By John Helmer in Moscow The Far Eastern Shipping Company (Fesco), owned and run by Sergei Generalov, Russia’s largest dry-shipping operator, is to receive a state guarantee for loan repayments of Rb1.5 billion ($52 million), and will apply this to a loan of Rb2.5 billion ($86 million), which is being finalized this month with state […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, October 29th, 2009
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow It’s either a comedy starring Pinocchio, or a tragedy ending in Seppuku. According to Section 1 of Sovcomflot’s corporate code of governance — ratified by the company board in 2007, and posted on the company website — one of the principles is “prompt disclosure of complete and reliable information about […]

by John Helmer - Monday, October 26th, 2009
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow It’s not so surprising that religion tends to be humourless. Making people accept the impossible usually requires threats, not jokes. There is no record that Jesus Christ ever laughed out loud. His idea of humour was sarcasm, and puns he lifted from fishermen and carpenters. But for overdoing seriousness, the […]

by John Helmer - Friday, October 23rd, 2009
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow Unprecedented disclosure of the financial intimacies of world tanker leader, state-owned Sovcomflot, continues in the UK High Court in London as Igor Borisenko, the former chief financial officer and deputy CEO of Sovcomflot, returns to the witness stand today and tomorrow. Borisenko has told the judge that, although he was […]

by John Helmer - Monday, October 19th, 2009
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow The key witness in the $800 million Sovcomflot (SCF) case against former CEO, Dmitry Skarga, and charterer Yury Nikitin, has contradicted a core claim by the company in his High Court testimony this week. Igor Borisenko, SCF’s former chief financial officer, told the court he supported chartering of oil tankers […]

by John Helmer - Friday, October 16th, 2009
No Comments »

First there was Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book, then Qaddafi the Leader’s Little Green Book, and now, from the witness box of the UK High Court, in testimony given over four days, October 5-8, 2009, comes…

by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow Sovcomflot chief executive Sergey Frank (left, centre figure) testified in the UK High Court last week that as Russia’s Minister of Transport he opposed the privatisation and IPO sale of Sovcomflot shares, despite company board and other ministry approvals starting in 2002. Under cross-examination by counsel for former CEO Dmitry […]

by John Helmer - Sunday, October 11th, 2009
No Comments »

By John Helmer in Moscow Sergey Frank, the chief executive of state owned Sovcomflot (SCF), one of the top-5 tanker companies in the world, is now into his fourth straight day of cross-examination in the UK High Court for what is turning out to be an unexpectedly dramatic examination of the way high Kremlin officials […]

by John Helmer - Thursday, October 8th, 2009
No Comments »

By John Helmer On July 31, the UK Court of Appeal upheld the ruling of High Court Justice Christopher Clarke that the administration of law in Russia is liable to be manipulated by powerful Russian businessmen and politically influential individuals pursuing vendettas for their financial gain. “Improper interference by State actors” was the phrase accepted […]

by John Helmer - Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
No Comments »

By John Helmer Sergey Frank, Sovcomflot’s chief executive, has testified in the High Court that he knew nothing about an illegal information- gathering operation, targeted against his rival and former CEO, Dmitry Skarga, but that the figure in charge, who is referred to in the court evidence, may have been Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Igor […]

by John Helmer - Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
No Comments »