Dmitry Rybolovlev

Early life and education

Rybolovlev was born in 1966. Rybolovlev's parents were doctors and he himself graduated from the Perm Medical Institute as a cardiologist in 1990. He then started to work in the cardiology emergency service. During his student years, Rybolovlev married Elena, one of his fellow students, and in 1989 their first daughter Ekaterina was born. In the late 1980s Mikhail Gorbachev had started the perestroika that eventually led to the break-up of the Soviet Union and the great economic shocks that followed. During this time Rybolovlev entered the business world.

Early business career

Rybolovlev’s first business project was a medical one: together with his father, Evgeny, he set up a company called Magnetics that offered a form of alternative medical treatment using magnetic fields that Evgeny had developed. However, due to the collapse of the Soviet Union's centrally planned economy companies preferred to pay Rybolovlev’s firm with products at discounted prices rather than cash, forcing him to find buyers for these products. Often these resales of products yielded higher profits than his medicine business. According to Forbes Magazine, during this time Rybolovlev earned his first million dollars.

In 1992 Rybolovlev became the first businessman in the Perm region to obtain a Russian Ministry of Finance certificate entitling him to deal with securities, and in the same year opened an investment company. In 1994 Rybolovlev founded a bank, acquired shareholdings in several of Perm’s industrial enterprises and joined their boards.

In 1995, Rybolovlev sold most of his shareholdings and focused in enterprises operating in the potash industry, in particular, Uralkali.

Development of Uralkali

Over the next 15 years Rybolovlev focused on developing Uralkali and eventually built it into a major global enterprise. According to the Russian business newspaper Vedomosti, by 2000 he had consolidated his controlling interest in the company and begun to reform and develop it. He completely changed the management team and set as a priority the achievement of an increase in labor productivity. According to Forbes, from 2000 through 2007 labor productivity at Uralkali grew by 2.5 times.

According to Reuters in 2005 Uralkali and Belarusian potash producer Belaruskali combined their trade flows via a single trader: Belarusian Potash Company (BPC), of which Rybolovlev became chief executive. Over the next three years, potash prices increased more than fivefold. The price increase and the creation of BPC both had a transformational impact on Uralkali. In 2007 Uralkalis IPO on the London Stock Exchange coincided with the sharply rising global potash prices and was therefore described by the financial media as one of the most successful Russian IPOs ever.

In June 2010, Rybolovlev sold a 53% shareholding in Uralkali to a group of Russian investors: Kaliha Finance Limited (Suleiman Kerimov, 25%), Aerellia Investments Limited (Alexander Nesis, 15%) and Becounioco Holdings Limited (Filaret Galchev, 13.2%). The transaction price was not disclosed, but was reported to be around US$5.3 billion.

In December 2010, Uralkali announced plans to buy potash producer, Silvinit and form one of the world's largest potash producers. The merger was finalized in July 2011, Rybolovlev had already sold the remaining 10% of his shares of Uralkali to a company owned by Alexander Nesis in April 2011.

Berezniki mine collapse

In October 2006, a freshwater spring began flowing into one of Uralkali's mines under the city of Berezniki, and the walls and pillars supporting the ceilings of large underground caverns dissolved. Unable to stop the growing flow, Uralkali decided to flood the mine and abandon it. As a result of the mine's collapse, large sinkholes appeared around the mine and in the city of Berezniki, forcing some 12,000 residents to evacuate their homes. New sinkholes continue to appear regularly, and the latest one has been reported in February 2015.

The Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda estimated that Uralkali lost several hundred million dollars due to the ecological disaster. In 2008 the Russian government investigated the accident and a government commission, supervised by Yuri Trutnev, Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment of the Russian Federation and Rybolovlev's close friend, determined that it had occurred for geological reasons. The neutrality of the commission's report has been challenged by some observers, who pointed out the close relationship between Rybolovlev and Trutnev, whose 2004 campaign to governor of Perm Region was financed by Rybolovlev, and argued that the report was partly written by OAO Galurgia, a company affiliated to Uralkali.

However, in October 2008, Russian Vice Premier Igor Sechin ordered another investigation and suggested that the degree of the financial liability of Uralkali should be determined. Some foreign media, including The New York Times, speculated that a raider attack had been launched against Uralkali, while other reported that Rybolovlev, who was living abroad, was reluctant to compensate for the damages caused by the ecological catastrophe far from his home in Switzerland. Ultimately, a framework for compensation was agreed upon and Rybolovlev retained ownership of Uralkali.

