Madrid (AFP)

One of the most powerful Russian oligarchs, Mikhail Fridman, appeared on Monday in front of an investigating judge in Spain, suspected of having secretly manipulated the Spanish group Zed in order to sell it at a low price.

This great boss, presented by Forbes as the richest man in London, is summoned as a defendant for bribery in business, market abuse, fraudulent insolvency and abuse of corporate assets, by an investigating judge of the National Hearing in Madrid, a court responsible in particular for financial matters.

Mr Fridman had already attracted attention in Spain by buying in May - via a hostile takeover bid - the Dia supermarket chain, in great difficulty and of which he was the main shareholder.

Through his Luxembourg-based LetterOne fund, Mikhail Fridman owns companies in telecommunications, healthcare, distribution, hydrocarbons and finance. It is one of the founders of the first Russian private bank, Alfa Bank.

This Russian tycoon, who is known to be close to the Kremlin, is accused by the anti-corruption prosecutor's office in Madrid of having carried out "a series of actions that led the Spanish company ZED Worldwide to insolvency (...) in order to acquire it. a ridiculous price, much lower than that of the market ".

- The technique of the raid -

The prosecutor's office does not hesitate to evoke "a typical technique of a part of the Russian mafia": the "raid", that is to say, an attack to illegally seize a company.

"A radical technique is to emerge with Kalashnikovs, and it has progressively improved by becoming an economic and legal issue of asphyxiating the administration of a company until its insolvency," said the prosecutor in charge of AFP. Prosecution, Jose Grinda.

Founded in 1998 in Madrid, Zed Technology Group has developed and marketed value-added services for mobile operators. He made his fortune with a premium SMS service or the Commandos video game.

Mr. Fridman had become both a shareholder and one of his principal creditors.

But mobile operator Vimpelcom (VEON), controlled by Mr Fridman and already in trouble with the United States, has abruptly terminated or changed contracts with a Russian subsidiary of Zed from 2014 onwards. , depriving the Spanish group of important revenues, according to the floor.

Obtaining these contracts had previously led Zed to borrow up to 140 million euros, including a portion lent by a bank controlled by Mr. Fridman.

In great difficulty, Zed asked in June 2016 to be placed in liquidation.

Four months later, relatives of Mr. Fridman proposed to buy Zed for 20 million euros, "much less than its value when began the maneuvers blocking controlled by Mr. Fridman", according to the floor.

- In-hand control -

Mr. Fridman's defense argued that he was "not a director of fact or law" of the affected companies and had no decision-making power. "The charge is based precisely on the fact that Mr. Fridman hides behind subordinates to control the criminal action," the prosecutor replied in a writing.

The investigators analyzed "a series of WhatsApp and e-mails that show that Fridman was aware of everything that was happening," says AFP Grinda.

Zed founder and CEO Javier Pérez Dolset presented the first complaint denouncing a strategy to seize the company. He, however, ended up being charged, suspected of having subtracted millions of euros fraudulently.

"The accusations (...) seem to be the product of a conspiracy theory invented by Dolset and his associates," a spokesman for Mr Fridman protested in August, dismissing them as "totally false".

The telecom giant Vimpelcom, involved in this case, agreed in 2016 to pay a $ 800 million fine to the US and Dutch authorities to settle a corruption scandal in Uzbekistan.

© 2019 AFP