Mikhail Shelkov is the majority owner of VSMPO-AVISMA, a Russian titanium firm, through his ownership of Industrial Investments LLC.[1]
VSMPO stands for VerkhneSaldinskoye Metallurgicheskoye Proizvodstvennoye Ob'yedineniye (Верхнесалдинское металлургическое производственное объединение, or Metal-producing company of Verkhnyaya Salda; and AVISMA for AVIatsionnyye Spetsial'nyye MAterialy or AVIation Special MAterials).[2]
Biography
editIn 2016 Shelkov joined with Rostec to invest in the Oktava factory project, which is located in Tula.[3][4]
In 2018 Shelkov, whose Avisma company "provides landing gear parts for about one third of all Boeing jets", had not been sanctioned in the aftermath of the Annexation of Crimea.[4]
In July 2022 Reuters complained that Shelkov hadn't yet been sanctioned by any Western country.[5]
In March 2023 Shelkov had not been sanctioned by the US, EU nor the UK.[6]
In August 2023 the SPFU cancelled an auction of InvestAgro LLC, property of Shelkov which it had obtained from the court, because of disinterest.[7]
In August 2023 the SBU revealed to the court a scheme by which Shelkov stole from the State Property Fund of Ukraine, which was now the owner of the Demurinsky mining and beneficiation plant in the Dnipropetrovsk region since Shelkov had been relieved of this asset by National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine sanctions in February 2023.[8][9] The plant employs 284 people,[10] and has been in production since 2006.[11] He was charged with two infractions of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:[8]
- 212 evasion of payment of taxes, fees (mandatory payments));
- 209 laundering of property obtained by crime
In July 2024 Shelkov was convicted of profiting from a scheme by which he managed to import to Russia a significant quantity of Ukrainian ore, from Demurinsky, via an Austrian intermediary. The Austrian go-between never touched the resource, which was exported directly from Ukraine to Russia. Shelkov had formerly owned the Demurinsky complex but it was expropriated from him owing to sanctions against Russia for its victimization of Ukraine.[12] His Austrian enterprise acted as a customer of Demurinsky but in reality, the minerals were sent directly to Russia by rail.[8]
In July 2024 the privatization of Demurinsky was stalled.[13]
References
edit- ^ "VSMPO-Avisma shareholder closes deal for purchase of Russian assets of Arconic".
- ^ Liuhto, Sutyrin, Blanchard 2016.
- ^ https://rostec.ru/upload/iblock/e51/e51272bbcf59ce3ce8320cdabf668a1d.pdf.
{{cite news}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ a b Nemtsova, Anna (27 April 2018). "Vladimir Putin's Old KGB Buddy Has Plans to Help Russia Survive Sanctions". The Daily Beast.
- ^ https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/dozens-russian-weapons-tycoons-have-faced-no-western-sanctions-2022-07-01/.
{{cite news}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ https://www.debevoise.com/-/media/files/insights/publications/2023/03/15_a-guide-to-us-uk-and-eu-sanctions-and.pdf.
{{cite news}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ https://ti-ukraine.org/en/news/sale-of-confiscated-company-of-russian-oligarch-shelkov-failed-again/.
{{cite news}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ a b c "SBU exposed another scheme of the Russian oligarch Shelkov. He delivered Ukrainian titanium to Russia to bypass sanctions". 30 August 2023.
- ^ "Confiscating Russian Oligarchs' Assets in Ukraine: The First Successes".
- ^ "The Fund expects to start privatization of confiscated russian assets in 2023 - Chairman of the State Property Fund Rustem Umerov in an interview with Reuters".
- ^ "Sale of sanctioned assets: Aeroc and Demurinsky GOK included in large-scale privatization | УНН".
- ^ "До росії вивезли український титан на 90 млн гривень. Схему організував російській олігарх Шелков — БЕБ" (in Ukrainian).
- ^ "Ukraine state-owned enterprises weekly — Issue 140".