The reasons that led to the 2006 catastrophe remain controversial. Some sources claimed that Uralkali failed to undertake all the necessary work in order to fill the holes in the mines, which may have directly caused the appearance of the sinkholes. According to the local newspaper Inaya Gazeta, Rybolovlev, motivated by the desire to save money, decided to split in two the budget allocated to the holes filling, which resulted in an insufficient filling of the mines chambers.

Investment in Bank of Cyprus

In September 2010, Rybolovlev bought a 9.7% stake in Cyprus largest bank Bank of Cyprus. Rybolovlev's investment in Bank of Cyprus followed significant financial dealings in the country. On 25 March 2013 the EU Eurogroup agreed with the government of Cyprus that the Bank of Cyprus will take over the remnants of Laiki Bank. To finance the deal and save Bank of Cyprus from bankruptcy it was also decided that accounts over €100,000 would suffer a haircut on their assets of about 90%. In exchange, account holders would receive shares in the Bank of Cyprus, diluting Rybolovlev's stake in the bank to a very small level.

AS Monaco

In December 2011, a trust acting on behalf of Rybolovlev's daughter, Ekaterina, bought a 66% stake in the Monegasque association football club AS Monaco FC, which are located in Monaco's Fontvieille district at the Stade Louis II, but who play in the French football league. The remaining 33% stake in the club is owned by Monaco's ruling family, the House of Grimaldi, and Rybolovlev's purchase of the club was approved by Prince Albert II of Monaco. Dmitry Rybolovlev was subsequently appointed president of the club.

In 2017, Monaco enjoyed its most successful season yet, winning the French Ligue 1 title and reaching the semi-final of the European Champions League. Reflecting on the club's unexpected success, the Independent newspaper wrote that “Monaco’s policy of buying low and selling high has made the club a true Champion’s League power at last”. The paper went on to describe Monaco as “one of the best run clubs in Europe”.

Though historically Monaco had been one of France's most successful clubs, they were struggling at the time of Rybolovlev's arrival, and had been demoted to the second tier of French football, Ligue 2. Étienne Franzi, AS Monaco's former president, and the DNCG, the French football authority, both gave positive assessments of the club's progress after Rybolovlev's first year of ownership in December 2012. In May 2013, Monaco was promoted to Ligue 1 after securing the second division title. After gaining promotion, Monaco became one of the most prodigious spenders in European football in the summer of 2013 under Rybolovlev's patronage, spending £146 million on players including Radamel Falcao, James Rodríguez and João Moutinho. Ricardo Carvalho and Éric Abidal were also signed on free transfers with large salaries.

In January 2014, Monaco agreed to pay the governing body of French football, the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP), a one-off voluntary payment of €50 million to remain exempt from a ruling by the LFP that its clubs must have their head offices located in France. As AS Monaco is based in the tax haven of Monaco, it has managed to avoid the punitive effects of tax increases in neighbouring France. Rybolovlev and the head of the French league, Noël Le Graët, had initially failed to find agreement over the matter in a meeting and Rybolovlev had initiated legal action against the league which was later dropped. The €50 million figure was calculated by the league as the amount saved by Monaco a result of their unique location.

Rodríguez and Falcao subsequently left Monaco in the summer of 2014, the latter leaving on loan to Manchester United and the former being sold to Real Madrid for almost double the transfer fee Monaco had paid Porto for his services one year prior. The departure of such large signings was explained by Monaco's vice president Vadim Vasilyev as part of a new strategy; he said, "There are two ways to go... One is either you invest a lot of money and do it quickly, the other is you build up an intelligent project and you have to base yourself on your academy and sound principles of working and scouting well and basically that's what we've decided to do." The departure of star players and a decline in spending was also attributed by Vasilyev to the introduction of the UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations and the resultant threat of sanctions. Vasilyev said in an interview that Rybolovlev had told him that he was "...already investing big money and if the club has to pay fines over and on top of that, this is something that is really not on. This really goes against any common sense". It was also reported by L'Equipe in September 2013 that the decline in investment was as a result of Rybolovlev's dissatisfaction at not receiving a Monegasque passport which might afford him greater protection from extradition to his native Russia than his Cypriot passport if such a situation were to occur. In a March 2015 interview with Nice Matin, Rybolovlev re-iterated his long-term commitment to the club and also expressed his delight at Monaco's successes since his arrival.

Philanthropy

Rybolovlev supported the re-building of the Oranienbaum palace in St. Petersburg and the restoration of the Zachatievsky Monastery in Moscow. Rybolovlev donated €17.5 million for the re-building of the Cathedral of Nativity of Theotokos in Moscow. He has also been involved in the restoration of the iconostasis of the Cathedral of Exaltation of the Cross recreated in Belogorsk Saint Nicolas Monastery.

