Yevgeny Chichvarkin
Encyclopedia
Yevgeny Alexandrovich Chichvarkin ' onMouseout='HidePop("49649")' href="/topics/Moscow">Moscow
) is a well-known Russia
n businessman and, to a lesser extent, politician. He founded the largest Russian mobile phone retailer, Yevroset. He was a member of the Right Cause
political party and was expected to become chairman of its Moscow section. Chichvarkin currently lives in London
, from where he has campaigned against corruption in Russia. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c8d99926-9d8d-11df-a37c-00144feab49a.html#axzz1TfY9B25y
From 1991 to 1996 Chichvarkin studied at the State Academy of Management
, as well as earning money trading on Moscow flea markets. After graduating Chichvarkin started studying for a Ph.D. (Kandidat
), which he abandoned in 1998. In 1997 Chichvarkin and his friend Timur Artemiev started a business named Yevroset to sell mobile phones. In 2002 Yevroset became one of the top three Moscow mobile phone retailers, with 92 retail outlets. The company developed a franchising
business model, opening 100 more outlets in 2002, 117 more outlets in 2003, 800 more outlets in 2004, 1934 more outlets in 2005, etc. In 2007 they had 5156 outlets in 12 countries: Russia, Ukraine
, Belarus
, Moldova
, Estonia
, Latvia
, Lithuania
, Kazakhstan
, Kyrgyzstan
, Armenia
and Azerbaijan
.
In November 2008 Chichvarkin jointed Right Cause
, a Russia
n liberal democratic
political party founded on 16 November 2008 as a merger of the Union of Right Forces
, Civilian Power
and the Democratic Party of Russia
.
mobile phones shipped for Chichvarkin was seized on the pretext that their emissions of microwave radiation exceeded the levels permitted by Russian health regulations. After those cases Chichvarkin accused Russian law-enforcement agencies of corporate raid
ing.
In March 2007 Chichvarkin was mentioned by the media in connection with the case of Dmitry Sidorov, the founder Iled M, which was accused of large scale tax avoidance. Iled M had sold mobile phones to Yevroset as well as to other retailers. In August 2007 the apartments of many Yevroset employees were searched by police. Some experts considered the searches to be connected with the Idel M case, while other saw it as a continuation of Motorola case. Others still viewed it as a marketing ploy by Yevroset themselves (the last chance to buy their phones before they are confiscated), others as a silovik
s' revenge on Chichvarkin.
In September 2008 the headquarters of Yevroset were searched in connection with its handling of Andrey Vlaskin, a Yevroset employee who in 2003 stole mobile phones worth around 20 million Russian roubles (approximately US$1 million). Vlaskin was caught by Yevroset security in Tambov
, moved to Moscow
to a Yevroset-owned apartment and after some time agreed to compensate Yevroset for their losses. While between 2004 and 2007 Yevroset and Vlaskin apparently had no claims on each other, in 2008 Yevroset was accused of kidnapping, illegal imprisonment and extortion. On 21 September 2008 Chichvarkin sold 100% of Yevroset stock to Alexander Mamut
. The volume of the transaction was US$400 million. In January 2009 Chichvarkin moved to United Kingdom
and on 23 January 2009 on Russian federal search list in connection with the Vlaskin case. On January 28 the Basmanny Court of Moscow approved Chichvarkin's arrest (in absentia
). On March 12, 2009 his details were passed to Interpol
. On 13 April 2009 the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General of Russia
noticed that a key investigator of Chichvarkin's case, Vladimir Knyazyev, had been previously been sentenced for stealing a large consignment of mobile phones from Chichvarkin's Yevroset. During the 2007 contraband case he had forged the act of destroying the phones confiscated as evidence. The investigation committee demanded the dismissal of Knyazyev because of the conflict of interest but their demands were refused. On November 17, 2010 the jury found all the defendants in the Vlaskin case not guilty. The prosecution's appeal to the Supreme Court was rejected on January 20, 2011 and Chichvarkin's indictment was withdrawn a few days later. His lawyer Yuri Gervis noted that Chichvarkin is still worried that he might be charged again in connection with the 2005 contraband case. While in London Chichvarkin has participated in protests highlighting the dangers of conducting business in Russia, referring to the cases of Mikhail Khodorkovsky
and Sergei Magnitsky
.
