A Swiss court has frozen the accounts of the Russian corporation VSMPO-Avisma\u2014the world\u2019s largest titanium producer and a key supplier of the metal to Russia\u2019s military-industrial complex, TMT reported, citing lawyer Oleksandr Zabeida.<\/p>\n
The amount in question is in U.S. dollars, with an eight-digit figure.<\/p>\n
The asset freeze was requested by Interlink Metals & Chemicals, a Switzerland-registered company supplying titanium. The firm stated that VSMPO-Avisma violated a 2020 settlement agreement that had been reached to resolve disputes between the parties.<\/p>\n
The blocking of the corporation\u2019s accounts is also linked to a criminal case against its former CEO, Mikhail Voevodin. In June, he was arrested on charges of fraud related to the procurement of raw materials at inflated prices. According to investigators, damages amounted to at least 1.5 billion rubles.<\/p>\n
From 2016 to 2020, Voevodin allegedly signed contracts for the supply of titanium ingots with the companies Trade and Industry Vector<\/em> and NPO VtorPromResursy<\/em>, which sold raw materials at prices 30% higher than the previous supplier, RegionProm<\/em>.<\/p>\n Investigators believe these firms were controlled by U.S. citizen Igor Reichelson, a consultant for Interlink Metals & Chemicals. He said that cooperation with Russian companies had continued since the 1990s. In 2020, disagreements arose between the parties, but they agreed to waive mutual claims.<\/p>\n Earlier, Reichelson\u2014who now resides in Switzerland\u2014had an apartment seized in central Moscow with an area of over 200 square meters.<\/p>\n VSMPO-Avisma is 66.5% owned by businessman Mikhail Shelkov and 25% by Rostec. The company produces about 90% of Russia\u2019s titanium, with its main facilities located in the city of Verkhnyaya Salda, Sverdlovsk region.<\/p>\n Before the war against Ukraine, the company supplied 65% of titanium to Europe\u2019s Airbus, 35% to U.S.-based Boeing, and 100% to Brazil\u2019s Embraer. Its titanium was also used by Britain\u2019s Rolls-Royce (20%) and France\u2019s Safran (50%). In 2023, the U.S. Department of Commerce required the corporation to obtain special licenses for export operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":150168,"menu_order":0,"template":"","newscat":[9],"newstag":[31529,31527,31528],"issues":[],"class_list":["post-150167","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","newscat-novosti","newstag-companynewsbusinessnewscorporateupdatesleadershipchangesmergersandacquisitionsmarketmovements","newstag-novynykompanijbiznesnovynyrynkytransformacziyabiznesu","newstag-novostykompanyjbyznesnovostykorporatyvnenovostysmenarukovodstvaslyyanyyaypogloshhenyyarnkyykompanyy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/150167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"newscat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newscat?post=150167"},{"taxonomy":"newstag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newstag?post=150167"},{"taxonomy":"issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issues?post=150167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}