Mikhail Fridman: Profile and Perception
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Jan. 29, 2007 MIKHAIL FRIDMAN: PROFILE AND PERCEPTION Summary Wal-Mart has asked Stratfor to provide a report detailing public information available on Russian business-owner Mikhail Fridman, the chairman and controlling stakeholder of the Alfa Group. This group includes the TNK-BP oil company, Alfa Bank and the X5 chain of retail food stores. His estimated net worth of approximately $6.5 billion makes him one of Russia's richest people. He also is considered one of the most influential businessmen in Russia, part of an exclusive group known as oligarchs that rose after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The purpose of the report is to identify any criminal or unethical behavior connected to Fridman that could harm any potential business relationship. All searches were conducted in a noninvasive manner that would not leave a trail leading back to those seeking the information. Stratfor’s searches indicate Fridman, who currently lives in Moscow, is one of the richest men in Russia with connections to a number of influential business ventures around the world. He himself admits his enormous wealth and business influence was gained through a number of unethical practices. While Fridman’s actions and unethical behavior are well known, such problems are typical of all influential individuals and businesses in the former Soviet Union. Relatively speaking, Fridman is thought to have one of the best reputations among similarly placed Russian businessmen. Traces conducted with U.S. intelligence agencies note that currently there is no adverse intelligence regarding Fridman. Historically, Fridman was tied to organized criminal groups at the time he was establishing his business; these groups are thought to have contributed partially to the success of the ventures. CONFIDENTIAL – FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY U.S. intelligence traces note that Fridman has long-standing ties to Russia's KGB, and has ties to at least one confirmed KGB intelligence officer. His original business associates also had connections to the KGB. Records indicate that at one time Fridman was engaged in smuggling goods to Nigerian students. He also has a family member in Kazakhstan described as having extensive ties to organized crime and as being involved in hard-core criminal activity. Records also indicate Fridman was arrested in 2000 or 2001 for selling illegal merchandise, though the charges later vanished. Sources noted that while Fridman’s record has a number of allegations of wrongdoing and other malfeasance, one must always assess what kind of trouble one © 2007 Strategic Forecasting, Inc. 1 is buying when doing business in Russia. The sources say nearly all, if not all, individuals of a similar position in Russia have a similar history. Personal History Mikhail Maratovich (Misha) Fridman was born in Lviv, Ukraine, as the only child in a middle-class Jewish family. Conflicting reports put his birth date at April 21, 1964, and June 26, 1963. Fridman’s parents belonged to the Communist Party, and worked as engineers in the defense manufacturing industry. Several Web sites note that Fridman’s parents are devout Jews who did not allow many people to come into their house for fear that they might discover the family’s religious beliefs, jeopardizing their Party membership and careers. To conceal their Judaism, Fridman’s parents did not circumcise him when he was eight days old as dictated by Jewish tradition, instead waiting until he was six years old. According to details Fridman related to the Russian Jewish Congress, a local mohel was brought in to perform the circumcision according to Jewish custom. Following the procedure, Fridman came down with a serious infection that required hospitalization. Though he recovered from the infection, it is said Fridman strongly dislikes Orthodox Jews as a result of the experience. Classmates say Fridman was a good student, though he had few friends when he was young, and was teased constantly for being overweight. Fridman attended college at the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys, where he graduated with high honors. During his time at the school, friends say he associated with a bohemian crowd, and was too shy to participate in theatrical performances. He was also suspected of involvement in the drug trade during his college years, supplying drugs to his bohemian friends. During that time, he reportedly already had developed connections to the KGB. One media report notes he believed there was nothing shameful about reporting his friends’ drug use to law enforcement, saying the KGB was more interested in finding people who used drugs and communicated with foreigners than in locating dissidents. While studying at the institute, Fridman met his wife, Maria, who also had moved to Moscow to attend school. The couple was married against his parents' wishes when Maria became pregnant while they were still in