We are told that some TV shows knew ahead of time and managed to predict future events. It would be fair so say that the once-popular comedy show «Nasha Russia» is among them. In particular, the beginning theme with an announcer ironically drawing the modern Russian realities. One of the main thesis was the fact that Russia is rich in natural resources, especially in oil, so other countries are jealous of it. No-one would argue that.
Still, these are not foreigners who are that jealous. But the common citizens who envy the thieving persons embezzling the Russian wealth. How had it happened that the largest oil company in the world «Rosneft» was tricked and lost 1,5 billion dollars? Anatoly Gavrilovich Loktionov is the person who is able to answer this question: his best play was to hide a large sum of greens in the pocket. A comprehensive chronology of those events including the embezzlements from the «Rosneft» budget by the former first person of the company is presented below.
The eternity has a smell of oil
Long before the notorious time of managing «Rosneft» mister Loktionov got a chance to work in several organisations, specialising in oil business. He kept fishing around the oil sector until decided to set up his own company in the sector. Still, all his tries to make legal business failed. But not a single failure can stop the sneaky offender, while Anatoly Gavrilovich is the criminal with a capital.
He got the first progressive results in the 1990s. Loktionov had been working as a general director of the «Petro trade» firm for four years by then – since 1994 till 1998. He mastered in frauds and managed to fill his pocket, but thought of a bigger score. That time the oil company «Rosneft» appeared in his sight. To tell the truth, Loktionov had been working as a responsible employee for the first two years, but soon the infamous 2000 year had come.
From hand to hand
The businessman was never interested in the career progress or a team work. Probably, that was the reason he promptly got a position of a vice-president in the major oil company in Russia. Actually, the story of Loktionov getting into the company is as confusing as his heart is. There are lots of questions while no answers. Anyway, by the middle of 2000s he had enormous power over the company.
Certainly, the main reason why the top-manager of the organisation started all his frauds was the fact that he considered his salary as a pitiful one. So, the fraudster Loktionov decided to sell the oil raw materials that didn’t belong to him abroad. To avoid attention and get most of it he set up the Energo Impex company in Geneva with Anatoly as the main beneficiary of the firm himself. Thus, a carefully planned corrupt scheme appeared: he resold the products to himself with no mediators. It seemed to be the perfect crime but had one flaw.
Crime and no punishment
In 2006 the first suspicions about oil drain for peanuts emerged in the finance department of «Rosneft». They immediately threw on Loktionov as long as it was him to sign all the supply contracts. The sneaky fraudster had to come up with a new way out. He renamed his Geneva company Energo Impex into Highlander International Trading and thus managed to divert attention. He was the only one to know about the company’s name change, thus nobody asked additional questions. Still, by 2010 the media got information about Loktionov’s criminal scams, so the fraudster had to leave the country.
All in all, for those years of thieving career Anatoly Gavrilovich transferred about 40 million tons of oil products to Europe. The businessman’s greed made a huge damage to the company’s image and created a cost of 1,3 billion dollars. Nowadays a moneyman lives in the luxurious district of London, but wishes to return home that much. With no prosecutions is preferred.
Make money, nothing else matters
Probably, in the childhood Anatoly enjoyed the soviet cartoon «Treasure Island» with a well-known song of the Blind Pugh about the constant need for money gain. Otherwise, how else can we explain that Loktionov besides oil embezzlement:
- Took kickbacks for additional resources supply contracts – 10 dollars per each ton of oil;
- Sold and resold the company’s shares for peanuts
A constant thirst for profit from any kind of activities one day just overcame Loktionov’s mind. A stubborn appetite for new sources of potential earnings took precedence over the need to conspire, so the fraudster at the end was found to have illegally embezzled the «Rosneft» property. There is a folk wisdom that tells: «The whale was killed by his greed!». It describes that situation best. If the businessman hadn’t put that much time and effort focusing on the side activities that were illegal as well, he might still have been getting money out of the Russian oil cow by now.
There are two criminal proceedings against the former vice-president of «Rosneft» in Russia by now. Technically he managed to escape the prosecution long ago, so he would be punished only if returns to Russia. The most amazing thing is that the dishonest fraudster plans to do that! Meanwhile, he intends to return free from any prosecutions via the initiative by Boris Titov and that may actually work. That’s why as soon as he comes back to our Motherland it is so important to remember that this person was the one to steal the enormous sum of money from the federal budget and to encourage the financial crisis and the spread of corruption!