April 26, 2006 -- The Russian news agency Interfax has named two Ukrainian citizens as the hidden beneficiaries of Raiffeisen Investment, which owns 50 percent of RosUkrEnergo, the gas trading firm that acts as a middleman for Turkmen and Russian gas deliveries to Ukraine.
Raiffeisen Investment is a division of the Austrian-based Raiffeisen Bank. Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom owns the other 50 percent of RosUkrEnergo.
The two men were named as Dmytro Firtash, a Ukrainian businessman who, according to Interfax, owns 90 percent of the shares in Raiffeisen Investment. According to "Izvestia," Firtash was linked to RosUkrEnergo's predecessor, Eural Trans Gas.
The second man named is Ivan Fursin, a Ukrainian who reportedly holds the remaining 10 percent of the shares. According to "Izvestia," Fursin has links to former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma's aide Serhiy Levochkin and is also the major shareholder of the Odesa-based Misto Bank and the Odessa film studio.
Firtash owns two cable TV stations in Ukraine as well as a basketball team, the manager of which was recently elected to parliament on the Our Ukraine party list, "Izvestia" reported.
The organized crime unit of the U.S. Justice Department reportedly began an investigation into RosUkrEnergo last week.