Russians join chase for Romanian copper.
Seven months after Serbian and Romanian businessmen from the Swiss company Mineco AG tried to bribe a Romanian judge to win control over about US$1 billion in copper reserves, it became clear that this battle was far from over.
This time a Russian geologist, hired by Mineco, was detained at -Henri Coandă International Airport in Bucharest. Romanian authorities said the man was carrying classified geological maps of these reserves in the Moldova Nouă area of Romania, next to the Serbian border.
Reporters for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) have identified the geologist as Mikhail Orlov, from the Ural region of Russia, (P4) who has visited Bucharest several times in the past year. His lawyer say he was eventually allowed to leave Romania but remains under investigation.
Although prosecutors exposed the bribery scheme in March 2012, Mineco has continued chasing the valuable copper ore. Orlov was part of a team of Russian experts Serbian businessman Dimitrije Aksentijević hired to design the technology for a new mineral processing plant in Moldova Nouă, a town on the Danube in southwest Romania, said persons involved in the deal.
Aksentijevic left Romania just as law enforcement rounded up suspects in the bribery bust and may be in London. He is a director of Mineco AG, which is run by Serbian businessmen has and has been trying to obtain rights to the copper since 2006 from the now bankrupt state company Moldomin.
Orlov was travelling alone when he was temporarily detained at the airport, but during previous visits to Romania, he was accompanied by another Russian citizen, Ilyas Abdrakhmanov. Abdrakhmanov was for many years the general director of OAO “Uchalinskiy Gok”, a mining plant in Russia’s Ural Mountains. Orlov was the plant’s chief geologist.
Uchalinskiy Gok is part of the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC) group which is controlled by the Russian oligarch, Iskandar Makhmudov, one of the biggest players in the non-ferrous metal industry in the former Soviet Union.
Abdrakhmanov is now a deputy of the Republic of Bashkiria and a member of United Russia – Russian President Vladimir Putin's political party.
How Orlov Got the Maps
Two days before his arrest, Orlov had visited Ipromin SA, a Romanian mining institute, where he received a series of geological maps. The Romanian Secret Service say the maps contained data about the copper deposits near Moldova Nouă, and several were classified.
Romanian prosecutors started an investigation into Sorin Berchimis, the president of Ipromin SA, who allegedly handed the maps to Orlov. Although both Berchimis and Orlov were initially investigated for endangering Romania's national security, those charges were dropped and now the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) is investigating them for corruption.
Abdrahkmanov, Orlov's boss, told OCCRP that the whole issue was just a misunderstanding.
“Mineco won the bid for the mine in Moldova Noua. The Suvorov mining site is near that mine,” Abdrahkmanov explained. “Ipromin referred to the whole area. So Romanian law enforcement decided that the documentation received by Orlov from Ipromin was wrong (because) it referred only to the Suvorov mine.”
According to Abdrahkmanov, Orlov was neither formally arrested nor detained. “During the investigation he lived in a hotel,” he said.
Abdrahkmanov further said that he himself “had no problems and have never been interrogated.” He said Orlov has no further obligations to Romanian law enforcement, but noted, “The contract between Ipromin and Mineco is still not signed, because judicial problems are not resolved yet. Mineco still has to arrange everything with the Romanian side.”
Sorin Berchimis, the president of Ipromin, denies giving Orlov classified information, saying Orlov was introduced to him as a Mineco representative and was entitled to the maps as Mineco had the mining rights for the Moldova Nouă site. "Mr. Rus (Dan Adrian Rus, the Mineco representative now sentenced to jail for corruption) introduced Orlov to me” at the Mineco office in Bucharest, he said. “So he came to me via the owner of the mining license... I did not give the documents to someone in the street," said Berchimis to OCCRP.
That license was transferred to Mineco in January 2012 and signed by Alexandru Pătruti, the former president of the Romanian National Agency for Mineral Resources. just a few months before in October of 2011, the Romanian government had begun to challenge Mineco in court over the privatization. Approached by OCCRP reporters, Pătruți first said he did not remember the contract and when told his signature was on the contract, he did not return messages. Răzvan Zăvăleanu, the person in charge of Moldomin's current bankruptcy procedures and privatization, also did not return emails or calls about the licensing process.
Romanian National Agency for Mineral Resources confirmed to reporters the transfer of the license to Mineco for free, claiming that the operation took place with the prior approval of Moldomin and Mineco.
Orlov’s visit wasn’t the first for Russian mining experts, as claimants vie for the valuable copper ore controlled by Moldomin.
Just a few days before Christmas in 2011, local officials in Moldova Nouă hosted an important visit. Mineco brought a very important delegation of Russian experts, led by Abdrakhmanov.
The Moldomin director, Iacob Chisărău, welcomed the delegation and took the Russians on a tour to the inactive mining site. The Russians, Chisărău and Mineco's representative, Rus, took group photographs in front of Moldomin's headquarters.
By that time, Romanian officials were suspicious about the deals and some in the delegation were already being monitored by the Romanian secret service.
They stayed under surveillance for almost three months. Eventually the Serbians, Rus and Chisărău were charged with conspiring to buy the influence of a Romanian judge based on that surveillance.
The Russian delegation also included experts from another Russian company, RIVS Institute from Saint Petersburg. RIVS, a mining institute, was to participate in the design of the new processing facility. RIVS has been a regular business partner of UMMC Group controlled by Makhmudov, the Russian oligarch.
Abdrakhmanov told OCCRP that Makhmuduv has nothing to do with the Moldomin business: “Makhmudov and Uchalinsky GOK have no connection to this case. The contract was between Mineco and me personally as a citizen of Russia. I signed the contract with Mineco after I retired from Uchalinsky GOK.”
Another visit occurred in mid-March 2012, in Bucharest. This time the Russians and the Serbs from Mineco, Aksentijevic and Aleksandar Andrejevic, left Romania on March 14. That afternoon, the Moldomin director, Chisărău, was arrested by Romanian police who found in his pockets €50,000 that were to be delivered to the Romanian judge as a bribe.