MOSCOW, February 7 - RAPSI. Konstantin Malofeyev's fund Marshall Capital (MarCap) has assessed its losses from the arrest of its assets in connection with a legal dispute with VTB exceed $500 million.
MarCap's assets, including around a 10% stake in Rostelecom, were frozen in August 2011 as part of a fraud case involving a $225 million loan which VTB subsidiary VTB Capital plc issued to Russagroprom in 2007 to finance the acquisition of six dairy plants and three related companies from Nutritek International Corp., a British Virgin Island baby food producer owned by Russians.
Russagroprom defaulted on its loan repayments. VTB claimed that Malofeyev was the real owner of Russagroprom and Nutritek. The businessman denied these claims.
The police previously said that Russagroprom head Yevgenia Kremneva had been charged and detained in connection with the VTB loan fraud.
In late November 2012, the police searched the homes of Rostelecom President Alexander Provotorov (former head of MarCap) and Rostelecom's largest shareholder Malofeyev, as well as the offices of Marshall Capital and the Safe Internet League, which the businessman had founded. Repeat searches were carried out on February 4, 2013. Malofeyev and Provotorov are witnesses in the loan fraud case, and the investigation is not linked with Rostelecom, the police have said.
According to documentation from the Royal Court of Justice, Malofeyev owns Rostelecom shares through Universal Telecom Investment Strategies Fund SPC, managed by Universal Telecom Management. Both these companies belong to Gazprombank. According to Rostelecom, the bank owned 9.67% of its common shares as of April 2012.
