Artyom Chaika

The son of Prosecutor General of Russia, Yuri Chaika.

Artyom Chaika, the eldest son of Russia's Prosecutor General, Yuri Chaika, is a member of the Moscow City Bar Association. The press used to call him as the owner of "Tyretsk salt mines". Also, according to some reports, he could be involved in the change of ownership of Verhnelensk river shipping company in the early 2000s. In March 2011, his name was mentioned in connection with the scandal around the underground casinos in the suburbs of Moscow.

Aryom Yuryevich Chaika was born on September 25, 1975 in Ekaterinburg, in the family of Yuri Chaika, the future Minister of Justice and Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation [31], [33], [2]. In 1997, he graduated from the Irkutsk State University [33], [2] and the following year became a member of the Moscow Bar Association [2], [33]. In 2002, he defended his dissertation on "The organising of interactions between the preliminary investigation and inquiry procedure to investigate and solve crimes", from the Institute for the rule of law and order under the office of The Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, which was later transformed into the Academy of the Prosecutor General, and received the degree of Candidate of Juridical Sciences (Ph.D.) [35] [34], [33].

Artyom Chaika co-founded and worked as a lawyer at the law firm "Chaadaev, Heifetz and partners" [2] (or "Chaadaev and partners" [33]). He was the founder of the wholesale trade firm "LLC Russian asset Group of Companies", which functioned from 2003 to 2009, and LLC Equestrian Club Elbrus" which was founded in 2008 in Nalchik, [2], [36], [32]. As per the results of a journalistic investigation held in 2011, Chaika could also be related to the activities of the Cyprus offshore company "Jerson Trading Ltd", which was engaged in the organization and financing of the production, as well as leasing and supply of various equipment [32], [37].

It was in the spring of1999; that Artyom Chaika first got himself into the attention of the press. On March 9, 1999 at Rublevo-Uspensky highway during a special operation was detained a car belonging to a company called "Doninvest Condor" owned by his father, the then Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, in which there were two natives of Republic of Ingushetia: Ibrahim Yevloyev and Khunkar Chumakov. They had a power of attorney for this car, which Artyom Chaika had issued them for one year, and a special government pass, banning the screening of the vehicle by any security agencies. Also in the car, were found a gun, a grenade, and some heroin. The media called Chumakov and Yevloyev as friends and bodyguards of Artyom Chaika. They were suspected to be engaged in racketeering in the suburbs of Moscow using this car. On detention Chumakov and Yevloyev offered the police to settle the case by making a call to the son of Deputy Attorney General. During the judicial

process, Artyom Chaika entered the case as a witness, even tried to provide some alibi to Yevloyev for defending against charges of racketeering, and claimed that he had given him the car, so that he could go to collect his young son [29], [13], [27], [31], [24], [26].

Despite the delays in investigations and attempts of Odintsovo City Court to close the case due to the expiry of maximum permissible period of detention of suspects, in September 2000 Chumakov and Yevloyev were sentenced by Odintsovo City Court to six years in prison for extortion of 60 thousand dollars and robbery [24] , [26], [13], [27], [31]. Artyom Chaika did not attend the trial, citing a broken leg [25]. Yuri Chaika said after the incident that Yevloyev was really a colleague of his son and that from now on, Artyom will be careful in choosing his friends [26], [15]. This scandal did not in any way affect the career of Yuri Chaika: in April 1999, he became acting Prosecutor General, and in August was chosen as Minister of Justice [30], [31]. However, the press was writing at that time that the Acting Prosecutor General and his son could be related to the Ingushetian Mafia [27], [13] and [28].

The next time a scandal popped around Artyom Chaika, was in the first half of the 2000s and it was concerning the property belonging to Verhnelensko River Shipping Company (VRSC). At the end of 1999 the company which was in a poor financial condition, received a proposal from a till then unknown company (Closed share Company) "Laena", which was founded by Artyom Chaika and a member of Russian parliament, Mr Bashir Kodzoyev [14], [21] and [16]. Managing Director of VRSC, Sergei Ivchenko signed an agreement with "Laena" under which the Company had received a loan of $ 2 million with a repayment period of the loan and interest of 15 months, and in exchange, "Laena" received the right to take on rent 10 ships at a rate of 550 $ a day per ship, warning in advance the management of the Company, that they will re-rent these ships on freight for twice that amount. The agreement, according to some sources, was quite profitable [19], [16], [14], but according to othersit was like a deliberate act to push the company into bankruptcy because of the un-imaginable interest rate of the loan given at 42 per cent in the foreign currency [32].

