Biography
Vitaly Yusufov was born in 1979. In 2000, he graduated from Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) with a major in International economy. In 2002, he defended his thesis on "Macroeconomic problems of improving the competition of Russia" and got a Ph.D. in Economic sciences.
In 2004-2006 he worked as assistant to Gazprom export CEO
In July 2006, Yusufov became chief of staff to Matthias Warnig, managing director of North European Gas Pipeline Company (NEGPC)
In 2006, he headed Moscow branch of Nord Stream AG.
In 2009, he bought German shipyard Nordic Yards
In 2010, he became co-owner of telecommunications company Osnova Telecom
Source: Lentapediya
Dossier
In June 2009, Wadan Yards announced its insolvency. The fate of the shipyards was discussed at the meetings of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Russian head of state even promised to replace the "inflated" investors in Wadan Yards by "real" ones. A few days after the meeting it was announced that shipyards were acquired by Gevor IV AG, which in the same year was renamed into Nordic Yards AG. The company’s paperwork stated Yusufov Jr. as its executive director.
Source: Rossiysjaya Gazeta, 19 August 2009
In summer 2010, it turned out that Yusufov owned AyKomInvest. It was incorporated in May 2010 and on 3 June 2010, Osnova Telecom was established. AyKomInvest owned 74.9% of the newly established entity. The blocking package (25.1%) belonged to Voentelekom, which is controlled by the Ministry of Defense. Osnova Telecom was to develop a network to provide wireless Internet access, primarily for the military, although "excessive capacity" could be used to cater to the public. Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov asked President Medvedev to assist in allotting Osnova Telecom with frequencies belonging to the military.
Source: Vedomosti, 29 July 2010
In 2010 Igor Shchegolev, Minister of Communications and Mass Media, voiced an opinion that Russian mobile communications market of the fourth generation (4G), in particular, LTE, may see new players. Vitaly Yusufov’s Osnova Telecom may enter the market. Mobile operators expressed their dissatisfaction with reports concerning the possibility of new unknown companies emerging on LTE market. The three major mobile operators wrote angry letters to the minister, the prime minister, and the president. Media began to talk about corruption and conspiracy in regard of Igor Shchegolev and Osnova Telecom.
Regions.Ru, 07 September 2010
In spring, 2009 Vitaly Yusufov and his father were mentioned in articles on Wadan Yards, German shipyards. Media reported that Igor Yusufov supported businessman Andrei Burlakov, the Russian owner of Wadan Yards, and that Vitaly Yusufov advised him on international law. Later Burlakov claimed that already at that time Yusufov Jr. controlled Wadan Yards.
Source: Vedomisti, 25 January 2011
In April 2011, Yusuf bought a 19.91% stake in Bank of Moscow from Andrei Borodin who left for the UK. In fact, Yusufov acquired companies, which owned these shares. Prior to the purchase Europroject Investments Global Limited took out a $ 1.1 billion loan from Bank of Moscow using Nordic Yards as a guarantee, and Borodin said that the price of the bank’s shares was understated. In addition, Yusufov bought shares from several other bank co-owners, his share at the Bank of Moscow reaching about 26 percent. According to some experts, Yusufov intended to resell the purchased shares to VTB Bank that was unable to buy them directly due to a conflict with Bank of Moscow minority shareholders headed by Borodin.
Source: Moskovskie Novosti, 12 April 2011
During those same days Igor Yusufov, the businessman’s father, lost his position as Special Presidential Envoy for International Energy co-operation. The press attributed his dismissal to his possible involvement in the transaction assuming that instead of negotiating a purchase in the interests of the state, the official acquired the shares for his son.
Source: BFM.ru, 8 April 2011
Maxim Osadchy, head of analytical department of the bank of project finance:
"The shares, acquired by Vitaly Yusufov may be arrested, and the transaction may be declared illegal, if indeed his company took a loan to buy securities in the Bank of Moscow under the bail of shipyards. But the initiator of the arrest could act only some VTB structure. Because there is still no information about these actions, we can assume that Vitaly Yusufov acted in the interests of VTB and ultimately its shares will go to the State Bank."
