influential Rothschild banking dynasty.
The obvious successor to Khodorkovsky would be the group’s chief financier Platon Lebedev, but he is in jail facing fraud charges.
While refusing to comment on any potential role for him at Yukos, Lord Rothschild defended the oil baron. ‘Khodorkovsky is a progressive businessman who is devoted to Russia,’ his office was quoted as saying. The spokesman said Lord Rothschild had no business relationship with Menatep, a Khodorkovsky company that owns 61% of Yukos.
Lord Rothschild still heads J Rothschild Capital Management, the fund management business he set up nearly 20 years ago. That business is now part of the larger St James’s Place Capital wealth management group chaired by Sir Mark Weinberg, a long-time friend and business associate.
He is also co-founder with former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger of Khodorkovsky’s Yukos-financed Open Russia Foundation, established in December 2001 to develop relations between Russia and the West. In March last year Khodorkovsky appointed former British Foreign Secretary Lord (David) Owen as chairman of Yukos International UK in London.
Lord Rothschild split from his cousin Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, chairman of English investment bank NM Rothschild, to set up his own investment bank J Rothschild Assurance in the 1980s. He still runs it from the basement of a house in St James’s.
He quickly made a name for himself, joining forces with the late Sir James Goldsmith and Australia’s Kerry Packer for an assault on BAT Industries via Anglo Leasing, one of a number of holdings in financial services companies.
His latest high-profile takeover campaign was a failed attempt to take textiles group Coats Viyella private three years ago.
The Yukos probe is being closely watched in Washington, which has worked hard at developing an energy relationship with Russia.
thisislondon.co.uk
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Monday, December 27, 2010
Mikhail Khodorkovsky & Platon Lebedev found guilty of embezzlement.
One more for today! First Irish banker bonuses and now onto another bankster.
A behind the scenes bankster family, and their connection to a news story breaking today.
Except you would never know there was any connection.
Good thing I have a long memory.
And I print up news that I find very interesting.
Ironically I came across the background news of this story just a few days ago…
So let’s tackle the present news first: Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been found guilty.
Who is Mikhail Khodorkovsky? Who is he connected too?
Some background-
- Mikhail Khodorkovsky was born June 26, 1963
- He opened his first business in 1986, a private cafe, and then in 1987, the Center for Scientific and Technical Creativity of the Youth. The center imported and resold computers, as well as a range of other products.
- In 1987 – four years before the fall of the USSR – he founded what would become Menatep, one of post-Soviet Russia’s first private banks.
(At the age of 24 years old, this man has enough business moxy and funds to start one of the first private banks???. From a cafe and used computer business to a private bank?? )
-By 1988, he had built an import-export business with a turnover of $10 million a year.
-He made his first millions in the 1990s when the bank acquired massive amounts of shares in companies that were privatised for bargain prices.
-In December 1995, as a result of the so-called shares-for-loans auctions, Khodorkovsky’s Menatep Group took control of the Yukos oil company. For the knockdown price of $350m.
-Mikhail Khodorkovsky, even served as deputy fuel and oil minister during Boris Yeltsin’s presidency. (conflict of interest, insider knowledge)
Khodorkovsky and his company initially earned a reputation for dubious business practices, including diluting stakes held by foreign shareholders, notably the American investor Kenneth Dart.
After the 1998 financial crisis Yukos tumbled in value, but Khodorkovsky held on to the firm, dragging minority shareholders into courts to keep control of his empire.
Just two years later however, he was the darling of the Western stock markets.
That should be enough background on the man and his pilfering ways. Him and his partner are no doubt guilty of the crimes they have been charged with.
Dubious business practices indeed.
But, what is most interesting is the action Khodorkovsky undertook when he was arrested in 2003. I couldn’t find any mention of this in the latest news reports.
So I will connect the dots for you. From Khodorkovsky to Jacob Rothschild
In 2003, when Khodorkovsky was arrested, he signed over all his shares in Yukos, to one
Jacob Rothschild, of the Rothschild banker and Oil family.
The Rothschilds have financed oil exploration in Russia since the Tsarist period, while Lord Rothschild has close connections with Yukos.
(Lord Rothschild has “close connections” with Yukos? Was Lord Rothschild the money behind the private bank and the Menatep Group mentioned above)
If all the top Yukos managers were unable to carry out the role, Lord Rothschild would take over, the company official told Kommersant on condition of anonymity.
The BBC was not alone in reporting this news. Though it did not enjoy widespread coverage.
The Washington Times covered it, and this was the article I saved so many years ago…
Control of Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s shares in the Russian oil giant Yukos have passed to renowned banker Jacob Rothschild, under a deal they concluded prior to Mr. Khodorkovsky’s arrest, the Sunday Times reported.
Voting rights to the shares passed to Mr. Rothschild, 67, under a “previously unknown arrangement” designed to take effect in the event that Mr. Khodorkovsky could no longer “act as a beneficiary” of the shares, it said.
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