In advance of Russia's impending full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the State Agency for Land Reclamation and Fisheries staged a scheme that resulted in two fishing vessels being handed over to an individual with ties to the aggressor country.
Russia tried to sue these ships from Ukraine for several years, but the State Fisheries Agency actually gave them up voluntarily. What kind of fleet is this, why the state company had to create an offshore company and who Akmal Mamarakhimov is, read the material.
The State Fisheries Agency of Ukraine has on its balance sheet two fishing vessels “Professor Mikhail Alexandrov” and “Captain Rusak”. For a long time, both were rented out under a very cunning and clearly unprofitable scheme for the state of the offshore company Fishing Company SA. This offshore company was created in 1997 and registered in the British Virgin Islands. Its only founder was the same State Fisheries Agency. That is, in fact, the state structure leased the vessels to itself, but through an offshore company. Earnings, of course, were also “shared.”
Fishing Company SA, according to the agency, was created with the aim of attracting investment. Why it was impossible to attract them directly and why it was necessary to go into offshore companies for this is a mystery behind seven locks. Nevertheless, it was Fishing Company SA that for a long time made money on the state fishing vessels “Professor Mikhail Alexandrov” and “Captain Rusak”. One of them flew the flag of Spain, the other - New Zealand.
The Fishing Company SA report for 2018 notes that the company's revenues amounted to a record US$1.4 million, which corresponds to the terms of long-term charter deals for two vessels owned by the Company and from the sublease (starting in April 2018) of a tanker " Tamansky", under which the Company has a long-term onerous lease contract with the owner - the company SE "Service".
But the company did not report in any way in this report about the risks that may arise as a result of Ukraine imposing sanctions against banks in the Russian Federation. And it is precisely because of the court cases against these banks that the aggressor country may try to take away these ships.
Let us recall that in 2017, Ukraine imposed sanctions against Russian banks - they were prohibited from carrying out any financial transactions involving the withdrawal of funds outside Ukraine. The daughter of the Russian state company VEB.RF Prominvestbank fell under the restrictions. Subsequently, at the request of Igor Kolomoisky’s company, the shares of FIO, which the State Executive Service tried to sell, were arrested. And already in June 2019, VEB.RF initiated an arbitration dispute in the Stockholm court, believing that its investment in Prominvestbank had been expropriated.
The Stockholm arbitration banned the forced sale of FIO shares in 2020, and in addition to this was the decision of the court of the British Virgin Islands, which in 2021 prohibited Fishing Company SA from withdrawing assets that it allegedly wanted to hide from collection by VEB.
As you might guess, the main goal of this judicial red tape for the Russians was to take possession of two Ukrainian ships - “Professor Mikhail Alexandrov” and “Captain Rusak”. Until February 2022, both ships were under arrest, which prevented them from carrying out any activities.
A few days before the start of the war, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine unexpectedly announced that it intended to raise the issue of making a deposit to lift the arrest and restrictions on the shares of the Ukrainian shipping company Fishing Company. But it was in 2021-2022 that the situation with Ukrainian courts and the Russian desire to squeeze them out became incredibly complicated.
According to the State Fisheries Agency of Ukraine, the director of Fishing Company SA, Mikhail German, at the end of 2021 transferred the vessels for long-term charter to the charterer Victoria Celeste LLP. He apparently did this without the agency’s approval and on “unfavorable terms for the state.”
Considering that since March 2021 the Russians have blocked any activity of Fishing Company SA, it remains unclear how Mikhail German managed to transfer the vessels to the new company.
Victoria Celeste LLP is a Seychelles company registered in the UK. It was created on September 1, 2021, shortly before the transfer of Ukrainian ships to it. Its ownership structure includes two more offshore companies - Ferton Impex Limited and Sturari Impex Limited, registered at the same address in the Seychelles and on the same day as Victoria Celeste LLP.