Alebedev.ru, 18.04.2011
Kostin warned Yusufov from buying the bank's shares, however, the warning was in vain, and he complained to the presidential administration. That is, in the words of a friend of Kostin, could provoke the resignation of Igor Yusufov, who occupied at the time the post of Special Representative of the President on Energy Cooperation. The deal with Borodin and the resignation was announced on the same day, wherein Vitaly Yusufov denied the connection between the two events: according to him, his father has long asked to resign.
... Yesterday there was another event, recalled the other investment of Yusufov - to German shipyards: their firmer owner, former deputy general director of "Financial Leasing Company" (FLC) Andrey Burlakov, was shot in the evening. Together with the common-law wife, ex-deputy chairman of the board of the "World Bank" Anna Etkina he came in an interview with NTV journalist Maxim Gladkiy to the restaurant "Hutorok" on the Leningrad Highway. Unknown shot from a traumatic gun and seriously wounded of both spouses, according to the source of "Interfax" - with live ammunition. Burlakov had a weak heart (he recently had surgery), and he died when he was brought to the hospital. A Criminal case was initiated upon criminal attacks under the article "attempted murder of two or more persons." Gladkiy planned an interview with Burlakov for filming a documentary film about the fate of another businessman. However, he believes that the reasons for the attack should be found in the more distant past, not in the history of the shipyards, but it still has not come to an end.
Slon, 30.09.2011
In June 2011, the Federal Antimonopoly Service allowed Yusufov’s entities to increase their stake in Bank of Moscow to 49.9% through acquiring shares from minority shareholders. However, analysts speculated that he would not do it, because he had had to borrow money even for the purchase of the previous stakes. In July 2011, it became known that the Bank of Russia marked as risky the credit issued to Europroject Investments Global Limited so that Yusufov could purchase shares in the Bank of Moscow. In September 2011, Yusufov sold his stake in the Bank of Moscow to VTB.
Source: Kommersant, 30 September 2011
In late September 2011 Andrei Burlakov, a prominent businessman and former owner of the German shipyards Wadan Yards, was killed in Moscow. Anna Etkina, his common law wife and ex-deputy chairman of the board of trustees in Mira Bank, was seriously injured.
A month before the murder Burlakov tried to institute criminal proceedings against Vitaly Yusufov and to ensure the arrested of his Bank of Moscow shares.
Ruslan Milchenko, director of anti-corruption center on analytics and security, confirmed that Etkina and Burlakov turned to the center for help. “They said they had lost Wadan shipyard as a result of the raider attacks. We started to collect evidence”, said Milchenko. Shortly before the assassination Etkina reported to law enforcement agencies that in July 2008 a deal was concluded as to the acquisition by FLC-West Holding (Luxembourg) of a 70% stake in Norwegian Aker Yards (later renamed Wadan Yards Group - Wygas), which owns two shipyards in Germany and one in Ukraine. The amount of the agreement reached 291.6 million euros.
“I had no ties whatsoever to Wadan Yards”, said Vitaly Yusufov. “In June 2009 I founded Nordic Yards from scratch. After that on 14 August, I bought at an auction property previously owned by Wadan Yards that was already bankrupt by then. My bid won at an open auction. Besides, under the contract I undertook to finish the two major ferries, the cost of each amounting to about 200 million euros. They were completed in 2010”.
Source: Izvestiya, 3 October 2011
In February 2013, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, in a letter to President Vladimir Putin said that "Osnova Telecom" (25% owned by the Ministry of Defense) does not require frequencies to create the fourth-generation mobile networks, dedicated to her without competition. The position of "Osnova" - the license can be revoked only by the court order.
Court in February 2013 is in the litigation with the Ministry of Defense, trying to recall the frequency and resolution on the activities of the "Osnova Telecom".
