MARCH 11, 2022 – Kremlin insider Dmitry Mazepin, mastermind behind the unlawful take-over of Russian fertilizer giant TogliattiAzot (‘ToAZ’), has been added to the sanctions list by the EU on Wednesday. The sanctions, which include travel bans and asset freezes, were imposed because the EU believes Mazepin is a close member of Putin’s inner circle, that his company Uralchem provides a substantial source of revenue to the Kremlin and that he is supporting or implementing actions or policies which undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, as well as stability and security in Ukraine.
Mazepin and his company Uralchem (UCCU) were already facing contempt allegations in Irish court for breaking UCCU’s obligation to the Irish Court that it would not enforce a judgment which UCCU had procured in Russia (which the BKITS maintain on powerful evidence is fraudulent) against the BKITs or their shares, pending the Irish Court’s judgment in the case. The court is expected to set a hearing date for those allegations in April.
The European Union finally confirmed what the BKIT Companies have been saying for years, that Dmitry Mazepin is not just a corporate raider but “a member of the closest circle of Vladimir Putin,and that he is supporting or implementing actions or policies which undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, as well as stability and security in Ukraine.”
UCCU and Mazepin forcefully seized control over fertilizer giant TogliattiAzot (‘ToAZ’) this past November from its rightful majority shareholders, the BKIT Companies, and facilitated the BKIT’s shares being put up for sale in ‘public’ auctions in which only proxies for Mazepin participated.
Until the disputed takeover, ToAZ was one of the last remaining major independently-owned companies in Russia and the world’s largest ammonia producer. ToAZ has been designated by the Russian government as being of “strategic economic importance”. Mazepin’s takeover of ToAZ now makes him one of Russia’s largest players in fertilizer.
The unlawful take-over of ToAZ is strongly challenged by the BKIT Companies, who are themselves the rightful majority shareholders in ToAZ. In 2016, the BKITs took Mazepin and his co-conspirators to court in Ireland, because an Irish company owned and controlled by Mazepin played a central part in the takeover scheme. The BKITs claimed $2 billion in damages and sought an injunction to stop the illegal raider attacks.