Rybolovlev is also involved in the construction of the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas in Limassol, which is designed by the Russian architect Alexey Vorontsov. The church will have a size of 1050 m² and the building will accommodate a congregation of between 500 and 600 people. The estimated cost of the project is €5 million.

Rybolovlev is also involved in Les Arts Gstaad, a new cultural centre dedicated to music, arts and literature in the eponymous Swiss town.

Arrest for murder and judgement

The 1990s were a difficult time in Russian history, as the country transitioned its economy through privatization. During this time, Rybolovlev became concerned about the safety of his family so he moved them to Switzerland, while he stayed in Russia to do business. In September 1996, Evgeny Panteleymonov, Director of Neftekhimik, a company partly owned by Rybolovlev, was shot by a killer at the staircase of his own house. In May 1996, Rybolovlev was officially indicted and arrested for the contract killing of Panteleymonov. According to the prosecution, Rybolovlev himself, " without a corresponding license", purchased in August 1995 2 pistols TT that he kept and carried, and later gave to the killers "for the premeditated murder of Panteleymonov".

Rybolovlev was however set free 11 months later, after the only living witness recanted his testimony and the intervention in Rybolovlev's favor of Andrey Pokhmelkin, brother of Vladimir Pokhmelkin, a prominent congressman representing Perm District in the Duma, as well as of local Governor Gennady Igumnov. In 1997 Rybolovlev was acquitted by courts of law at three levels, including the Presidium of the Supreme Court.

Massive pollution of Kama river

In June 2012, Green Patrol, a Russian environmental NGO, listed Uralkali as one of the top 100 polluters in Russia, based on information gathered during the previous years. An expedition organised into the Perm Krai by the same NGO in 2010, when Rybolovlev was still the company's owner, revealed that Uralkali's sinks contained at least 16 harmful elements (including zinc and ammonium), exceeding the maximum permissible levels by 1,850 times. According to Green Patrol's President Roman Pukalov, Uralkali failed to fully disclose a complete list of harmful elements that it routinely rejected into the local river Kama. Roman Pukalov described Kama water as "very polluted", and declared that small rivers around Berezniki had in fact turned into brine, something he had "never seen anywhere else". Furthermore, Uralkali's environmental spending under Rybolovlev was exceptionally low.

Panama Papers scandal

In April 2016, it was alleged by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) that Rybolovlev used a company registered in the Virgin Islands to hide art from his former wife Elena during their divorce proceeding. Rybolovlev's use of offshore companies was said to be a "textbook example of the lengths rich people (in most cases men) go to protect their considerable wealth in case of a marital breakup" by the Süddeutsche Zeitung. However, subsequent media reports noted that the offshore structures established by the Rybolovlev family trust in fact pre-dated the divorce proceedings by several years. Furthermore, the family trust had publicly disclosed the companies as owners of the art works long before the Panama Papers report was published – a fact that the original Panama Papers report had omitted.

Liberation of Georgi Bedjamov

Georgi Bedjamov, President of the Federation of Bobsleigh and Skeleton of Russia and former co-owner of "Vneshprombank", was arrested in March 2016 in Monaco after an international arrest warrant was issued against him by the Russian authorities on charges of fraudulent bankruptcy and embezzlement. Bedjamov was liberated in July 2016 by the Prince, a decision that was later confirmed by the Monaco Appeal Court. Some Russian sources alleged that Dmitry Rybolovlev helped Georgi Bedjamov escape Russian authorities in exchange for sensitive financial data on the Russian elite obtained by Bedjamov while he was linked to the now bankrupt bank "Vneshprombank". Rybolovlev denied these claims in an interview to the French newspaper Le Parisien in late October 2016.

Football Leaks scandal

In December 2016 the Football Leaks scandal revealed that Dmitry Rybolovlev and football agent Jorge Mendes set up a secret system to illegally buy players’ shares. Using a Cyprus-based offshore investment fund named Browsefish Limited, Rybolovlev illegally manipulated the price of his own players through third-party ownerships (TPO). Rybolovlev resorted to the use of offshore companies to hide his identity, as TPO's are illegal in Europe. Investigations revealed for example that football player Fabinho was already 48,5% owned by Rybolovlev when he was loaned to AS Monaco by Rio Ave.

Property

Trusts in the name of his Rybolovlev's daughter, Ekaterina, have made several significant property purchases around the world since 2008. The trusts have bought property in Florida, Hawaii, New York City, Monaco, and two islands in Greece. Rybolovlev also owns an estate in Saint-Tropez on the Cote d'Azur in the south of France, houses in Gstaad, Switzerland, and owned property in Geneva and Paris with his former wife. In 2013, the property purchases were contested by Rybolovlev's wife, Elena Rybolovleva, during the couple's divorce proceedings.

