An unexpected turn has occurred in the bankruptcy case of the notorious businessman Oleg Baibakov : the Arbitration Court of the Moscow District has satisfied the cassation appeal of the debtor, canceling the previously issued ruling on the sale of his property. Baibakov was a friend and business partner of billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov , he held senior positions in the structures of the Onexim group, Norilsk Nickel and the Polyus Gold company, and in 2007, together with Prokhorov, he was detained by French police in Courchevel in the company of girls of easy virtue. The initiator of Baibakov’s bankruptcy was the same Prokhorov, or more precisely his structures JSCB International Financial Club and Onexim Holdings Limited, which issued loans to the former partner for hundreds of millions of rubles, which he ultimately chose not to repay. Moreover, at a certain stage, the debtor decided to launch the bankruptcy process according to his own scenario, first unsuccessfully trying to involve his affiliated company Star Mining SL as a creditor, and then including a certain V.V. Raskovalov in the scheme, who expressed a desire to buy out Baibakov’s real estate for 1.8 billion rubles. Considering that claims for 891 million were entered into the register of creditors, the debtor should have a significant portion of the proceeds from the transaction. After the order on the sale of the property was cancelled, Baibakov got a second chance to implement the scheme with Raskovalov and the approval of the debt restructuring plan previously submitted to the court. Baibakov’s characteristic desire to "screw" his partner could have led to a cooling of his friendly and business relations with another notorious bankrupt businessman - Maxim Finsky , who settled in the USA, against whom a criminal case for especially large-scale fraud has been opened in Russia. At one time, Finsky gave Baibakov loans worth millions of dollars to buy real estate and implement development projects in Miami, in which the odious businessman Vladislav Doronin , the owner of the OKO Group company , also took part. After the start of the SVO, he declared that he did not have Russian citizenship.

The sale of property will have to wait

The bankruptcy story of the notorious Russian oligarch Oleg Baibakov , which seemed to be approaching its natural end, took a somewhat unexpected turn. The fact is that the other day – on July 1 – the Arbitration Court of the Moscow District issued a ruling , according to which new proceedings will be held in the first instance – the Arbitration Court of Moscow.

Meanwhile, in December 2023, the same Moscow City Arbitration Court, by its ruling  , “approved the plan for restructuring the debts of citizen Oleg Igorevich Baibakov,” and the amount listed in the case file  is impressive: we are talking about more than  891 million rubles . The source for repaying the debt obligations was to be the proceeds from the sale of the businessman’s real estate.

And so, at the very beginning of June, the cassation instance satisfied Baibakov’s complaint against the refusal to approve the debt restructuring plan, the recognition of bankruptcy and the beginning of the sale of real estate, returning the case again to the first instance. Here, everything is not so simple, but in order to understand the scheme that the cunning businessman decided to pull off, it is necessary to briefly recall the biography of our "hero".

So, who is Mr. Baibakov?

Today, Oleg Baibakov’s name is not often mentioned in the media, but in the mid-2000s he was known as a business partner of billionaires Mikhail Prokhorov  and Vladimir Potanin . Judge for yourself: Baibakov headed Onexim Bank  and Rosbank , was a member of the board of directors of Norilsk Nickel , and headed the board of directors of Polyus Gold . 

You can find contemptuous references to Baibakov on the Internet  as "Prokhorov’s lackey" , but they can hardly be attributed to ill-wishers. The fact is that the businessmen were connected not only by business, but also by friendly relations. It is enough to recall the sensational story  of 2007, which became known as the "Courchevel raid" . Then, as part of an operation to combat prostitution, illegal drug trafficking and laundering of criminally acquired funds, the French police detained a group of Russians on the territory of a fashionable resort, among whom were Messrs. Prokhorov and Baibakov.

As  reported by  the media, the reason for the arrest was spending time with prostitutes, and the police were investigating a case of organizing an underground sex industry in the region, which involved "priestesses of love" from Eastern European countries. After a short stay either in a pre-trial detention cell or in the Lyon prosecutor’s office, the detained Russians were interrogated and released to the four winds. There were no charges of pimping  , but the scandal of international proportions still spoiled the vacation.

Let’s not get too sanctimonious: mature, wealthy men have the right to choose with whom and how to spend their free time. Moreover, it is no secret that the reputation of some representatives of the Russian business elite, to put it mildly, is already pretty tarnished. However, the best characterization of Oleg Baibakov’s moral character is his interview with Ksenia Sobchak  and Ksenia Sokolova , or rather not even the interview as a whole, but a fragment about a painting depicting a huge vagina in the oligarch’s bedroom, which so struck the "socialite" Ksenia, whose lifestyle can hardly be called ascetic. 

"I love contemporary art and I believe that sex is the engine of progress in the modern world. I am interested in sexuality - in life, in art. This work is not a masterpiece, just a fairly original, conceptual thing. The girl shoved a Priz magazine up her ass. This work is about the duality of contemporary art ," - this is how Baibakov himself commented on  his cultural preferences.

