Mikhail Fridman is the founder and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Alfa Group Consortium. He is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of TNK-BP, a member of the Supervisory Board of ABH Holdings S.A. (holding company of Alfa-Bank Banking Group), a member of the Supervisory Board of VEON (VimpelCom) and a member of the Supervisory Board of X5 Group. He is a Member of the Bureau of the Board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and a member of the International Advisory Council on Foreign Relations (USA).
Assets
The main projects of Mikhail Fridman are as follows:
- LetterOne investments;
- Financial sector (Alfa-Bank, Alfa Capital, Alfa Insurance, Alfa Eco);
- Retail (X5 Group);
- Housing and utilities (Rosvodokanal);
- Telecommunications (Altimo);
- Oil (TNK-BP).
Biography
Education
While studying at school in Lviv, he attended piano classes and formeda musical group.[1] He graduated from school with one "Good` grade (in Russian). After graduation, he made two unsuccessful attempts to enter the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT).In 1986 he graduated from the faculty of non-ferrous and rare earth metals of the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys (MISIS). While studying at the university, he wasone of the founders of the informal youth club Zemlyanichnaya polyana (‘Strawberry Fields’), a prototype formodern nightclubs.[2] He would also queue for tickets to plays at Moscow theaters with a group of fellow students, before exchanging the tickets for commodities that were difficult to acquire on the open market at the time.
Career
1986: laboratory assistant at a Lviv research institute.
1986–1988: engineering designer of the Elektrostal plant (Elektrostal, Moscow Region); during the same period he became involved in entrepreneurial activity.
1988: created the Courier cooperative enterprise specializing in window washing.
1989: created and headed Alfa Photo, a company specializing in the sale of computers and copying equipment. 1990: created and headed the Alfa Capital asset management company.
1991–present: Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alfa-Bank.
1995–1998: Member of the Board of Directors of Public Russian Television.
1996–2003: Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Alfa Group Consortium, member of the Board of Directors of Siberian-Far Eastern Oil Company.
1998: Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alfa-Bank after the merger of Alfa-Bank and Alfa Capital. March 11, 2003–present: Chairman of the Board of Directors of TNK-BP, Member of the Board of Directors of VEON and X5 Group.
2011: Net worth of $15.1 billion
Mikhail Fridman's fortune is estimated at $15.1 billion, placing him seventh in Forbes Russia’s "The Richest Businessmen of Russia–2011" ranking.[3]
2019
Founding of Wintershall Dea
In April 2019, it was announced that Mikhail Fridman had completed the merger of the German company Wintershall (a subsidiary of the BASF concern) and DEA (Deutsche Erdoel AG). Wintershall Dea became the largest independent gas and oil producer in Europe.
As a result of the transaction BASF, the owner of Wintershall, received 67% of Wintershall Dea, and LetterOne owners Fridman, German Khan and Alexei Kuzmichev, who controlled DEA, receivedthe remaining 33%. See Wintershall Dea for details.
Testimony on charges in Spain
In October 2019, the owner of Alfa Group, Mikhail Fridman, arrived at the Spanish National Court to testify. He was suspected of having potentially worsened the financial situation of tech company Zed Worldwide intentionally in order to then buy it at a below-market price. To do this, Fridman, as a shareholder and creditor of Zed Worldwide, could bring the company to bankruptcy in order to then acquire it for €20 million, a figure below the market price. According to the prosecution, Fridman played a "fundamental role" in the takeover of Zed Worldwide, forcing the bankruptcy of the company.
Fridman intends to file lawsuits in Spain and other countries against third parties who provided false information about his involvement in the bankruptcy of the Zed group. These "allegations are the product of a wild conspiracy theory made up by Javier Pérez-Dolset, a leading shareholder in Zed+."
2020: Cooperation with ex-director of the FBI
In January 2020, it became known that the owner of Alfa Group, Mikhail Fridman, hired the former FBI director from 1993 to 2001, Louis Freeh, for legal assistance in cases concerning telecommunications company Zed Worldwide and Dia supermarkets in Spain.
2021
End of investigation into collapse of Dia shares
In mid-January 2021, the Supreme Court of Spain put an end to the case concerning the collapse in the share price of Spanish supermarket chain Dia, which was bought by Mikhail Fridman. Read more here.
