The owner of the Oleina brand was detained in Moscow
On Novy Arbat in the center of Moscow, the main owner of the Exoil Group holding, Karen Vanetsyan, who was put on the wanted list in Armenia in the case of money laundering using official powers (clause 3, part 3, article 296 of the Armenian Criminal Code), was detained, a source close to the Ministry of Internal Affairs told RBC , and was confirmed by a source in the territorial police department.
In Armenia, arrest was chosen as a preventive measure for Vanetsyan. Russia reported the arrest of the businessman to the Armenian authorities.
RBC sources said that Vanetsyan stated that he was unemployed. According to their information, he lives in the Lipetsk region.
The Exoil Group holding declined to comment to RBC regarding the detention of Karen Vanetsyan.
Exoil Group is engaged in the purchase of sunflower, processing, trading of oilseeds and grain crops, port transshipment and logistics. 99% of Exoil Group Management Company LLC is owned by the Cyprus company SGA Holdings Ltd, 1% is owned directly by Karen Vanetsyan. Last year, the holding acquired the assets of the American company Bunge in Russia and the CIS, including the Oleina and Ideal sunflower oil brands.
Last November, the Armenian prosecutor's office opened criminal cases against Swiss and Armenian citizen K.V. for money laundering. The Sputnik Armenia agency clarified that we are talking about Karen Vanetsyan, the cousin of the ex-head of the Armenian National Security Service and chairman of the Fatherland party Artur Vanetsyan.
As the press service of the prosecutor's office reported, the investigation found that K.V., being the real beneficiary of a company registered in Cyprus, on July 23, 2018, acquired through it 12.5% of the shares of the Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine (the largest taxpayer in the republic).
Previously, these shares belonged to the son-in-law of ex-President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan Mikael Minasyan (in the prosecutor's office report he was indicated as M.M., who served as Armenian Ambassador to the Vatican in 2013-2018). Formally, they were registered to the Zangezur Mining company. According to investigators, the purpose of K.V.’s acquisition of shares was to “conceal their criminal origin and true essence.”
Thus, a “deliberately unfavorable contract” was concluded between the company owned by M.M. and the Zangezur plant, under which the latter paid a particularly large sum. Then, using this money, 12.5% of the plant’s shares were purchased through a company owned by M.M.
According to the prosecutor's office, K.V. purchased shares for 1 billion drams and $13 million and “criminally disposed of particularly large property worth” more than 14.5 billion drams (about $36 million).