The caustic Ksenia Sobchak made her own  conclusion :  "These are complexes. In my opinion, your house, this painting, and your shirt half-buttoned three buttons - all of these are complexes. You are an example of such male self-promotion for us, an attempt to portray a mega-alpha male..."

Oligarch Prokhorov repays debts... through the court

In general, the dialogue turned out to be meaningful. But let’s return from sexual complexes to the business side of the billionaire’s life. After the division of business between Potanin and Prokhorov, Baibakov leaves for an old friend and manages structures associated with the Onexim group . Later, he will begin to develop his own areas, in particular, he will become the owner of the American development company 700 Edgewater Development , which in 2014-2015 spent  more than 30 million dollars  on the acquisition of real estate for development in Miami, in the Edgewater area.

Baibakov himself, apparently, at some point decided to “put down roots” in the US: he bought a penthouse  in Miami worth $12 million  and a 4-room apartment of 300 square meters in New York, with a view of the East River and the Hudson for $13.5 million . As the media reported  in early 2015, he sold the apartment at the height of the currency crisis for $23 million , that is, having received almost double the “profit”.

But the lover of the good life often lacked his own funds, so he had to go into debt. Mikhail Prokhorov often extended a helping hand to him in such situations. But, as is well known, people borrow other people’s money and give back their own. Baibakov does not like to part with his finances, which ultimately led him first to court, and then to bankruptcy, the initiator of which was his "friend Prokhorov", who rightly believed that "to lend" does not mean "to give".

In January 2023, the Moscow Arbitration Court received a claim  from Joint-Stock Commercial Bank International Financial Club ( JSC JSCB IFC ) to declare Mr. Baibakov bankrupt. There is no information about the owners of IFC in open sources  , but according to  Forbes , they are Prokhorov himself (with a share of 57.61%), Tatyana Orlova  (35.84%) and Ekaterina Ignatova  (6.55%).

It follows from the court documents  that the reason for the proceedings was the existence of a debt of more than 93.1 million rubles , which arose as a result of Baibakov’s failure to fulfill obligations under the loan agreement signed with JSCB MFC in February 2021. As mentioned above, Baibakov was declared bankrupt, and in March 2023, the court issued a ruling  on the restructuring of his debts.

But the debts grew like a snowball: already in April 2023, the demands of  "MFK" were estimated at 258 million , and in May they exceeded  351.2 million rubles . In addition, during the court proceedings, one rather curious circumstance was revealed. It turns out that since March 2020, Baibakov’s real estate with a total value of 740.5 million rubles  was pledged  to the Cypriot company "Onexim Holdings Limited" , under a loan agreement for 539.5 million , signed in June 2018.

The Star Mining SL scheme has failed

It should be noted here that Onexim Holdings Ltd is an offshore company affiliated  with Mikhail Prokhorov’s Onexim Group. And in April 2023, this offshore company, in turn, declared the need to include the above-mentioned loan debt  in the amount of 539.5 million rubles in the register of Baibakov’s creditors . The demand for 482.1 thousand rubles  was presented by the Federal Tax Service of Russia No. 5 in Moscow, but given the previously announced amounts, here we are talking about pennies.

I would like to dwell separately on another creditor -   Moscow- based Star Mining SL LLC ,  which is in the process of bankruptcy , and which declared  a claim in the amount of 31.2 million rubles  (under a loan agreement signed in March 2019). Representatives of the financial manager and JSCB MFC spoke out against including this debt in the register.

Last October, the Moscow Arbitration Court ruled  that Star Mining SL’s claims were unfounded and refused to satisfy them. The fact is that the company, whose official owner  is the offshore company Reza Trading S.A.  from the British Virgin Islands, turned out to be affiliated with Mr. Baibakov.

It follows from court documents that Gennady Ruzhitsky , the former CEO of  Star Mining SL  in 2020-2021, held senior positions in MMC Norilsk Nickel  and PAO CITY  in the 2000s  , where Oleg Baibakov was also a member of the top management at the time. Later, Star Mining SL employees, including Ruzhitsky, received powers of attorney from Baibakov, giving them the right to withdraw and deposit funds into his bank account.

Let us quote an excerpt from the ruling  of the Moscow Arbitration Court dated October 10, 2023:

"Thus, Kotova O.V. held the position of General Director of Star Mining SL LLC from 11/14/2014 to 06/09/2019. According to the debtor’s account statements, Kotova O.I. withdrew cash from Baibakov O.I.’s account under powers of attorney issued by the debtor. As follows from the debtor’s account statements for the period from 2020 to 2021, Kotova O.I., acting under the debtor’s power of attorney, withdrew cash in the amount of 9.1 million rubles from his account.

Also, Varava A.V., was in an employment relationship with Star Mining SL LLC, which is confirmed by the applicant’s account statements. For the period from 2021 to 2022, Varava A.V. withdrew cash from the debtor’s account in the amount of 85.1 million rubles , acting under the debtor’s power of attorney..."

