It came to light that over twenty members of the European Parliament had demanded sanctions against Vardanyan on March 14, 2019, saying in a letter to the President of the European Commission: “We believe that it is necessary to take urgent measures against Ruben Vardanyan who led the Troika Dialog.”
On 14 March 2019, over twenty members of the European Parliament demanded sanctions against @RubenVardanyan_.
“We believe that it is necessary to take urgent measures against Ruben Vardanyan who led the Troika Dialog,” a letter to the President of the European Commission said. pic.twitter.com/JltNQeqnoU— Deutsches Zentrum für Südkaukasus (@Sudkaukasus) January 8, 2023
You may recall that it became known last week that Ruben Vardanyan had been included in Ukraine’s sanctions lists as early as October 19, 2022 for his support of the Russian invasion.
This decision was made by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine and approved by a decree of President Vladimir Zelenskyy. The War & Sanctions portal, set up with the support of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and the National Corruption Prevention Agency, specifies the exact reason for imposing sanctions on Vardanyan: “Top management of the backbone Russian company, which is involved in material (transport, logistics and other) support of actions that undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine”, in reference to Volga-Dnepr Group, one of the largest cargo airline holding companies in the Russian Federation.
But no matter how hard Vardanyan may try to portray himself as a benefactor, philanthropist, book publisher, and now a “defender of the disadvantaged Armenians” of Karabakh, everyone knows how Ruben made his fortune and who helped him in this.
Vardanyan once said in an interview that he had never worked with criminals and that he had nothing to justify himself for. He is, of course, lying. Ruben Vardanyan had close ties with Aslan Usoyan (Grandpa Hasan), the godfather of the Russian mafia, an ethnic Kurd, who was murdered in January 2013. It was Usoyan who helped Vardanyan organize meetings with crime bosses and officials, who became crucial in the laundering of dirty money.
The Compromat Group website wrote about one of these meetings, as they obtained an old secret service memo.
Here is an excerpt: “In the course of his work in early 1993, Igor Yusufov established working relations with one of the leaders of the Armenian diaspora, Ruben Vardanyan (owner of Troika-Dialog Management Company until 2011), through a close acquaintance, crime boss Sergei Lalakin (Luchok). Aslan Usoyan, a thief-in-law, organized the meeting on Vardanyan’s behalf. Ruben Vardanyan introduced Yusufov to the founders of the International Computer Club, Levon Amdilyan and Mikhail Mishustin, who had been working on the integration of the cutting-edge computer products and services for the Russian market since 1992. In the course of this relationship, Yusufov has, from that time to the present day, repeatedly sought assistance from the specialists of this organization to ensure smooth functioning of the operators of his bank platforms that cashed out money in Dagestan and Moscow (CB Dagestan, OAO Sberbank, CB Slavyansky, CB Slaviya, CB Master-Bank, Russian branches of Deutsche Bank Germany, Fondservisbank, Mostransbank, Russian Land Bank, Vozrozhdenie, Mosoblbank).”
“Specialists of the International Computer Club through the development of new programs also provide uninterrupted communication between bank operators and foreign partners to transfer funds to foreign bank accounts in Europe, America and Asia,” the memo said.
Ruben Vardanyan and businessman Rajat Gupta (formerly an independent member of the supervisory board of Yukos (2000-2004) and Sberbank of Russia (until 2011)) are possible accomplices in the international crime of organizing a fraudulent securities trade scheme.
In late 2009, Galleon hedge fund founder American billionaire Raj Rajaratnam and five other financiers were charged by the US police with making about $20 million in illegal profits from insider trading of information concerning such global business giants as Google, AMD, and Hilton Hotels.
According to US prosecutors, they have not seen an insider trading business as large-scale as that of the Galleon hedge fund in more than 20 years. Since October 2009, 21 people have been arrested in this case, 11 of whom have already confessed. Among them is former McKinsey consultant Anil Kumar, who is now cooperating with the investigation.
He confessed that he, Vardanyan and Gupta had received $2 million from Galleon for insider information. The US Justice Department estimated the profit of the authors of the fraudulent scheme at $20 mln, and the SEC — at $25 mln. The crooks made that money in 2006-2009 on insider deals with shares of Google, IBM, Sun Microsystems, Hilton, and Advanced Micro Devices. At the time, Galleon Group had $3.7 billion in assets, and Raj Rajaratnam, the founder and manager of the fund, was the 559th richest man on the Forbes list, with a capital of $1.3 billion.
In early 2006, Rajat Gupta and Shiv Khemka (Vice Chairman of the Sun Group, has business in Russia) brought to Russia the idea of creating a world-class business school and found support from Ruben Vardanyan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Troika Dialog Group, who organized a meeting in the lobby bar of Balchug Hotel with Mikhail Mishustin (head of the Federal Agency for Managing Special Economic Zones in 2006-2008) and German Gref, then Russian Minister of Economic Development and Trade.
These are not the only secret service reports. There is also an OCCRP investigation into the offshore network through which Ruben Vardanyan’s Troika Dialog investment bank secretly transferred money in 2006-2012.
About 3.5 billion euros went through Lithuanian banks Ūkio and Snoras to be later laundered through offshore banks. OCCRP wrote that Troika Dialog in particular might have been involved in a scheme to return taxes from the case of Russian auditor Sergei Magnitsky and the funneling of money from Sheremetyevo Airport (alleged schemes to steal large-scale budget funds through illegal tax refunds organized by Russian officials and security services. He was then accused of aiding and abetting tax evasion and was arrested in 2008, with those previously accused of corruption being involved in the investigation against Magnitsky).
The payments from Troika’s offshore system to relatives and friends of top Russian officials that OCCRP was able to track down were more of an episodic nature. The bulk of the payments were linked to Ruben Vardanyan himself, his family, and his inner circle of major entrepreneurs and politicians, who are commonly referred to as “Young Reformers” or “system liberals”.