In middle of 2000, the Federal Service for Financial Recovery (FSFR) received a letter on behalf of Kodzoev complaining that because of inadequate management decisions VRSC was losing profits. Immediately after that, "Laena" demanded their money back ahead of time. VRSC, led at that time by Nikolai Palyoni, repaid the debt with much difficulty, but soon after that Artyom Chaika personally appealed to FSFR with an anti-crisis program, which proposed a procedure for declaring VRSC and the Repair and the Maintenance Centre for vessels (RMC) which was part of VRSC as bankrupt, and also to form a temporary management [19], [21], [16]. Despite the opposition of the Managing Director of VRSC, the regional government body and FSFR agreed to the opinions of Artyom Chaika, he was able to introduce his representatives as the shareholders in directors board [21], [16]. Despite the annulment of the original contract, the company "Legal Consulting", the founder and owner of which was Artyom Chaika, continued to charter seven ships VRSC [22], [21]. In August 2002, the press found an agreement between Nikolai Palyoni and Artyom Chaika, according to which the Managing Director of VRSC had agreed with the proposal of the candidature of Artyom Chaika as the new Financial Director and

also pledged to criticize the activities of the RMC and of VRSC itself [14], [23]. In December 2002, Nikolai Palyoni was found hanged dead (according to official statements, he had committed suicide) [14], [19], [20], [16]. In early 2003, VRSC was in-effect taken over by commercial entities related to Artyom Chaika ("Laena" by that time was not even mentioned anywhere related to VRSC, and had probably ceased to exist even as early as in 2001 [32]) [20], [16], [31] . Subsequently, it was reported that the transition VRSC under the control of its new owners led to a delay of wages and selling of ships of the company. Associated with this, shipping company workers undertook strike and protest in 2003-2004 which threatened the northern delivery system [16].

Press reported that in the struggle for owning VRSC were involved public prosecutors and officers of the police department of the Irkutsk region and close associates of Artyom Chaika, including his classmate, Dmitry Shishkin, who became a minority shareholder VRSC and first Deputy Public Prosecutor of the Irkutsk region, Berdnikova Albina, who was the mother of one of companions of Artyom Chaika [16]. The last time the company "Legal Consulting" was mentioned in the press in 2005 [32].

In early 2004, the media published information that Artyom Chaika could be related to attempts of share-buyer (raider) acquisition of "Mostransagentstvo" [17], [18].

In 2006, the newspaper "Sobesednik" wrote that Artyom Chaika was one of the sponsors, on whose money was built a new church in the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, the hometown of his father [12].

In July 2009, the press got information about another case, which could be related to Artyom Chaika. In July 11, 2009 in Rublevsky highway, the operative staff of the private security wing of Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), who were travelling by car to their place of duty, allegedly stopped a small convoy for some reason, in which, by some accounts, was travelling Artyom Chaika. People from the accompanying car of the VIP told the police personnel that "their song is already sung" and indeed, they were arrested a few hours later and fired from their jobs retroactively [11].

In 2010, the press reported that the commercial entities related to Artyom Chaika made purchase of "LLC Tyretsksalt mine" in the Irkutsk Province. It is noteworthy to mention that several large and well-known companies, including "Russol" and Akzo Nobel had applied for buying the company, but in the end they were all removed from the auction for inadequate formal/official reasons and the state-owned enterprise was bought by LLC "Solidarity", which was established shortly before the auction and the owner of which was essentially the son of the General Prosecutor. The deal as per auction amounted to just 660 million roubles as against the starting bid of 639 million roubles [10], [2], [32], [5].

In February 2011, a businessman named Ivan Nazarov was arrested on suspicion of organizing a network of underground casinos in the Moscow province. Soon after, it became clear that Nazarov maintained a close relationship with the officials of the local public prosecutor's office, including the Moscow Suburban Regional Public Prosecutor, Alexander Mokhov and his deputy, Alexander Ignatenko. Public Prosecutors office repeatedly abolished the criminal cases charged by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) against Nazarov, and to do so with the approval of the Prosecutor General, Yuri Chaika. Analysts interpreted the unfolding conflict as a manifestation of the struggle between the ICRF which had attained autonomous status and the Prosecutor General's Office" [7], [6] (as an independent structure, the Investigative Committee of Russian Federation, ICRF, began to work from January 15, 2011 [9], [8]).

On March 30, 2011 during the investigation of the second criminal case against Nazarov, were publicized the evidence given by a witness, whose name was kept secret by the investigation. According to these indications, the coordinators between Nazarov and the personnel of public prosecutor's office were found to be "people associated to Artyom Chaika". Chief of the Serpukhov municipality Shestun Alexander, who had sought the conviction Nazarov on charges of extortion, also said that some people working in the "LLC Tyretsk salt mines " were trying to capture the control of the Municipal Management Company "Serpukhovskiye Nedra" [5], [2], [33], [32]. The press has published information that Nazarovs assistant, Alla Guseva, was the co-founder of a company from Krasnogorsk called "Tech" along with Sergei Tsariuk who was a partner of Artyom Chaika in a number of firms, including "Russian assets" and "Legal Consulting" [32].

Although the Prosecutor General's Office had called the evidences of the involvement of Artyom Chaika to this scandal were called as "nonsense" [5], [4], the son of the Prosecutor General was summoned to the ICRF straight away under two cases involved with Nazarov: on the underground casino and on the charge of extortion of Alexander Shestun [ 3], [1].