school. The two are still married, though Maria and their two daughters, Katya and Lora, live in Paris where both daughters attend the American School of Paris. Fridman and his wife reportedly see each other very rarely and barely maintain contact. According to media reports, Fridman currently lives in a more-than-12,000-square- foot flat in Moscow with a bodyguard. He is known to hire high-quality prostitutes on occasion. He describes himself as lazy and gluttonous. Fridman is known to play golf and collect samurai swords. Personal friends have described Fridman as greedy, resentful, distrustful and prone to depression and suicidal thoughts. Fridman’s parents have reportedly fled Russia to Cologne, Germany, in the past year due to threats from criminal organizations. Professional History Following graduation from the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys in 1986, Fridman spent two years as an engineer at the Electrostal plant in Moscow. During that time, he has said he was also involved in several private enterprises that were illegal under the laws of the Soviet Union, including running a discotheque and a window washing business. In 1988, Fridman joined two former classmates and formed a cooperative © 2007 Strategic Forecasting, Inc. 2 business eventually known as Alfa Group, selling imported antique rugs, sugar, tea and cigarettes and scalped theater tickets, later selling computers and copiers. The business was Fridman’s attempt to take advantage of new economic reforms put in place by Mikhail Gorbachev. The company then began a commodities trading firm known as Alfa Eko, earning enough capital to move full force into the financial services industry. Alfa Capital was set up in 1990 and Alfa Bank followed in 1991. For the new ventures, Fridman partnered with former Russian Minister for Foreign Economic Relations Peter Aven. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in late 1991, Fridman and Alfa Eko began exporting oil and oil products that were in the process of being privatized by former state-owned entities. He later created the Tyumen Oil Co., known as TNK, to centralize the group’s oil business. By the end of 1994, the company was exporting 73.3 million barrels per year of oil. In 1995, acquaintances say Fridman felt he was losing influence within the Alfa group to Aven. In an attempt to attain greater status within the company and expand into other ventures, Fridman attempted to become president of the Russian Jewish Congress, despite being a questionable candidate because he does not practice Judaism or donate to Jewish charities. Moreover, at one of the group's assemblies, he displayed scars caused by his circumcision and described how he suffered as a child because of the incident. Even so, he eventually became the group's vice president, a position he still holds. Sources within Israeli's Mossad note that given the enormous pressure Fridman was under at the time, it is likely he sought to lead the organization because of a belief that it would afford a greater degree of protection or security to his risky personal and business ventures. Three high-level sources within the Jewish fundraising community believe Fridman thus sought this position as a cover to help him in the event that authorities took legal action against him or his business. In 1996, Fridman officially became the chairman of the board of the Alfa Consortium while also holding high-level positions in many of the related business ventures, a position he retains today. The Alfa group of subsidiary companies now spans a number of industries, including oil, telecommunications, retail, banking, securities and trading, paper, media holdings, antiquities dealings, construction materials, and several proprietary businesses that have been identified as dummy firms and intermediaries that own other unrelated operations. Within Russia, the companies are known for their Western style of management and the high number of European managers who have been brought in to manage the companies. In 2003, Fridman sold 50 percent of Alfa subsidiary TNK to British oil firm BP Amoco PLC in a deal worth $6.15 billion dollars, creating TNK-BP, the 10th-largest private oil company in the world and the third-largest oil company in Russia in terms of production. Fridman now serves as the chairman and a controlling shareholder of the venture. Reputation and Personal Affiliations Fridman is seen as a respectable businessman by Russian standards. He is viewed as one of the original oligarchs, who built their wealth beginning in the 1990s by taking assets formerly nationalized under the Soviet Union as their own. Many began to make money using Russia’s natural resources, though they later diversified their © 2007 Strategic Forecasting, Inc. 3 businesses to include a number of other industries. There is a strong perception among the public that the oligarchs had strong connections with organized criminal networks and committed a number of crimes that were used to further their businesses.