Bank Menatep

Bank "MENATEP SPb" (Russian: Акционерный Коммерческий Банк "МЕНАТЕП Санкт-Петербург" / Банк «МЕНАТЕП СПб») was a US$29 billion holding company created by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, that had indirect controlling interest in Yukos Oil Company.

History

Bank "Menatep"

In 1986, the Center for Scientific and Technical Creativity for Youth - TSMNTP (Russian: Межотраслевой Центр Научно-технических программ — ЦМНТП) was created in Moscow by Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Center Menatep was attached to the Komsomol committee in Moscow's Frunzensky District. In 1987, Leonid Nevzlin, a software engineer, met Khodorkovsky and became a Deputy Director at the Center.

Later on, in December 1988, Khodorkovsky established one of the first private banks in Russia, the Commercial Innovation Bank of Scientific-Technical Progress, headquartered in Moscow and renamed in 1990 "MENATEPinvest".^[1][2]

In May 1990, also the Interbank Association "MENATEP" was registered. Khodorkovsky renamed it in 1991 as International Financial Association "MENATEP" (Russian: Международное финансовое объединение МЕНАТЕП).^[3][4]

From 1989 to 1991, Nevzlin served as president of the bank, after which he held other high-ranking positions, including Vice Chairman of the Board (1993-1996) and Head of Public Relations (1994-1996). Nevzlin also worked at Group Menatep, focusing on corporate communications, government relations, and human resources. Nevzlin became in April 1996 Vice President of Yukos, in which Menatep had acquired a 78% share in December 1995.^[5]

From May, 1989 to 1990, Khodorkovski served as Chairman of the board of the "Commercial Innovation Bank of Scientific-Technical Progress", renamed in 1990 "MENATEPinvest".^[6] In August, 1991, Khodorkovski also became Chairman of board of directors of credit-financial enterprises association MENATEP.

From 1992 to 1993, Andrei Loginov,^[7] was Deputy Head of the Board of the Commercial Innovation MENATEP (Bank of Scientific-Technical Progress).

From 1991 to April 1996, Vladislav Surkov held key managerial positions in advertisement and PR departments of Bank Menatep.^[8]

In February 1997, Yuri Milner became the deputy chairman and the head of the investment division of Menatep Bank. ^[9]

Bank "Menatep SPb"

In 1995, a subsidiary in St. Petersburg was founded by the Moscow Bank "Menatep" under the name of "Menatep St. Petersburg".^[10] The commercial bank was registered by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation on November 27, 1995. It had a general license of the Central Bank of Russia to conduct banking operations.^[11] In 1997, Bank "Menatep SPb" was ranked among the 50 fastest growing banks in Russia. In 2000, the Bank, acting as a company, was transformed into a JSC.^[12] In 2001, the bank opened a branch in Ulan Bator, capital of Mongolia. In 2002, Bank "Menatep SPb" was among the 20 largest Russian banks by all key financial indicators and the largest bank in St. Petersburg.^[13]

Vitaly Saveliev, Director General of Aeroflot since 2009, served as Chairman of the Board of Directors in Menatep Bank, St. Petersburg, from November 1995 until 2001.^[14] Dmitri Lebedev served from 2000 until 2001 as Deputy chairman of the Bank "Menatep SPb" and from 2001 until 2003 as Chairman of the bank.^[15]

Group "Menatep"

On September 5, 1997, the company "Flaymon Limited" was registered in Gibraltar and on December 29, 1997 renamed as "Group MENATEP Limited", with a registered capital of 20 million pounds.^[16]

As of October 27, 1997 the total share capital of «Flaymon Limited» comprised 5 million shares, of which Mikhail Khodorkovsky held 10.5%, Leonid Nevzlin 9%, Mikhail Brudno 7.75%, Platon Lebedev 7.75%, Vladimir Dubov 7.75%, and Alexey Golubovich 5%.^[17][18][19] The remaining 50% stake was held by trust management company "Palmus Foundation" in Liechtenstein.^[20][21]

As of June 19, 2002 the total share capital of "Group MENATEP Limited" was distributed as follows: Mikhail Khodorkovsky held 9.5%, Leonid Nevzlin 8%, Mikhail Brudno 7%, Platon Lebedev 7%, Vladimir Dubov 7%, Vasily Shahnovsky 7%, and others 4.5%.^[22][23][24] The remaining 50% stake was held by a trust fund "Special Trust Arrangement".^[25] The sole beneficiary of the trust fund "Special Trust Arrangement" on June 19, 2002 was Mikhail Khodorkovsky.^[26]