It was also reported that Artyom Chaika has three children [31].

Materials used:

[1] Olga Panfilova. Artyom Chaika was interrogated under two criminal cases. - Novi Region, 31/03/2011

[2] Oleg Rubnikovich. Yuri Chaika was offered a Parents' Day celebration. - Kommersant, 30/03/2011

[3] Son of Yuri Chaika would be interrogated in the case of illegal gambling business in the Moscow suburbs. RIA Novosti, 03/30/2011

[4] The Prosecutor General's office considers evidences on involvement of son of Yuri Chaika in gambling scandal in the Moscow suburbs as absurd. - Gzt.ru, 30/03/2011

[5] Oleg Alexandrov. Would Yuri Chakas son be a cause for his resignation? - The Moscow Post, 30/03/2011

[6] Roman Shleinov, Alexei Nikolsky. Games played by Top officers. - Vedomosti, 21/02/2011. 30 (2796)

[7] The name of Moscow Suburban Public Prosecutor arises in the case on illegal casino business in Moscow Suburbs. Network of underground casinos paid for the holidays of Moscow Suburban Public Prosecutor. - GZT.Ru, 16/02/2011

[8] Medvedev has signed a decree appointing Bastrykin as the head of Investigative Committee of Russian Federation. RIA Novosti, 21/01/2011

[9] In Russia, an independent investigation committee starts functioning. - Newsru.com, 15/01/2011

[10] Irina Parfentieva. Artyom Chaika has gone too far than anyone else. - Kommersant, 25/11/2010. - 218 (4518)

[11] Viktor Travin. Traffic Police Department regulates the illegal activities in the Rublyovka area. - Moskovsky Komsomolets, 04/11/2009

[12] Roldugin Oleg, Skvortsova Elena. Chaika enters into second round. - Sobesednik, 28/11/2006

[13] Ekaterina Zapodinskaya, Nikolai Gulko. Return of Chaika. - Kommersant-Vlast, 26/06/2006. - 25

[14] Chaika is "associated" with Sobyanin. - Novaya Gazeta, 22/06/2006

[15] Myrina Gridneva. What was the past of the future Prosecutor General. - Moskovsky Komsomolets, 20/06/2006

[16] Yuri Volkov. Family rule of Minister Chaika. - Kompromat.ru, 22/06/2004

[17] The son of the Minister of Justice, Chaika, involved in kidnappings? - B-F.Ru, 26/02/2004

[18] Andrey Kryuchkov. Rosbuilding returns ... - B-F.Ru, 24/02/2004

[19] Operation Acquisition: Trap. - News of the Irkutsk region, 05/03/2003

[20] Vladimir Medvedev. Just came only, but already threw the loop. - Tribuna, 16/01/2003. - 5

[21] Vladimir Medvedev. Hunting season on the Captains. - Tribuna, 21/11/2002. - 206

[22] This dark envy ... Vostochno-Sibirskaya Pravda 13/11/2002. - 218

[23] M. Kulehanov. New issues. All for the same "sailors." Vostochno-Sibirskiye Vesti, 06/08/2002

[24] Alex Kuznetsov. Chaika(Seagull) (but, not by Chekhov). - Novaya Gazeta, 09/10/2000. - 74

[25] Ekaterina Zapodinskaya. The son of the Minister of Justice provided alibi for racketeer. Kommersant, 9/27/2000. - 180 (2065)

[26] Ekaterina Zapodinskaya. Rogue numerals of the son of Prosecutor General. - Kommersant, 11/26/1999. - 219 (1863)

[27] Chaika(seagull in Russian) flew off the Prosecutor Generals office. Noviye izvestiye, 30/07/1999

[28] Elena Baiyun. Dangerous flight of Chaika. - Moskovsky Komsomolets, 15/06/1999

[29] Oleg Kutasov. Ingushetian gunmen were travelling in the car belonging to Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia. - Kommersant, 12/3/1999. - 39 (1683)

[30] Yuri Yakovlevich Chaika. Biography. - Prosecutor General's Office (genproc.gov.ru)

[31] Yuri Yakovlevich Chaika. - Antikompromat

[32] Oleg Roldugin. Diseases of the Russian Public Prosecutor's Office under the wingspan of Chaika. - Sobesednik. - 10

[33] Leading lawyers of our office. - Website of the lawyers firm "Chaadaev and partners"

[34] History of the formation of the Academy. - Academy of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation (www.agprf.org)

[35] Artyom Yuryevich Chaika. Yuridicheskaya Rossiya (www.lawportal.ru)

[36] A brief extract from the database of Integrated State Register of Legal Entities of Russian Federation on the legal commercial entity LLC Equestrian Club Elbrus based on the records of state registration. - Integrated State Register of Legal Entities

[37] Business in Cyprus (Delovoi Kiper), Volume 4. - Project "Envoy". - 2004