Alexey Viktorovich Kuzmichev or Kousmichoff (Russian: ''Алексей Викторович Кузьмичёв;'' born 15 October 1962) is a Russian businessman. He is one of the founders of the LetterOne Group (LetterOne) and the

Alfa Group Alfa Group Consortium () is a Russian international privately owned investment groups, with interests in oil and gas, commercial and investment banking, asset management, insurance, retail trade, telecommunications, water utilities and special ...

. Kuzmichev was a stakeholder in

VimpelCom VEON Ltd. (formerly VimpelCom Ltd.), also known as VEON Group, is a multinational telecommunication and digital services company. Headquartered in Dubai, the company is publicly traded on the U.S.-based NASDAQ stock exchange. VEON operates in ...

Alfa-Bank Alfa-Bank JSC () is the largest of the private banks in Russia. It was founded in 1990 by Russian businessman Mikhail Fridman, who remains the controlling owner. Headquartered in Moscow, it operates in seven countries, providing financial servi ...

, and

X5 Retail Group X5 Group (previously known as X5 Retail Group and commonly known as X5) is Russia's largest food retailer. In 2012, the organization of X5-Retail Group LLC was liquidated, and in 2018 X5 Group LLC was opened. The company operates several retai ...

. In March 2013, Kuzmichev sold his stake in energy venture

TNK-BP TNK-BP (, ) was a major vertically integrated Russian oil company headquartered in Moscow. It was Russia's third-largest oil producer and among the ten largest private oil companies in the world. In 2013 it was acquired by Russian oil company R ...

to state-run oil company

Rosneft PJSC Rosneft Oil Company ( stylized as ROSNEFT) is a Russian integrated energy company headquartered in Moscow. Rosneft specializes in the exploration, extraction, production, refining, transport, and sale of petroleum, natural gas, and pet ...

for $2.5 billion. In March 2023, Kuzmichev sold his 16.32% stake in Alfa Bank and left the shareholders. For the first time,

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

magazine rated Kuzmichev in 2013 — as the 138th world's richest person with a fortune estimated at $8.8 billion. In 2023 he was ranked number 397 with a $6.5 billion fortune.

Early life and career

Kuzmichev was born in 1962 in Kirov, Russia. Between 1980 and 1982 he served in the army on the Soviet-Chinese border as a radio operator. During this time he joined the Communist party. In 1983, he enrolled in the

Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys The National University of Science and Technology (MISiS) () is a public technological university in the field of steelmaking and metallurgy, based in Moscow, Russia. It was established in 1918 as a part of the Moscow Mining Academy. In 1930 ...

where he met his future business partners,

Mikhail Fridman Mikhail Maratovich Fridman (also transliterated Mikhail Friedman; ; ; born 21 April 1964) is a Ukrainian-born, Russian–Israeli tycoon and Russian oligarchs, oligarch. He is one of the co-founders of Alfa Group, Alfa-Group, a multinational Rus ...

and

German Khan German Borisovich Khan (; born 24 October 1961) is a Ukrainian people, Ukrainian-Israel, Israeli-Russian oligarch, billionaire, and businessman. After graduating from university in 1988 he worked in a wholesale business selling consumer items, ...

. In 1988, Kuzmichev, Fridman and Khan, along with Mikhail Alfimov, founded Alfa Photo, which specialized in the import of photo chemicals. Later, Kuzmichev convinced his partners to diversify into the export business. Thus, in 1998, Alfa Eco was founded. The venture would become the basis of Alfa Group Consortium. (In 2005, Alfa Eco was rebranded as A1).

Alfa Group

Alfa Group's portfolio includes the largest commercial bank in Russia,

, (with affiliates in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and the Netherlands/Amsterdam Trade Bank); international telecom company

(the sixth largest mobile network operator in the world by subscribers as of April, 2012); as well as holding shares in Turkish telecommunications company

Turkcell Turkcell İletişim Hizmetleri A.Ş. (''lit. Turkcell Communication Services'') (, ) is the leading mobile phone operator of Turkey, based in Istanbul. The company has 39.3 million subscribers as of September 2021. In 2015, the company's number ...

. Until April 2012, Alfa Group owned 25 percent of Russian cell phone operator

MegaFon MegaFon () is the second largest mobile phone operator"МегаФон" б ...

; it sold its share for $5.2 billion. Alfa also has stakes in Russian retailer X5 Retail Group, Rosvodokanal Group; and insurance company, Alfa-Strakhovanie Group. Kuzmichev owns over 18 percent of the consortium's joint assets and is a member of the board of directors of Alfa Finance Holdings. The Group's major transactions include TNK oil company privatization, which later became a part of

venture, Russia's third-largest oil producer. In March 2013 Alfa Group and its joint partners AAR Consortium sold 50 percent of

to Russian oil company

. Kuzmichev is responsible for overseeing Alfa Group’s international trading operations.

Sinking of The Prestige

Crown Resources, a European oil and commodity trading arm of Alfa Group, of which Kuzmichev is chairman, was the owner of the oil cargo on The Prestige vessel, which sank near the coast of Galicia, Spain in 2002. The case concerning The Prestige centred on the negligence of the vessel's owner and was completed in July 2013. No accusations or financial claims were made against Crown Resources.

LetterOne Group

Kuzmichev is one of the original founders of the LetterOne Group. The LetterOne Group (LetterOne) is an international investment business based in

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

. Its investments are focused on the telecoms, technology and energy sectors through its two main business units,

L1 Energy L1 Energy is an oil and gas investment company controlled by the Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, through Alfa Group, and chaired by John Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley, Lord Browne. On 2 March 2015, it was announced that Lord Browne was t ...

and L1 Technology. Despite recently being required by the Government to sell their North Sea oil and gas fields, LetterOne have reportedly been told in a statement from a senior UK official that this 'is not a judgement on the suitability of LetterOne's owners to control these or any other assets in the UK. Kuzmichev is married to Svetlana Kuzmicheva-Uspenskaya. In 2016, he bought a US$42 million mansion in New York City.

Sanctions

He was sanctioned by the European Union, Australia, Canada and the UK government in 2022 in relation to the

Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...

. In August 2023, the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

imposed financial sanctions on Kuzmichev pursuant to Executive Order 14024, placing him on OFAC's SDN List for "operating or having operated in the financial services sector of the Russian Federation economy." Two of Kuzmichev's yachts have been seized by France due to the sanctions against Russian billionaires after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia but were returned on appeal.

Arrest

On 30 October 2023, French police detained Kuzmichev and also conducted searches in the businessman’s Parisian mansion and his villa in

Saint-Tropez Saint-Tropez ( , ; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Var (department), Var departments of France, department and the regions of France, region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Southern France. It is west of Nice and east of Marseille, o ...

. He was released from custody on bail of €8 million the same day. Kuzmichev is suspected of tax crimes and violation of sanctions. In November 2023, the French National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) announced charges against Kuzmichev for tax fraud. He was subsequently placed under judicial supervision and banned from leaving the country.

References

External links

Alfa-Group Global

How the Sussmann trial revealed Hillary Clinton’s role in the Alfa Bank scandal
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuzmichev, Alexey Alfa Group National University of Science and Technology MISiS alumni 1963 births Living people Russian venture capitalists Russian billionaires Russian individuals subject to European Union sanctions Russian businesspeople in Cyprus Russian individuals subject to United Kingdom sanctions