PRIVILEGED & CONFIDENTIAL ALEXEY GUBAREV Summary Alexey Gubarev was a relatively prominent IT entrepreneur in Russia who has become infamous domestically and internationally for his role in the ‘Trump dossier’ published by US outlet Buzzfeed. Industry sources had no direct knowledge of Gubarev’s involvement with intelligence, but some did not exclude the possibility, given the penetration of IT sector by the FSB, Some sources spoke in harsh terms about the dossier, reflecting the official line. Notably, no source believed Gubarev faced problems locally due to the allegations. Personal information Alexey Gubarev was born and raised in the Siberian city of Ust-llimsk*. In 1997, he graduated from the city’s experimental lyceum school and entered Novosibirsk State University. He is currently raising three children together with his wife, Anna Gubareva. News reports indicate that his mother, Lyudmila Gubareva, continues to live in Ust-llimsk, and his grandfather is a World War Il veteran”. Gubarev is a resident of Cyprus. Some news reports stated that Gubarev moved with his wife and their first child, who was born in Novosibirsk, to Cyprus on a work invitation from a foreign company”. However, in an interview with Premiere Magazine from October 2016, Gubarev discussed his reasons for moving to Cyprus. In 2002, according to the account, he was unable to purchase an apartment in Novosibirsk because he could not get a mortgage, even at 32% interest in foreign currency, and he only had enough money for a down payment. Around that time, he went on vacation to Cyprus, where a friend of his had bought an apartment. Ultimately, he decided to buy an apartment there as well and moved his family to live there that same year“. Career and track record Open sources indicate that Gubarev opened his first business in 2005, when he was 25 years ld. In the interview with Premiere Magazine, he said that he had been having a difficult time that year negotiating on the price of server hosting with @ company with which he had been * http://sibhar.ru/novosti/molodezh-otzovis "n/n strung ohpfontioncom cotenviewcarideSil 43792016 02020225 ‘37S.catide45:20 10-08-25. " hetp://balkal-info.rujarchives/13224 * http://www premiere-magazine.com.cy/index.php?page=the-way-to-success.nelzya-stat-uspeshnym-ne- abotava ATTORNEYS' EYES ONLY INFORMATION FGPSSDFL00000014PRIVILEGED & CONFIDENTIAL working. Ultimately, together with his Ukrainian business partner, Konstantin Bezruchenko, he decided to open his own company. This led to the establishment of XBTHolding and Webzilla. ‘They opened their first site in Amsterdam, and then another in Dallas in 2008. In 2012, they bought companies in Singapore and the United States, and in 2015, they bought a company in Russia’, Media outlets reported on the asset purchase in Russia, when XBTHolding acquired Edinaya Set (Unified Network) to launch a local version of its services in compliance with Russian legislation. The deal was valued at US$800,000°. This led to the company launching a project branded Servers.ru in Moscow. The data centre includes 20 racks with 500 Dell servers. Russia’s Unified State Register of Legal Entities lists Gubarev as owner only of Edinaya Set, in which he owns 196 directly and XBTHolding holds the remaining 99%. In 2015, the company’s revenue totalled RUB88.2 million, It has supplied equipment valued at RUB366,000 to Moscow Region's property ‘management agency. Gubarev stated in the interview with Premiere Magazine this holding had 35,000 servers worldwide, with around 300 employees and 5,000 business clients. The main project is Servers.com’. He is also involved in a new line of business as a minority investor in the Prisma mobile app (other stakeholders include Mail.ru Group, the app’s creator Alexey Moiseenkov, Gagarin Capital and several other programmers). Business interests Gubarev also recently founded venture fund Haxus together with Belarusian entrepreneur Yuri Gurski, formerly a vice president at Mail.ru Group’. The company’s portfolio includes such projects as Fabby, RedRockApps, Flo and MSQRD. Media outlets report that the fund’s average deal runs from US$300,000 to US$2 million in exchange for a 10-25% stake in a start-up”. In December 2016, the fund invested US$500,000 in an artificial intelligence start-up called ommy.com (previously myemoji.com) and US$1 million in the animation CGI project qumiqumi®. )?page=the-way.to-success-nelzya-stat-uspeshaym-ne http:/Awww.comnews.ru/node/99 ” http://www premiere-magazine.com.cy/index. ohp?page=the-way.to-success-nelaya-stat-uspeshoym-ne- rabotava "The venture fund's partners include Dmitry Gurskl, the founder of publisher Ideanomix and mobile app developer IdeanomixDigita, and Alexandr Chekan, the CEO of web portal TUT.BY. * hto://firea.ru/data/news/9315/ » tos firrma.ru/deta/news/9315/ ATTORNEYS’ EYES ONLY INFORMATION FGPSSDFL00000015PRIVILEGED & CONFIDENTIAL Open-source mentions from January 2017 indicate that the fund has invested more than US$2 million in the IT sector over the past five years with an 80% success rate™. Reputation and causes for concern Open source information Most media coverage of Gubarev is related to his current business activity and is nearly all positive. Gubarev has managed to foster a media profile as a successful IT entrepreneur with Russian roots. Most publications about him are featured in narrowly specialised sector media and sources devoted to the venture and start-up businesses. Except for an article in Buzzfeed, which we will discuss separately below, only two events have drawn serious interest in Gubarev from the Russian media: the purchase of Edinaya Set and the investment in Prisma, which was the most-downloaded mobile app in Russia. Gubarev has not forgotten his hometown of Ust-llimsk, where he funds charitable projects. Media outlets have reported on his charity projects via grants in support of young entrepreneurial initiatives, providing financing for his lyceum school (donating notebook computers, projectors and printers)", and funding museum projects". ‘The only cause for concern regarding Gubarev comes from an article recently published on the US web portal Buzzfeed about Donald Trump's ties to Russia's leaders, who had allegedly collected compromising materials on the newly elected US president. The article mentioned Gubarev and his company, alleging that he had been recruited by Russia’s Federal Security Service (Russian abbreviation: FS8) and had played an important role in hacking the US Democratic party during the 2016 presidential campaign’”. ‘A few hours after publishing the article, Buzzfeed removed Gubarev’s name from it and apologised to him'®. However, this was insufficient for Gubarev, as the article had caused serious reputational harm and caused foreign banks to freeze his credit lines, calling for him to prove that he was not affiliated with Russia's intelligence agencies. Gubarev later sued Buzzfeed and its editor, Ben Smith, in Florida. He also filed a lawsuit against former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, who had written the dossier on Trump that Buzzfeed had cited. ™ https://vk.com/audios194464511?a=namenunebii%20mnp * http /sibhar.ru/novosti/molodezh-otzovis/, http://sibhar.ru/novosti/molodezh-otzovis, 5 hutps://realnoevremya.ru/news/55332.rossivanin-podal-v-sud-ra-buzzfeed:iz-za-dose-na-tramy ° https //realnoevremya.ru/news/55332-rossiyanin-podal-v-sud-ne-buzzfeed-i-22-dose-na-trampa ATTORNEYS’ EYES ONLY INFORMATION FGPSSDFLO0000016