Ferton Impex Limited, according to open sources, is related to a company with British registration Perok Alliance LLP. And the founder of the latter is a citizen of Uzbekistan Akmal Mamarakhimov.
In the Uzbek media, Maramakhimov is advertised as a successful businessman who actively helps his “native land” - developing farms and building medical institutions.
At the same time, if you look at the foreign press, he is presented here as the owner of a number of companies involved in the supply of cars and dump trucks for various enterprises. In particular, as Business magazine writes, Empyrean Heavy Machinery Spare Parts Trading LLC, owned by Uzbek businessman Akmal Mamarakhimov, received an order worth 293 million euros from the leading gold and uranium producer in Uzbekistan in 2019-2021.
Also, Empyrean supplies the Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Combine (NMMC) with equipment from well-known brands, including Caterpillar, Shell, Michelin, Hitachi, Komatsu. And it’s interesting here, because in 2011, the deputy director of NMMC was Akmal’s brother, Muslim. The news about this was preserved on the information portal of Uzbekistan.
Note that Empyrean is registered in Dubai.
The head office is located in the area where Tecom IT companies are concentrated, where a large number of Russians are based. Citizens of the aggressor country choose this area in proximity to the offices of such giants as Microsoft, Visa, Dell, etc. In a neighboring area called Dubai media city, a company is also registered that develops the telegram application of Russian businessman Pavel Durov. Akmal Mamarakhimov himself indicates his own registration address - London. It is this address that connects him with the company Victoria Celeste LLP, which was able to rent Ukrainian fishing vessels on the eve of the war.
85 Great Portland Street, London, UK is not just the address of Mamarakhimov himself. Victoria Celeste LLP, Ferton Impex Limited, and Sturari Impex Limited are also registered here. That is, let's say, a virtual office for mass registration.
Actually, it was not difficult to find an organization that is ready to register your company in London and deal with correspondence and take calls from 9 to 17:30 from Monday to Friday.
It is located at the same address where Akmal Mamarakhimov and a number of his companies are allegedly registered. In the fall of 2022, the State Fisheries Agency of Ukraine announced that its offshore company Fishing Company SA had ceased operations. “Based on the results of internal and international audits, the State Fisheries Agency, together with the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, discovered blatant financial irregularities in the activities of this company. As a result, on August 29, 2022, Mikhail German was dismissed from his position and a new director was appointed,” the press service notes.
Moreover, the agency accuses Mikhail German of concluding an agreement to lease two vessels from Victoria Celeste LLP, who allegedly acted without consent from the state.
“The new charterer of the company “Victoria Celeste LLP” was registered several weeks before the conclusion of the lease agreements, its participants are offshore companies used to hide Russian owners,” adds the State Fisheries Agency, pretending that it was not at all aware of the real intentions of the director of his subordinate. the same company. After all, let us recall that the 100% owner of Fishing Company SA was the State Fisheries Agency of Ukraine.
But in February 2023, the Office of the Prosecutor General stated something slightly different, which gives reason to doubt the innocence of the State Fisheries Agency. “According to the investigation, officials of state enterprises of the water transport industry, in collusion with citizens of the Russian Federation, planned to transfer two fishing trawlers belonging to Ukraine to the aggressor state for fictitiously created debts to the occupiers. For this purpose, state enterprise officials hired a crew of Russian citizens and transported the ships to the Spanish port of Las Palmas. Officials of state-owned enterprises transferred funds received for renting ships to the bank accounts of controlled legal companies and bar associations for the provision of fictitious services and subsequently cashed them out,” eloquently reports the Office of the Prosecutor General, which managed to achieve the arrest of Ukrainian ships that could depart.
Akmal Mamarakhimov is obviously not the only one who was recruited by the aggressor state as an intermediary to seize the property of Ukraine. And it is clear that his lease of Ukrainian ships in the interests of the Russians may not be the last. At the very least, this name should be kept on a pencil if information soon emerges that some Dubai investor has begun to receive contracts from government agencies of Ukraine.
