Three Main “Wallets” of the Regime and Related Companies Fell under Us Sanctions

• 11.08.2021, 7:49

Asset rewriting didn't help.

On August 9, the USA extended sanctions on Belarus. They affected three businessmen - Mikalai Varabei, Aliaksei Aleksin, Nebojsha Karic. In the explanation to the sanctions list, they are called “Lukashenka’s wallets” - energy, tobacco, and construction wallets, respectively. Companies that are associated with these entrepreneurs also fell under the sanctions. Among them are Absolutbank, Energo-oil (Tabakerok network), Dana Holdings, and others.

The website zerkalo.io explains how the sanctioned businessmen and firms are interconnected, as well as how the transferring assets did not help to avoid this.

Aliaksei Aleksin and Mikalai Varabei are businessmen close to Aliaksandr Lukashenka. Nebojsa Karic is one of the shareholders of Dana Holdings.

Companies associated with businessman Varabei

Mikalai Varabei is called Lukashenka's energy purse in the explanation to the US sanctions list. Many companies that have appeared on the American list are associated with him. These are Absolutbank, Interservice (Navapolatsk), Bremino Group, Belkaztrans, Belkaztrans Ukraine, New Oil Company, Oil Bitumen Plant, New Oil Company Vostok.

Absolutbank and Neftebitumenny Zavod (a plant in the Cherven District, which acquired a controlling stake in the Ukrainian oil product pipeline PrykarpatZapadtrans at the beginning of 2019) came under sanctions as belonging or directly or indirectly controlled by the Interservice holding.

The main activity of this holding is wholesale. It includes Absolutbank, Interservice (engaged in wholesale trade, oil trader is a company that is engaged in wholesale oil trade), and Krasny Bor (a hunting complex). It is reported that in the authorized capital of Interservice LLC, a 100% share belongs to Krasny Bor. In turn, the share of Interservice in the authorized capital of Absolutbank is 99.94%.

In December 2020, businessman Mikalai Varabei and his wife Tamara ceased to be the owners of Interservice, Absolutbank, and the Krasny Bor complex. This became known after the European Union adopted the third package of sanctions against the Belarusian authorities and business on December 17 last year, and Varabei was also included in it. In the EU sanctions list, he was listed as a co-owner of the Bremino Group company. In fact, it turned out that the disposal of assets did not save from the US sanctions.

Earlier it was reported that the logistics operator Bremino Group was owned on a parity basis by businessmen Aliaksei Aleksin, Mikalai Varabei, and Aliaksandr Zaitsau. Later this information was removed from the operator's website.

The explanation to the US sanctions list states that Varabei's business also extends to Ukraine and Russia. The companies Belkaztrans (engaged in the provision of forwarding services) and Belkaztrans Ukraine (Ukrainian "daughter") fell under the sanctions, they were included as belonging to or directly or indirectly controlled by Varabei.

New Oil Company (NOC) is a special exporter of Belarusian oil products, while New Oil Company Vostok is its Russian subsidiary. NOC was created in 2020 with the participation of businessman Mikalai Varabei with the support of the Belarusian Railway and the Development Bank. In November 2020, the company registered a subsidiary NNK Vostok in Smolensk.

Companies associated with Aleksin

The US sanctions list includes 3 companies that are associated with the business of Aliaksei Aleksin's family - Belneftegaz (operator of the international transit traffic monitoring system), Energo-Oil, Inter Tobacco (the last two are tobacco market companies).

Aliaksei Aleksin has previously come under EU sanctions. In January of this year, it was reported that the businessman transferred the companies to his sons. It was assumed that the reason is the threat of European sanctions. Then, in the scheme of beneficial owners on the MTBank website, it was indicated that 40% of the share in Energo-Oil belongs to Vitaly and Dzmitry Aleksin, another 20% to Ina Aleksina (the businessman's wife).

Belneftegaz and Energo-Oil were previously the beneficial owners of MTB INVESTMENTS HOLDINGS LIMITED, which owned more than 99% of MTBank's shares. However, in June this year, the shares of this company were transferred to Stoneva Limited of businessman Romeo Abdo (doing business in the telecommunications, information technology, and commercial real estate sectors).

As for the company Inter Tobacco, in 2019, it entered the group of companies SZAO Energo-OIL and received a license for the production of brands of tobacco products from Philip Morris International. As a reminder, Philip Morris announced in August that it had stopped selling IQOS systems for heating tobacco in Belarus.

Which companies of the Karic family were sanctioned

Dana Holdings, one of the shareholders of which is Nebojsa Karic, was previously subject to European sanctions, and now - to US sanctions. The USA also included the subsidiaries of Dana Holdings - Dana Astra (construction of the Minsk-Mir complex), Emirates Blue Sky, Dubai Water Front.

Earlier, Emirates Blue Sky and Dubai Water Front announced the end of construction activities in Belarus, as well as attracting investments. This happened shortly after the imposition of EU sanctions.