Zed Worldwide’s criminal bankruptcy case resumes
In February 2021, the Spanish National Court, at the request of the prosecutor's office, resumed the criminal case regarding the possible involvement of co-owner of Alfa-Bank Mikhail Fridman in the bankruptcy of the Spanish company Zed Worldwide in 2016. Spanish prosecutors believed that, as a shareholder in Zed Worldwide, the banker artificially bankrupted the company to acquire it for €20 million. The real value of the corporation allegedly amounted to €1.2 billion.
Obtaining Israeli citizenship
In April 2021, it became known that Mikhail Fridman had received an Israeli passport. This was revealed in documents obtained from Henley & Partners. He and the ex-wife of Roman Abramovich applied for "golden passports" to Malta, as was revealed after a leak of documents belonging Henley & Partners. The company organized meetings between the applicants and Maltese politicians.
In 2014, Fridman was able to talk with the Prime Minister of Malta Joseph Muscat. The banker confirmed to the newspaper that he had a "short and formal" meeting. In a supporting letter for the passport application, Fridman wrote that Malta has a more pleasant climate than Cologne, where his parents moved in the early 2000s.
In the questionnaire, Fridman did not categorize himself as a "politically exposed person", though Henley & Partners referred to him in this way in internal correspondence. Fridman suggested that he was given this status because of former partner Viktor Vekselberg, who fell under American sanctions. Fridman noted that he has not seen Vekselberg since 2013. Two years after applying, Fridman withdrew his application. The businessman explained that he had ended the process voluntarily, as he had received an Israeli passport.
British publisher apologizes for accusing Mikhail Fridman of having "ties to the KGB"
The British publishing house Harper Collins, which released the book Putin's People by journalist Catherine Belton in the spring of 2020, apologized to Russian bankers Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven for not asking for their comment before the release of the work, thereby ignoring a number of inaccuracies contained in it – namely statements about ties to the KGB. The publishing house issued a disclaimer on its website on August 3, 2021 as part of a judicial reconciliation of the parties.
Unsuccessful attempt to buy Ukrainian bank monobank
In mid-November 2021, it transpired that Mikhail Fridman’s LetterOne planned to buy monobank for more than $1 billion. Forbes Ukraine wrote about the proposed deal, naming the financiers. Read more here.
2022
Departure from Board of Directors of VEON
On March 1, 2022, VEON announced the withdrawal of Mikhail Fridman from the holding's Board of Directors. The decision came into force a day earlier, on February 28, according to the website of the European telecommunications company, which includes the Russian company PJSC VimpelCom in its holdings. Read more here.
Departure from the Board of Directors of Alfa-Bank
On March 1, 2022, Alfa-Bank announced that, in the near future, Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven, Alexander Galitsky and Sergey Matsotsky would leave its Board of Directors. The board would be headed by Alfa-Bank President Oleg Sysuev, who now holds the position of First Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors. Read more here.
Departure from the Board of Directors of LetterOne
On March 4, 2022, it became known that Mikhail Fridman had resigned from the Board of Directors of the investment company LetterOne after the European Union imposed sanctions on the entrepreneur. Read more here.
Fridman: After the sanctions, I don't even have enough money for a cleaner
On March 17, 2022, billionaire Mikhail Fridman, who is the target of sanctions from the European Union and Great Britain, said he could not afford to leave London for Israel due to the freezing of his accounts.
While the US has not imposed sanctions on Fridman, EU and UK measures have had his accounts frozen. The day after Brussels announced the sanctions, he discovered that his bank card didn’t work. He is now trying to figure out how to pay for everyday expenses such as domestic cleaning.
 | `Maybe I should clean the house myself,` he said in an interview with Bloomberg. `It's normal. When I was a student, I lived in a small dorm room with four guys, but 35 years later it’s unexpected.` |  |
According to Bloomberg, before the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, Fridman's fortune exceeded $14 billion, and after the imposition of sanctions it decreased to $10 billion. When the UK followed the EU in imposing sanctions on Fridman on March 15, 2022, his last working bank card in the UK was frozen. He revealed that he must now apply for a spending licence and the British government will determine whether any request is "reasonable". According to reports, this will mean an allowance of about £2,500 per month.
