Navigating sanctions
In January last year, Russian businessman Sergei Adonyev, his companies and property came under US sanctions. The US Treasury announced this. Now things have gone so far that he is not allowed to make a simple bank transfer.
Multi-station operator
In the Forbes ranking Sergey Adoniev ranks at the bottom of the second hundred richest Russian entrepreneurs with a fortune estimated at $550-$700,550 million. His business interests are varied. As a child from the Ukrainian Lvov, where he was born in 1961, he and his parents moved to Leningrad, where he successfully graduated from the Polytechnic University. Adoniev remained to teach at the same university for several years, and began his business, like many entrepreneurs of that generation, with the supply of personal computers from abroad. They have become a mandatory attribute of any private office. Among other things, he took money from his native university for the supply of PCs to his own department.
But he didn’t limit himself to trading computer hardware; he also began selling overseas fruits and sugar. With two partners, they founded a company in 1991 called “Albee Jazz”. In just one year, it became the leader in suppliers of sweet products in the Russian Federation, but during the banking system crisis of 1995, it went bankrupt. In this regard, in 1996, Sergei Nikolaevich and his partners opened a new project – Joint Fruit Company concern (JFC). The organization also went bankrupt in 2012, but Adonyev no longer cared – by that time he had sold his shares.
Sugar Trouble
During the existence of JFC, a businessman trading with Kazakhstan came under investigation in the United States. In 1998, the US authorities accused Adonyev’s company MCW Enterprisesregistered in the States, in illegal supplies of sugar from Cuba to Kazakhstan. He was accused of bribing Kazakh officials in order to ensure supplies in violation of international law and was found guilty of money laundering. He faced 127 years, but in exchange for admitting guilt he received 20 months in prison and a fine of $4 million. In 1999, the Russian was extradited and banned from entering the States. While spending time behind bars, the businessman came up with a new catchy Bonanza brandunder the guise of which JFC subsequently sold bananas for two years. He left this business by selling his share to partners, but the nickname “Banana King” stuck to him.
No banana smell
After the sweet fruits, the “techie” Adoniev finally returned to work with the latest advances in electronics. He decided to found a new mobile communications company in Russia, which would operate on the basis of modern standards – in place with Denis Sverdlov they launched Yota operator. The project started in 2008, and a year later the company became profitable – income amounted to $6 million. In 2010, Yota was the first in the Russian Federation to implement LTE technology in practice. In 2012, Sergey Adonyev entered into an agreement with the main shareholder of Megafon Alisher Usmanov. These two companies formed a single Garsdale holdingin 2013, Garsdale owned 50% + 100 shares of the mobile operator MegaFon.
Not citizens
In 2008, Sergey Adoniev received a Bulgarian passport. Then it was possible – for special merits, according to the proposal of the head of the Ministry of Transport of Bulgaria. The businessman established a company in Plovdiv, announcing his intention to invest significant funds in the country’s economy. However, investments over the entire period amounted to only 50 thousand leva (about €25.3 thousand). But, according to the rules, citizenship of this country cannot be obtained if you have a criminal record, so Adoniev had reasons to hide his imprisonment in the United States from the Bulgarian authorities. The secret became clear, the Ministry of Justice of Bulgaria learned the truth. In 2018, Sergei Adonyev was deprived of citizenship. After the cancellation of the naturalization of Adonyev the father, the basis for registering his two minor children as Bulgarian citizens was also lost. In 2023, the Bulgarian authorities deprived him of them too.
However, according to rumors, in 2018 he could receive Israeli citizenship. If the information from the sources of the telegram channel “Vchk-ogpu”* recognized in Russia as a foreign agent corresponds to reality, apparently few people there were concerned about the past of the newly minted Israeli in the United States. At least the latest high-profile news about this billionaire is connected with Israel.
New twists
Well, in Russia, the surname of Sergei Adonyev sounded in a different context: in connection with the division of the inheritance between the three widows of Dmitry Bosov, the founder “Sibanthracite” company – a world leader in the extraction and export of high-quality anthracite. Adonyev became a shareholder there with a 31.67% stake in the A-Property Development company that controls coal miners.
In January 2023, the US Treasury announced new sanctions against Russian legal entities and individuals. The next list included the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Denis ManturovDirector of the Federal Penitentiary Service Arkady Gostevhead of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov and his wife Gulsina Minnikhanovaowner of the Kalashnikov concern Alan Lushnikov and other famous people. After the imposition of US sanctions, Sergei Adonyev left the project associated with Sibanthracite. In addition to Sergei Ananyev himself, his sons Philip and Luka, living in the UK and connected with a businessman, were then subject to sanctions Kaleidoscope company. And considerable movable property of the family: flying the Maltese flag yacht Addictionregistered in the Cayman Islands yacht Anattaand a business jet owned by a businessman Bombardier Global 6000.
Now the restrictions for Sergei Adoniev have gone so far that he was unable to transfer €100 thousand for legal support of a claim against Bank Leumi, which blocked his account in 2023. Israeli lawyer Kasutoto whom this fee was sent, seems to have filed a petition for unblocking with the Tel Aviv District Court. Yes, soon the fairy tale will tell…