Forbes, 2013
About the business - "purses" of Dmitry Medvedev openly spoke after revelations of the fugitive banker, a former Bank of Moscow President Andrei Borodin, who admitted from London: that the former president's representative Vitaly Yusufov led negotiating’s with him on the sale of the Bank of Moscow, explaining it with the fact, that there is a necessity to create a personal "pension fund" for one "interesting young man." Named Dmitry Anatolyevich. Later Borodin also announced details of the transaction: Yusufov bought shares of Bank of Moscow for $ 800 million and then sold them to VTB at $ 300 million more. "The Battle of Borodino" has ended, can be said, with draw: Borodin was granted an asylum in the UK as a victim of Russian political octopus, and a businessman Yusufov, close to Medvedev - $ 300 million. Minus light nuisance from banker gab.
Sobesednik, 14.11.2013
Nordic Yards of Vitaly Yusufov, which includes two German shipyards in the Baltic Sea, may get a new asset in Germany - shipyard in Stralsund, which is going to become bankrupt. The same seller has another problem shipyard near, which sources of "Kommersant" consider logical to include in the deal. On both shipyards is possible an industrial cooperation with the assets of Nordic Yards, and the price of their situation is unlikely to be high.
Kommersant, 04.24.2014
Voentelekom have had many projects, "Osnova Telecom" was engaged in the construction of a private telephone network of the first phase, testing the latest equipment, purchased in the United States by "innovative". And at the end of 2012 "Osnova" planned to start-up pilot stage of the LTE network, the volume of investment in it is estimated at 100 million dollars. The same Vitaly Yusufov in an interview with the newspaper “Vedomosti” said that. So the company, controlled by Dmitry Medvedev, has decided to oust from mobile market the "big three" and "Rostelecom"
But that's not all. In an interview with Borodin, mentioned above, revealed that through the mediation of the "special envoy of Medvedev" Yusufov "guarantor of the Constitution" charged to a state (i.e. our) VTB to issue a credit to Suleiman Kerimov in $ 5 billion for the purchase of "Uralkaliy". During this Yusufov received an option on 8-10% of the shares of "Uralkaliy" for the same price, for which Kerimov bought the package at Rybolovlev. As the capitalization of "Uralkaliy" has doubled since then, Yusufov profit in the implementation of this option turned out to be around $ 500 million (it is not reported, how much "a humble American billionaire Medvedev" received from this transaction).
Institute of High communitarianism, 06/08/2015
For a month before the murder, Burlakov tried to initiate a criminal case against the son of Igor Yusufov - Vitaly, and also tried to achieve the arrest shares of Bank of Moscow, he owns. By the way, than both, Burlakov and Etkina argued that Yusufovs were allegedly involved in the raider seizure of shipyards Wadan Yards. Again there is a coincidence, the killer shot Burlakov and seriously wounded Etkina after she gave testimony in a US court against Yusufov.
... Mass media, in particular, mentioned that if Burlakov was friendly with Yusufov Jr. before the jail, then, when he came out in 2010 on bail of 50 million rubles, it was obvious that their relationship deteriorated sharply. Since that time Burlakov stopped extra hiding, that behind a deal on buying the German shipyards, designed to hide the FLC machinations with budget money, stood the special representative of the president.
New look, 26/11/2015
Businessman Vitaly Yusufov sold his German shipyard Nordic Yards, because he was not able to download them with Russian orders. First, relations were not enough, and then the devaluation prevented, believes an expert.
In early March, one of the companies of Malaysian Genting Group announced that it is buying the German shipyard Nordic Yards for € 230.6 million. Since 2009, the owner of the shipyards called himself a Russian businessman Vitaly Yusufov, son of the former president's special representative for international energy cooperation Igor Yusufov.
... According to Nordic Yards public filings, in 2011-2012 the company worked with the symbolic profit, but in 2013 showed a loss of € 40.7 million (see the table). During 2014-2015, it was not possible to find statements. In recent years, Nordic Yards has been unprofitable, said RBC a source, close to the company: the amount of damages was "tens of millions of euros per year." According to him, Yusufov spent around € 100 million on the maintenance of the company. If we add these € 100 million to € 240 million, paid before, the recent sale of the asset to Malaysians for € 230 million does not look like a bargain.
RBC, 10.03.2016