Fridman said that the imposition of sanctions on billionaires like him speaks to a dangerous misunderstanding of the work of the authorities in the Russian Federation. The EU does not realize in any way how the Russian government actually functions. If the purpose of the sanctions is to push people like him to put pressure on Vladimir Putin, then it will achieve nothing, according to Fridman.
| | `I've never been to any public company or public office,` Fridman says. `If EU leaders believe that because of the sanctions I can turn to Putin and tell him to stop the conflict and that this will work, then I'm afraid we all have big problems. This means that those who are making this decision do not understand anything about how Russia works. And that is dangerous for the future`.[4] | |
Seizure of Copab villa in Saint-Tropez
In May 2022, it became known that Mikhail Fridman’s 580-square-meter villa in the city of Saint-Tropez, France, complete with a pool, saunas and a helipad, which he designed for his own daughters, had been seized.
Seizure of assets in Ukraine worth $420 million
The Prosecutor General of Ukraine announced the seizure of assets associated with Mikhail Fridman worth $420 million on May 16, 2022.
Consultations with Ukrainian authorities on obtaining citizenship
Mikhail Fridman consulted with the Ukrainian authorities on how to obtain Ukrainian citizenship and re-register his key assets. This was announced on June 9, 2022 by the Head of the National Agency on Corruption Prevention of Ukraine Oleksandr Novikov. According to Fridman, this route has been made possible for other Russian businessmen of Ukrainian origin, such as Viktor Vekselberg.
The next day, Alfa Group denied the rumor that Mikhail Fridman had requested Ukrainian citizenship.
Transfer of 34% of ANNA Money fintech service to its founders
On August 9, 2022, it emerged that billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven had transferred their stake in ANNA Money to the co-founders of the British fintech startup, Boris Dyakonov and Eduard Panteleev. The latter told Bloomberg that this deal would open up new opportunities for ANNA Money in terms of the future of the business. Read more here.
Detention in Britain and bail
On December 3, 2022, the National Crime Agency (NCA) announced the detention of a 58-year-old "wealthy Russian businessman". He was not named, but the age of the detainee matched that of Mikhail Fridman.
| | `Fridman was detained by police. But, according to our information, he has now been released on bail,` said the agency's spokesperson, adding that he had no other information, including about the reasons for the arrest of the businessman. | |
The businessman is suspected of a number of offences including money laundering, conspiracy to defraud the Home Office and conspiracy to make false statements, according to the NCA.
Together with the "wealthy businessman", two more men aged 35 and 39 were detained. Their names have not been released either. All three have already been released on bail.
More than 50 NCA staff were involved in the operation. During a search of the entrepreneur's house, a large amount of cash was found.
| | `This is a new operation in the actions of the NCA, aimed at suppressing the activities of corrupt international businessmen and their accomplices,` said the head of the department Graeme Biggar. | |
| | `Mikhail Fridman is at home, not under arrest. He has nothing to do with this story,` said Alfa-Bank in early December 2022. | |
The billionaire himself told Forbes that he was "fine".
| | `I meet friends at the weekend,` the businessman added. He did not comment on the information about the detentions orthe bail. | |
The Russian Embassy in the UK demanded that the country's authorities immediately notify diplomats about the reasons and circumstances of the detention of a citizen of the Russian Federation. The embassy also demanded that the British authorities provide consular staff – as well as lawyers – with access to the detainee.[5]
Social and political activities
He was a member of the Banking Council and the Entrepreneurship Council under the Government of the Russian Federation.
He is a Member of the Board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (Employers), overseeing issues of judicial reform.
In January 1996, he became the founder and vice president of the Russian Jewish Congress (RJC). He is currently a member of the RJC Presidium Office.
Awards
For the 2003 deal between TNK and BP, he was named one of the most outstanding entrepreneurs of the year (Bloomberg Businessweek) and one of the 25 business leaders of the new Europe (Financial Times). He received the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement in Washington (awarded to famous politicians and business, economic, cultural and art world figures from different countries who have become an example for young people around the world).
In November 2004, he became a laureate of the Darin prize of the Russian Academy of Business and Entrepreneurship in the Grand Prix category.
Family
- Daughter: Ekaterina Fridman.
- Daughter: Larisa Fridman.
- Son: Alexander Fridman
Alexander, the son of Alfa-Bank co-owner and billionaire Mikhail Fridman ($10 billion fortune), said at the beginning of 2020 that his father intends to transfer all his wealth to charity. According to Alexander, his father had always told him that this would be the case.
| | "I have been living with the understanding that I would not inherit any fortune," Alexander Fridman explained. | |
According to Bloomberg, the 19-year-old son of one of the richest businessmen in Russia rents a two-bedroom apartment on the outskirts of Moscow for $500 a month and goes to work by metro.
| | "I eat, I live and I dress with what I have earned myself," Fridman said. | |
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