In 2008, Ekaterina Rybolovlev's trust bought the 18 bedroom Maison de L'Amitié in Palm Beach, Florida, from the American businessman Donald Trump. Amidst concerns during his campaign about rubbing shoulders with Russian officials, Trump has claimed that the sale of Maison de L'Amitié, which he purchased for $40 million four years earlier and sold to Rybolovlev for $95 million, is the only dealing he has done with a Russian. In December 2011, the trust bought a 10-room, 626 m² (6,740 sq ft) apartment at 15 Central Park West in New York City for $88 million, from Joan Weill, the wife of Sanford I. Weill, the former chairman of Citigroup. This was a record price for an apartment in the city at the time of its purchase. In 2011, Rybololev also bought a $20 million property in Kauai, Hawaii, from the American actor Will Smith.

In April 2013, Ekaterina Rybolovlev's trust bought a group of companies from the Greek heiress Athina Onassis Roussel, their assets included the 74 acre Greek island of Skorpios and its smaller islet, Sparti. The sale price had earlier been reported as $154 million.

In 2010, Rybolovlev bought a three bedroom 2,000m² Belle Époque style penthouse apartment on the Avenue d'Ostende in the Monte Carlo district of Monaco. The property was bought for € 220 million and was the former residence of the Brazilian banker Edmond Safra, who died in a fire at the apartment in 1999.

Rybolovlev and his former wife owned a property in Geneva, Switzerland, which they demolished in 2008 and planned to replace with a replica of the Petit Trianon at the Palace of Versailles. The abandonment of the project amidst the couple's divorce proceedings led to a "huge hole in the ground that has become an eyesore to Geneva residents" according to Alexei Barrionuevo in a 2012 article in the New York Times. Rybolovlev has also bought two houses worth $135 million in the Swiss resort of Gstaad.

Art collection

Rybolovlev's art collection includes paintings by Paul Gauguin, Auguste Rodin, Amedeo Modigliani (Nude on a Blue Cushion), Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Mark Rothko (No. 6). His version of Salvator Mundi may be the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci remaining in private hands. In February 2015, it was reported that Rybolovlev may have been a victim of a complex art fraud allegedly perpetrated by the art dealer Yves Bouvier who was indicted on charges of fraud and complicity in money laundering. In 2016, Rybolovlev was again at the center of a controversy after it was alleged that he bought three stolen Picassos from art dealer Olivier Thomas.

Awards and honours

In 2010 Rybolovlev was awarded the Order of St. Seraphim of Sarov I degree by Patriarch Kirill for funding the restoration of the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God in Zachatyevsky Convent.

Personal life

Rybolovlev married Elena Rybolovleva in 1987 in Perm, Russia, and together they have had two daughters, Ekaterina, born in 1989, and Anna, born in 2001.

Elena Rybolovleva filed for divorce on December 22, 2008, citing in her divorce petition the "serial infidelity" of her husband, who used to "share his young conquests with his friends, and other oligarchs” on his private yacht, and being "sick to the back teeth of his fondness of other women". At the same occasion, Elena Rybolovleva officially asked the Geneva State prosecutor for protection from Rybolovlev.

In October 2015, Rybolovlev and his ex-wife Elena announced they had reached an amicable settlement of their high-profile divorce, and that all legal actions in relation to the case would cease. Financial terms of the settlement were not disclosed. The announcement brought to a close a long-running case that first began in 2008.

In May 2014, the divorce made headlines when a Geneva court awarded Rybolovlev's ex-wife a record settlement of $4.8 billion. June 2015 saw a major turn in the case, however, after Rybolovlev's lawyers successfully appealed the 2014 ruling. The Geneva court reversed the earlier decision, ruling that Rybolovleva's settlement be reduced to 564 million Swiss francs, significantly less than the 800 million Swiss francs that Rybolovlev had repeatedly offered her. Of particular significance was the decision of the court to confirm the validity of the family trust structures, which were set up long before the divorce process began; and to apply a rate of capital appreciation to matrimonial assets only up until the time of the divorce. The correct application of Swiss matrimonial law thereby led to the massive settlement reduction decided by the court, Rybolovlev's lawyers said.

The divorce battle took an even more acrimonious turn when Rybolovlev had Elena arrested in Cyprus for allegedly stealing a $28 million diamond ring she later proved her ex-husband had given her while they were still married.

Rybolovlev enjoys surfing, especially in Hawaii.

In the Forbes billionaires list for 2015 Rybolovlev was ranked the 156th richest person in the world with a net worth of $8.5 billion.