Russian buyer of Canadian oil firm accused of paying kickback to former Ukrainian prime minister

Russian energy billionaire buys majority stake inCanadian oil and gascompany without regulatory scrutiny is ready. Global News has learned a US federal court has learned about his alleged role in a scheme involving international money laundering, kickbacks and a disgraced former Ukrainian prime minister.

Igor Makarov, who acquired his 21% stake in Calgary-based Spartan Delta last year, paid the former Ukrainian prime minister at least his $28.5 million kickback. As such, he was indicted by U.S. authorities. He gave Minister Pavel Lazarenko in 1996 the exclusive right to sell gas in Ukraine.

There was nothing illegal about Makarov's acquisition of the Spartan Delta, but the complex international transaction created regulatory gaps between federal and local government agencies and lack of scrutiny of foreign investors. exposed.

Read more: Who is on Canada's list of sanctions against Russia?

This is because the transaction was a so-called exempt takeover bid, a potential buyer in Alberta. because it involved a type of stock exchange transaction that did not require disclosure from This process allowed Makarov's group to merge Spartan Delta and Inception Exploration. Inception Exploration is a oil sands company strategically located in northern Alberta.

Global News also found no regulatory involvement from the Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) regarding Makarov's investment in the Spartan Delta.

A U.S. civil forfeiture lawsuit against Lazarenko cites the Makarov et al. . The California-based lawsuit alleges that Makarov and the principals of his Florida-based company, Itera International Inc. claims to have personally benefited from

Makarov has not been named as a defendant and has not been charged with any crime in this case, which has been going on for almost two decades.

According to a US government case, branches of the Bank of Nova Scotia received approximately C$111 million in offshore bank accounts scattered in Switzerland, Guernsey, Liechtenstein and Antigua in the Caribbean.

The complaint lists Makarov and future Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko as prominent " Lazarenko's companion." Lazarenko's associates were involved in a conspiracy involving "fraud, extortion, bribery, and embezzlement."

Read more: Canada says it will try to avoid job losses in steel factories linked to licensed oligarchs Trudeau says

Lazarenko, who was in power until 1997, was first convicted of money laundering in Switzerland in 2000. His one of Lazarenko's convictions was related to a money laundering conspiracy involving Itera his international and Makarov.

This is the second time the United States has convicted a former head of state.

Bank of Nova Scotia did not respond to specific questions regarding a deposit identified in a US civil forfeiture case, his C$111 million transferred to the bank's Antigua branch . .

A spokeswoman said the bank no longer operates in Antigua and adheres to strict anti-money laundering guidelines.

can be understood through the prism of Canada's global reputation as a simple sign of offshore tycoons seeking to launder their wealth and reputation through Ottawa's weak laws. increase.

Read More: Pandora Papers Confronts Financial Crime Exposing Facilitators

Earlier this year, Makarov's control over the Spartan Delta was worth more than $200 million on paper. But after Russia invaded Ukraine last February, Makarov sold more than half of Spartan Delta's stake to an unidentified third party for his $121 million. The deal came three days before Ottawa sanctioned him, claiming he was a close associate of the Russian regime.

Federal agencies, including the RCMP, do not answer Global His News questions about the circumstances surrounding Makarov sanctions and his Spartan Delta deal.

"This case is blatantly bridging that gap, 'Ottawa, even after our prime minister admitted in 2019 that his money laundering was a national problem. It comes down to 'no,'" Cohen said.

"In Chinese and Russian, I see ads from offshore registrants saying, 'Launder money in Canada.' , we're not rolling dice here."

Cohen also noted that Makarov's use of companies registered in Cyprus in the Spartan deal was consistent with the questionable investment trends reported by the TIC. pointed out that there is

Read more: International students and offshore banking accused of laundering Canadian property

A spokesman for Makarov said neither Makarov nor his corporate entity would comment on the story, but previously claimed there was no basis for sanctions against him. . A former Soviet Union cycling champion, Makarov launched a vast gas company empire in Turkmenistan in 1992. During that time, he developed affiliated trading companies in Switzerland, Cyprus and Ukraine, and the aforementioned Itera International in Jacksonville, Florida.

