Leonid Melamed: biography, photo, arrest

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Leonid Melamed is the former CEO of Rosnano and the founder of Alemar Bank. Included in the list of 500 richest citizens of the Russian Federation. He worked closely with Anatoly Chubais, was one of his trusted representatives and was responsible for the financial component of RAO UES.

In July 2015, he was detained at home, Leonid was charged with misappropriation and embezzlement of a large amount of money. Currently under house arrest awaiting trial on December 1, 2015.

Career start

Melamed Leonid Borisovich was born in St. Petersburg on July 11, 1967. Since childhood, he showed interest in the exact sciences, but after school he could not enter the desired university the first time. The future financier decided not to give up and, in the end, became a student at the Electrotechnical Institute. There he began to create software and after graduation he began working at RTF NETI.

Very quickly, Leonid realized that he would not be able to grow in this company, and in 1992 he decided to found Alemar -investment and financial corporation, then became the head of the company "Limbork", which gave advice related to commercial activities and enterprise management. He did not stop there and after 3 years he became the executive director of the Soyuzenergoservis association, as well as the chairman of the board of directors at Novosibirskenergo, where he acquired a large share of the shares.

Meet Mikhail Abyzov

Leonid Melamed developed an innovative program to develop the enterprise and planned to take full control, but the politician Abyzov intervened, who, as it turns out in the future, played an important role in Leonid's life.

Mikhail Abyzov had his own plans for the company, he expected to use it as a platform for career development. Soon, Mikhail realized that it was more profitable to be friends with Melamed, and offered him his connections at the federal level in exchange for the innovative ideas of the financier.

Abyzov was accepted into the team of Anatoly Chubais, who became the head of RAO UES, and his paths with Leonid diverged for some time. In 1998, the head of Rosenergoatom was removed from his post, Leonid Melamed became the general director. The biography is full of events that radically changed his life. So it happened this time: he did not understand anything in nuclear energy, but replaced the specialist as director. However, the company did not last long, for multiple violations it was not issued a work permit.

Activities led by Anatoly Chubais

Here his friends remembered him: they quickly offered him a place in RAO UES. Leonid met Chubais and in 2000 became his deputy. The latter will eventually call him the best financier in the country. Leonid was assigned to deal with the consequences of reforms in the energy sector and be responsible for the company's finances. He was also a member of many of RAO's subsidiaries, such as Tyumenenergo and Lenenergo. As a result, Melamed, together with his old acquaintance Abyzov, controlled most of the financial flows in the Russian power industry.

Leonid Melamed also developed his very first company, Alemar. Although politicians are forbidden from doing business, he found ways to help his offspring. As a result, Alemar became a bank with a pension fund, a registrar and several other companies under its control. In 2003, Leonid met with Chubais, who advised Melamed to go into private business, believing that he was now needed there. And so Leonid leaves his position and becomes the general director of Alemar.

Work at Alemar and Rusnano

There is nothing surprising in the fact that Alemar immediately became one of the main partners of RAO UES, and by 2007 Melamed's fortune was estimated at 2.4 billion rubles, he became one of the richest people in the Russian Federation. In the same year, the Rosnanotech State Corporation was founded, Chubais entered the board of directors and proposed Leonid to the position of general director, he was supposed to be responsible for financial activitiescompany.

The media covered the appointment quite extensively, attracting several United Russia deputies and even Andrei Fursenko, who said that by 2015 Russia's share in the global nanotechnology market would be 2% or $20 billion. And on September 7, 2007, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree appointing Melamed a member of the board of directors and CEO of Rosnano. However, Chubais wanted to head the corporation on his own, and a year later Leonid Melamed was forced to resign. In Rosnano, he only had the position of a member of the supervisory board. In a year, he was able to raise the company from its knees, he was even one of the initiators of publishing his income, which amounted to 400 thousand rubles.

Schemes of Melamed's "gray" work

Chubais did not abandon his partner and suggested acting according to a proven scheme: Leonid returned to Alemar, and it was in this bank that they began to open accounts for the company that received money from Rosnano. According to official statements, there were about 9 billion rubles and 4 billion euros in these accounts.

Some projects carried out by these companies attracted the attention of the Accounts Chamber in 2013. For example, together with an old acquaintance Svyatoslav Panurov, Melamed Leonid Borisovich won a dispute for the right to analyze future projects that were offered to the corporation. They acted according to the scheme: Leonid headed "Alemar", and Svyatoslav - the tender committee of "Rosnano", and the latter company "lost" the first in disputes.

One of the projects approved by Alemar,was to invest the company's budget money in pharmaceutical projects of the American funds Domain Associates. The project was headed by Leonid's namesake, Leonid Melamed (patronymic - Adolfovich). When money was transferred to America, the project was frozen, and there were many such cases.

Melamed investigation

So, the Accounts Chamber conducted an audit of Rosnano, it turned out that many firms to which the company's money was transferred were one-day ones. These data were transferred to the Prosecutor General's Office and the TFR. The combinations that were carried out at Rosnano, when Leonid Melamed was the head, were opened. The photo was taken in July 2015 when the businessman was arrested. But the case did not immediately spread.

However, already in June 2015, Chubais announced 6 criminal cases initiated against the company "Rosnano". Melamed Leonid was detained for embezzlement and embezzlement of 300 million rubles. The arrest was made, until December 1, he must be at Leninsky Prospekt, house 72.