The  document  also cites other facts of the Moscow firm’s affiliation with Baibakov. The conclusion is obvious: dummy creditors hidden behind offshore companies, acting in the interests of the debtor, have joined the bankruptcy process. This scheme is well known, and the expectation that not only arbitration, but also Prokhorov, who is experienced in "offshore matters", will not crack it, looks, at the very least, naive.

Raskovalov – Baibakov’s last hope?

With a certain degree of probability, another scheme of Baibakov is connected with the involvement of a certain V.V. Raskovalov in the bankruptcy process as a third party , which was, by the way, requested by representatives of JSCB "MFK" and financial manager Valery Makarov. The fact is that Mr. Raskovalov expressed a desire to buy out  a residential building with outbuildings and land plots belonging to Baibakov, paying for them no less than 1.8 billion rubles .

The stated amount significantly exceeds the total amount of claims of all creditors -  891 million . The court was even presented with a debt restructuring plan  , which envisaged full repayment of the debt within two years, and the source was to be the money received from the property transaction with Raskovalov.

Everything would be fine, but in the end, representatives of JSCB "MFK" had doubts  about the reliability of the information on the market value of the property provided by Baibakov. And although the Moscow Arbitration Court approved  the restructuring plan as amended by the debtor, the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal in its March ruling  overturned the previously issued ruling, introducing the procedure for the sale of Baibakov’s property. This ruling, as already mentioned above, in turn, was recently overturned  by the Moscow District Arbitration Court.

One can imagine Baibakov’s joy, because after the deal with Raskovalov and the scheme with the sale of property, he will have almost a billion rubles left! But it is too early to put an end to it: the proceedings will again continue in the Moscow city arbitration court. It is possible that Prokhorov could have played on the side of his former partner at some point. After all, his representatives supported Raskovalov’s participation in the process, but there was a hitch with the cost of the property.

Tell me who your friend is...

Oleg Baibakov and Maxim FinskyAs is well known, financial disagreements can destroy even the strongest friendship. The unwillingness to repay debts, popularly called a short but capacious word "scam", led not only to a cooling of the personal relations of businessmen, but also to legal proceedings. And we are talking about hundreds of millions of rubles.

It is possible that the “money issue” had a negative impact on Baibakov’s partnership with another of his long-time friends and partners, Maxim Finsky  , another former Norilsk Nickel executive, former head of the board of directors of Intergeo  (the mining asset of the Onexim group), former owner of the gold mining company White Tiger Gold , who has been living in the United States since 2015.

In Russia, a criminal case for especially large-scale fraud has been opened against Finsky, he has been arrested in absentia , and has also been declared bankrupt , with the register of creditors’ claims including claims  from offshore companies Daselina Investments Ltd  and Leansa Limited,  associated with Prokhorov , totaling more than 3.2 billion rubles . Last year, the court completed the procedure for selling the fugitive businessman’s property.

According to  media reports  , Finsky settled in Florida, in Miami. Baibakov was also involved in development there, and there were  publications  online that back in 2014, Finsky’s company Kirkland Intertrade provided Baibakov’s company Inger Industries Ltd with a loan of $10 million  to build luxury apartments on the shores of Biscayne Bay. In the event of late payment of the debt, Finsky received the right to at least 20% of another company of Baibakov - the developer 700 Edgewater Development LLC , mentioned above.

The partners had grandiose plans: it was reported  that they had bought more than 9,000 square meters of real estate in the Edgewater area for more than $30 million , which was allegedly 218% above market value. The blasting operations carried out to clear the area for construction caused strong discontent among residents of nearby houses, and candidate for the post of county prefect Ken Russell refused financial support from Russian businessmen.

It would seem that everything was going as well as possible. But Finsky’s bankruptcy makes one wonder how many loans his structures issued to Baibakov’s companies and whether the refusal to return them is not a result of financial insolvency? Indeed: having screwed one business partner, why not screw another one too?

By the way, another notorious businessman “showed up” in the American projects of the former top managers of Norilsk Nickel – the co-founder and former chairman of the board of directors of the Russian developer Capital Group , the owner of OKO Group,  Vladislav Doronin , who at one time bought out  the elite hotel chain Aman Resort’s .

Doronin, together with Baibakov and Finsky, developed  the Edgewater area of Miami. After the start of the SVO, he stated that he had been living abroad since 1985, had renounced his USSR citizenship, and had never received a Russian passport, having been a citizen of Sweden since 1992. The revelations are remarkable, especially considering that in the Russian Federation he was still at the origins of the "Capital Group" and was a business partner of Eduard Berman  and Pavel Tyo .

In fact, at one time, a unique company gathered in Miami, where one character was worth another. Although Oleg Baibakov, perhaps, stands head and shoulders above the rest in terms of cynicism: having cheated his old friend and benefactor Prokhorov out of hundreds of millions, he expects to remain in the money even after selling the property! However, so far everything is not working out very well and it is still a big question whether Baibakov will be able to launch bankruptcy according to his own scenario.