Itera's explosive growth and Makarov's ties to the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom have led to the likes of US investment fund manager Bill Browder, who has influenced Western governments to crack down on corruption. It has long piqued the curiosity of business analysts. Russian official.

Twenty years ago, Browder announced that Itera would acquire more than 50% of his 50% of Gazprom's operations in Ukraine and other ex-Soviet countries, and Makarov could use Gazprom's European pipelines for free. reported that it had become

"According to our research, Itera, owned by this character Makarov, received significant financial benefits from Gazprom, and they provided certain services that Gazprom could not provide for free. It didn't seem to offer," said Browder, bestselling author of Red Notice and Freezing Order. "The question was why Gazprom would do this."

Gazprom lawyers argue US civil forfeiture lawsuits are politically motivated. The company did not respond to questions from Global News about the US allegations. The Ukrainian and Russian governments also did not respond to questions about the US government's case.

In 2013, Makarov transferred some of Itera's energy assets to Rosneft, another Russian state-owned company, in his sold for $2.9 billion. Two years later, Mr. Makarov renamed the rest of his network of trading and real estate companies to Areti.

Global According to corporate records obtained by his news, Makarov's rebranded firms are the same Florida-based Itera International founders and Cyprus-based firms implicated in the Lazarenko case. It was revealed that he was related to many of the officers.

These Itera International veterans used a type of stock purchase called an exempt takeover bid to consolidate Makarov's oil and gas reserves in Alberta without scrutiny by state regulators. and directly involved. A formal tender offer requires material disclosures from relevant investors. This provides investors in the target company with sufficient information to make informed decisions.

In any event, the Alberta Securities Commission is under no obligation to engage in an exempt takeover transaction, spokeswoman Teresa Schroeder confirmed.

"The ASC also does not review the directors of private companies such as Inception Exploration," she said Schroder.

READ MORE: Canada's leader attacked in cyber campaign, according to 'Canadian Eyes Only' intelligence report

Records show that Makarov set his sights on Alberta two years after founding Areti, which eventually became Spartan Delta's largest shareholder.

In December 2016, four executives from Areti's Jacksonville headquarters, including  Makarov, decided to invest in Inception Exploration, a company with a small oil sands plot in the Montney oil field in northwest Alberta. I became a director.

As Oil Prices Begin to Rebound from the 2014 Crash, This Engagement Gives Makarov Control of a Small Company was made. While his move in Canada has been likened to a game of chess, Inception Exploration's relatively small oil field seems to have provided him with a pawn in Alberta.

Makarov's big move began in February 2021 when a private investor arranged for Spartan Delta to take over Inception Exploration's Montney assets in a stock exchange.

In March 2021, Spartan Delta completed the transaction issuing 23.7 million shares of his Spartan Delta stock to his Inception Exploration shareholders.

Spartan also issued his $50 million promissory note to an unidentified investor in his Inception Exploration, and by 2023 he has issued more shares in Spartan Delta.

National Bank Financial donated his $80 million to fund the deal. In total, the cash and stock deal that saw Makarov acquire 21% of Spartan was worth $148 million, the company reports.

In July 2021, Makarov and Areti revealed that they had transferred his 14.6 million Spartan shares from their company in Geneva to parent company Areti International Group, which is registered in Cyprus. did.

The deal involved groups involved in an ongoing US government civil forfeiture lawsuit involving Itera and former Ukrainian Prime Minister Lazarenko.

Areti International Group's Cyprus-registered company - 50% of which is owned by Makarov - has two prominent directors of his:  Igor Andrianov and Gulnara I'm Ziadetdinova. These two businessmen of his are also directors of Omrania, a company registered in Cyprus, the U.S. government said in court documents that Makarov and his partner had given Lazarenko his money in 1996 to collect kickbacks. It is said that it was used for

In late July, Spartan Delta announced the acquisition of Velvet Energy. Velvet Energy is a large Montney producer adjacent to the area Spartan took over from Inception. A $743 million acquisition, funded through Canadian lenders, made Makarov's company the top producer in the Montney oil sands.

ASC found directors involved in kickbacks and money laundering allegations involved in both purchase of Spartan Delta and transfer of Spartan Delta shares to Areti's Cyprus registered company Spokeswoman Teresa Schroeder said the issue of money laundering falls under federal jurisdiction.

© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.