Group MENATEP Limited was the owner of 100% shares of the company "Yukos Universal Limited, registered in the Isle of Man. The company "Yukos Universal Limited" in turn owned 100% of the shares of the company "Hulley Enterprises Limited", registered in Cyprus. As of April 2000, the company "Hulley Enterprises Limited" owned more than 52% of shares of JSC "NC" YUKOS.^[27]

As of June 2002 GML controlled about 61% stake in Yukos. Also, GML controlled Bank Menatep SPb and the Trust and Investment Bank (Доверительный и инвестиционный банк).^[28][29]

On 23 May 2005, the Gibraltar-registered company Group Menatep Limited issued in London a press release announcing that former EU Commissioner Frits Bolkestein had joined the Advisory Board of Group Menatep. Before starting his political career, Bolkestein worked for Royal Dutch Shell oil company for 16 years.^[30] Fellow members of the Advisory Board were former US Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Stuart Eizenstat and former German Federal Minister of Economics Otto Graf Lambsdorff.^[31]

Valmet, a Geneva-based global trust business, founded by Christian Michel, agreed in early 1989 to advise Khodorkovsky's group of young businessmen. Valmet later held the key to the Group Menatep fortune, holding shares via nominee ownership schemes and organizing the transfer of vast sums of money via its network.^[32]

Clearstream Scandal

The bank's financial condition was seriously damaged during the 1998 financial crisis due to a requirement by the Russian Central Bank that all commercial banks keep an economically untenable proportion of their reserve requirements in Russian treasury bills known as GKO, which subsequently collapsed, causing a default which led to the crisis and Bank Menatep's bankruptcy. The Central Bank revoked Menatep's licence in May 1999.^[33]

The bankruptcy was finalized by February 2001. In an unprecedented move, the core shareholders of the bank, the financial holding Group Menatep of which Khodorkovsky was a principal, decided to share their own money with the 15,000 Bank Menatep small depositors whose savings had been wiped out by the collapse. A new Bank Menatep Saint Petersburg was created from a Saint Petersburg division of Bank Menatep. It accumulated the assets, but not the liabilities of the original bank.

According to Ernest Backes, former #3 of Clearstream, a clearing-house which has been qualified as a "bank of banks", Menatep maintained an unpublished secret account at Clearstream until at least 2000.^[34][35][36]

In 2001, investigative reporter Denis Robert and ex-banker Ernest Backes, an executive at Cedel (now Clearstream) until May 1983, had published a book, "Revelation$" in which Backes disclosed internal information from Cedel.^[37] After Backes had made his revelations the German foreign intelligence agency BND became interested.

In late 2002, Ernest Backes gave the BND insight into a dossier on Yukos and the principal shareholder of the Russian company, Group Menatep, containing incriminating evidence against Khodorkovsky. The intelligence agency was thrilled. In early 2003 Backes handed over a copy of his dossier on Yukos and Menatep to the BND who finally sent it in February 2003 from Pullach to the Federal Chancellery in Berlin. Meanwhile, Putin traveled to Berlin to open the Russian Culture Days on February 9 and meet with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. On February 26, the German Chancellor went surprisingly to an "extraordinary meeting" with the Russian President in Moscow. ^[38] When asked by the German magazine STERN in 2007, Schroeder denied having handed over the Backes dossier to Vladimir Putin during his visit to Berlin in February 2003.^[39]

The German foreign intelligence agency subsequently invited Backes and another ex-banker, Swiss citizen André Strebel to further talks. In June 2003, Backes and Strebel met with two agents from BND Department 5 ("Organized Crime - International terrorism") in the Munich Maritim Hotel. They agreed a deal: The BND would finance the establishment of an institute. This was on condition that the BND would get access to the extensive archives, which Backes and Strebel had built up in the course of their work for various banking and clearing systems.^[40]

The BND financed the establishment of the "Institute for Economic research Ltd." (Institut für Wirtschaftsrecherchen GmbH (IWR), located in Saarbrücken and the ex-bankers started working on their dossier. To outsiders, the BND background was not recognizable.^[41]

On July 2, 2003, Khodorkovsky’s business associate Platon Lebedev was arrested and Mikhail Khodorkovsky himself was arrested on October 25, 2003. A month later, on November 26, 2003, Backes and his partner Strebel filed through the BND sham institute in Saarbrücken a criminal complaint with the Swiss attorney general against Khodorkovsky and his colleagues Platon Lebedev and Alexei Golubovich, accusing them of money-laundering and supporting a criminal organization. They requested an investigation and a search of records of the Swiss office of Menatep SA, Menatep Finances SA, Valmet. and of Bank Leu in Geneva, related to claims of fraud against the Russian company Avisma and money-laundering by Menatep in Switzerland.^[42][43]