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
) is a well-known Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n businessman and, to a lesser extent, politician. He founded the largest Russian mobile phone retailer, Yevroset. He was a member of the Right Cause
Right Cause
Right Cause is a political party in Russia with representatives in several local legislatures. Founded on 18 February 2009 as a merger of the Union of Right Forces, Civilian Power and the Democratic Party of Russia, the party's main policy stances are liberal free market economy, democracy and...
political party and was expected to become chairman of its Moscow section. Chichvarkin currently lives in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, from where he has campaigned against corruption in Russia. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c8d99926-9d8d-11df-a37c-00144feab49a.html#axzz1TfY9B25y
Biography
Chichvarkin was born in Moscow. His father was a pilot and his mother was an economist working for the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Trade.From 1991 to 1996 Chichvarkin studied at the State Academy of Management
The State University of Management
The State University of Management is one of the largest universities of Moscow. It was founded in 1919 and is considered to be one of the best Business Schools in the area of the CIS.The SUM consists of 22 departments....
, as well as earning money trading on Moscow flea markets. After graduating Chichvarkin started studying for a Ph.D. (Kandidat
Kandidat
The Candidate of Sciences degree is a first post-graduate scientific degree in some former Eastern Bloc countries, such as Russia and Ukraine, which is awarded for original research that constitutes a significant contribution to a scientific field. The degree was first introduced in the USSR on...
), which he abandoned in 1998. In 1997 Chichvarkin and his friend Timur Artemiev started a business named Yevroset to sell mobile phones. In 2002 Yevroset became one of the top three Moscow mobile phone retailers, with 92 retail outlets. The company developed a franchising
Franchising
Franchising is the practice of using another firm's successful business model. The word 'franchise' is of anglo-French derivation - from franc- meaning free, and is used both as a noun and as a verb....
business model, opening 100 more outlets in 2002, 117 more outlets in 2003, 800 more outlets in 2004, 1934 more outlets in 2005, etc. In 2007 they had 5156 outlets in 12 countries: Russia, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
, Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
, Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
, Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
, Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
, Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...
, Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
and Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
.
In November 2008 Chichvarkin jointed Right Cause
Right Cause
Right Cause is a political party in Russia with representatives in several local legislatures. Founded on 18 February 2009 as a merger of the Union of Right Forces, Civilian Power and the Democratic Party of Russia, the party's main policy stances are liberal free market economy, democracy and...
, a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n liberal democratic
Liberal democracy
Liberal democracy, also known as constitutional democracy, is a common form of representative democracy. According to the principles of liberal democracy, elections should be free and fair, and the political process should be competitive...
political party founded on 16 November 2008 as a merger of the Union of Right Forces
Union of Right Forces
The Union of Right Forces, or SPS , was a Russian democratic opposition party associated with free market reforms, privatization, and the legacy of the 'Young Reformers' of the 1990s: Anatoly Chubais, Boris Nemtsov, and Yegor Gaidar. Nikita Belykh was the last party's leader...
, Civilian Power
Civilian Power
Civilian Power was a liberal political party in the Russian Federation, which prior to February 2007 was called Free Russia.According to data from Rosregistration, the party has 55,063 members...
and the Democratic Party of Russia
Democratic Party of Russia
The Democratic Party of Russia or DPR is a former Russian political party that existed between 1990 and 2008. It was founded by Nikolai Travkin. It initially featured Stanislav Govorukhin and Sergey Glazyev, was a prominent democratically-oriented party, member of the Democratic Russia coalition,...
.
