By Guy Faulconbridge, Gleb Bryanski
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian prosecutors asked a judge on Thursday to put billionaire Vadim Moshkovich, founder of the country’s top agriculture company Rusagro, in pre-trial detention on suspicion of large-scale fraud.
What is known about the case and the billionaire?
DETAINED
Moshkovich, 57, Russia’s 55th richest businessman, according to Forbes, and ex-CEO of Rusagro Maxim Basov were detained and police raided several Rusagro offices.
Izvestia newspaper reported that the company’s current CEO Timur Lipatov was also being questioned by the police. Rusagro’s shares fell by about 18% on the news.
Russia’s Vedomosti newspaper and RBC said the criminal case against Moshkovich was related to a conflict with the founders of Solnechny Produkti, a major supplier of vegetable oils and fats.
Russian court documents showed that Moshkovich was charged with large-scale fraud, for which there is a 10-year maximum prison sentence. Prosecutors asked in court documents for him to be kept in detention awaiting trial.
Moshkovich pleaded not guilty, Interfax reported.
According to RBC and Kommersant, the founders of Solnechny Produkti had a long legal battle but that the situation suddenly changed a month ago. It was unclear why.
WHAT IS RUSAGRO?
The company is Russia’s leading producer of sugar, meat, oil and fat products, and is ranked among the country’s top five landowners. It controls 6,850 square kilometres of land – more than four times the area of Greater London.
Rusagro has a head office in the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine and is subject to frequent attacks.
The company issued a statement confirming several of its offices had been searched but saying the operation was not related to its “current activities”.
“We understand that this situation may raise questions among our clients, partners and employees, so we hasten to assure you: the company fully complies with the law and is ready to provide all necessary assistance to authorised bodies,” it said.
It said all company activities were continuing as normal, and all obligations were being met. “We are confident in the transparency of our work and expect the procedures to be completed as soon as possible.”
Rusagro changed its domicile from Cyprus to Russia this year, following a Russian court decision in a case brought by the Agriculture Ministry against Rusagro’s Cyprus-based parent company.
The court annulled the Cypriot company’s ownership rights after its shareholders refused to convert their shares into those of the Russian entity to have them effectively frozen under a law, passed after the start of the war in Ukraine.
Rusagro, which is not under Western sanctions, is Russia’s only major listed agricultural company.
Its shares have been quoted on the Moscow Stock Exchange (MOEX) since last month, replacing the GDRs of its Cyprus-based parent company which until last year were also listed on the London Stock Exchange, after a successful IPO in 2011.
WHO IS MOSHKOVICH?
Born in 1967 in Moscow, Moshkovich started out in business importing sugar in 1995 in the chaos of post-Soviet Russia. He bought his first sugar plants and agricultural land in the following years.
Moshkovich founded Rusagro in 2003. The billionaire was also a member of the upper house of the Russian parliament between 2006 and 2014, representing the Belgorod region.
After having sanctions imposed by the West, Moshkovich resigned as chairman of Rusagro in 2022, cutting his stake to below 50%.
Moshkovich held assets in real estate development in Moscow. He is also a philanthropist whose major project in recent years has been a school for gifted children, located just outside Moscow.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Gleb Bryanski in MoscowEditing by Gareth Jones)