Clearstream denied "the existence of parallel accounts" and of "personal accounts" (in response, Denis Robert published a list of several personal accounts on his blog).^[44] However, the company did recognize that "a banking establishment may request an unpublished account, that is, an account only known by the establishments concerned by the transaction, control authorities, and the auditors of the firm". Clearstream also indicated that it had "spent 15 million euros on various audits without finding anything," Denis Robert's accusations.^[45]

Refusal of the European Commission to open an investigation

On April 26, 2006, 20 Minutes revealed that "in May 2005, MEP Paul Van Buitenen was shocked by Frits Bolkestein's presence on Menatep's international consultative council, a Russian banking establishment, and by his work for Shell, a British-Dutch petrol company, two firms 'maintaining secret accounts in Clearstream'... Van Buitenen, also Dutch, then asked for 'clarification' to the European Commission and the opening of a parliamentary investigation. The Commission's president, José Manuel Barroso, replied that these facts 'do not bring up any new question' and that it is not known 'if Menatep made contact with Bolkestein while he was in these positions'. No investigation therefore took place."

The free daily points out that "in 2001, it was Bolkestein himself who announced the Commission's refusal to open up a parliamentary investigation on Clearstream", following Harlem Désir's requests and accusations that Menatep had an "undeclared account" at Clearstream. Bolkestein refused to answer any questions by the newspaper.^[46]

From "Menatep" to "Trust"

In 2004, OJSC Bank "MENATEP SPb" was bought by the management and renamed to National Bank "TRUST" (ОАО) (Russian: Национальный банк "ТРАСТ").^[47][48] The decision to change the name of the bank was made by the general meeting of shareholders of the Bank "Menatep SPb" on October 11, 2004.^[49] Ilya Yurov, since October 2003 Chairman of the Board of Directors, announced that the new bank planned to continue activities of Corporate Banking service and services for private clients. Yurov served as the Head of Treasury at the MENATEP Bank in Moscow since 1996. Since October 2003, he had been the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the TRUST Investment Bank and National Bank TRUST (formerly TRUST National Bank).^[50]

As of April 1, 2006, Trust Bank was the No. 34 among Russia’s banks in equity (5.4 billion rubles), according to the rating compiled by Kommersant Dengi (Kommersant Money). It was scored the No. 54 in net asset total (21.5 billion rubles). The holders are five individuals with Ilya Yurov owning the biggest stake of 35.94 percent.^[51]

In November 2006, National Bank "Trust" (NB "Trust") moved from St. Petersburg to Moscow.^[52]

See also

• Clearstream scandal
• Platon Lebedev
• YUKOS
• Group MENATEP (in Russian)

External links

• Website of Group MENATEP: Group MENATEP
• Website of Group MENATEP: Group MENATEP, groupmenatep.com. Website archived on Nov 20, 2002; web.archive.org.
• Organizations of St. Petersburg: МЕНАТЕП СПБ БАНК ЗАО ОФИС ПЕТРОГРАДСКИЙ - Санкт-Петербург
• Website of Bank «MENATEP SPb»: Банк «МЕНАТЕП СПб», at menatepspb.com. Website archived on Oct 18, 2000; web.archive.org.
• Website of Bank «MENATEP SPb»: Банк «МЕНАТЕП СПб», at menatepspb.com. Website archived on May 15, 2001; web.archive.org.
• Information about the bank: Информация о Банке, menatepspb.com. Website archived on April 24, 2001; web.archive.org.
• Information about the bank: Акционерный Коммерческий Банк "МЕНАТЕП Санкт-Петербург - О Банке, menatepspb.com. Website archived on Jan 2, 2006; web.archive.org.
• Bank Menatep SPb (Website archived on Jun 2, 2004, web.archive.org). In 2004 renamed to Trust National Bank, at bank.trust.ru. Website archived on Jan 11, 2007, web.archive.org.
• Coverstory, hound-dogs.com, website archived on July 9, 2007, web.archive.org. Lucy Komisar on "Revelation$" by Denis Robert and Ernest Backes, former #3 of Clearstream.
• В России появились легальные миллиардеры, kommersant.ru, 26.06.2002
• МЕНАТЕП СПб готовят к продаже иностранцам, kommersant.ru, 5.07.2002
• История банка Траст. Откуда растут корни. - Из “Менатепа” в “Траст” или что делать с чужой репутацией?, my-trust.livejournal.com
• "Менатеп" был создан на партийные деньги, а крышу ему предоставил Квантришвили, abos.ru

References