Problems with the Government
In August 2005 Chichvarkin was accused of involvement in the illegal import of a $100 million shipment of mobile phones, but the accusations were eventually dropped. In March 2006 a large consignment of MotorolaMotorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
mobile phones shipped for Chichvarkin was seized on the pretext that their emissions of microwave radiation exceeded the levels permitted by Russian health regulations. After those cases Chichvarkin accused Russian law-enforcement agencies of corporate raid
Corporate raid
A corporate raid is an American English business term for buying a large interest in a corporation and then using voting rights to enact measures directed at increasing the share value...
ing.
In March 2007 Chichvarkin was mentioned by the media in connection with the case of Dmitry Sidorov, the founder Iled M, which was accused of large scale tax avoidance. Iled M had sold mobile phones to Yevroset as well as to other retailers. In August 2007 the apartments of many Yevroset employees were searched by police. Some experts considered the searches to be connected with the Idel M case, while other saw it as a continuation of Motorola case. Others still viewed it as a marketing ploy by Yevroset themselves (the last chance to buy their phones before they are confiscated), others as a silovik
Silovik
Silovik is a Russian word for politicians from the security or military services, often the officers of the former KGB, the FSB, the Federal Narcotics Control Service and military or other security services who came into power...
s' revenge on Chichvarkin.
In September 2008 the headquarters of Yevroset were searched in connection with its handling of Andrey Vlaskin, a Yevroset employee who in 2003 stole mobile phones worth around 20 million Russian roubles (approximately US$1 million). Vlaskin was caught by Yevroset security in Tambov
Tambov
Tambov is a city and the administrative center of Tambov Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tsna and Studenets Rivers southeast of Moscow...
, moved to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
to a Yevroset-owned apartment and after some time agreed to compensate Yevroset for their losses. While between 2004 and 2007 Yevroset and Vlaskin apparently had no claims on each other, in 2008 Yevroset was accused of kidnapping, illegal imprisonment and extortion. On 21 September 2008 Chichvarkin sold 100% of Yevroset stock to Alexander Mamut
Alexander Mamut
Alexander Leonidovich Mamut , born January 29, 1960 in Moscow to a family of lawyers, is a businessman and investor. He was previously an advisor to the former Russian government of Boris Yeltsin, and was a friend of Yeltsin's daughter Tatyana Dyachenko. He is best known outside Russia for his...
. The volume of the transaction was US$400 million. In January 2009 Chichvarkin moved to United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and on 23 January 2009 on Russian federal search list in connection with the Vlaskin case. On January 28 the Basmanny Court of Moscow approved Chichvarkin's arrest (in absentia
In absentia
In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...
). On March 12, 2009 his details were passed to Interpol
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
. On 13 April 2009 the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General of Russia
Prosecutor General of Russia
The Prosecutor General of Russia heads the system of official prosecution in courts known as the Office of the Prosecutor General of Russian Federation ....
noticed that a key investigator of Chichvarkin's case, Vladimir Knyazyev, had been previously been sentenced for stealing a large consignment of mobile phones from Chichvarkin's Yevroset. During the 2007 contraband case he had forged the act of destroying the phones confiscated as evidence. The investigation committee demanded the dismissal of Knyazyev because of the conflict of interest but their demands were refused. On November 17, 2010 the jury found all the defendants in the Vlaskin case not guilty. The prosecution's appeal to the Supreme Court was rejected on January 20, 2011 and Chichvarkin's indictment was withdrawn a few days later. His lawyer Yuri Gervis noted that Chichvarkin is still worried that he might be charged again in connection with the 2005 contraband case. While in London Chichvarkin has participated in protests highlighting the dangers of conducting business in Russia, referring to the cases of Mikhail Khodorkovsky
Mikhail Khodorkovsky
Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky is a Russian prisoner, considered by some - such as Amnesty International - to have been imprisoned for political reasons, jailed until 2016 and a former Russian oligarch and businessman...
and Sergei Magnitsky
Sergei Magnitsky
Sergei Leonidovich Magnitsky was a Russian attorney whose death in police custody generated international media attention and launched an investigation into allegations of abuse. Magnitsky, who had alleged wide-scale tax fraud sanctioned by officials before being himself arrested, died days...
.