roman abramovich gave evidence about how the sibneft auction was rigged. he also talked about that $10 million payment to the russian general. he says it wasn t a bribe. but in court, he admitted making the corrupt payment. he said. roman abramovich won the case in 2012, but the judge said.
the kremlin agreed to support his plan and combined the valuable oil facilities. a giant oil company called sibneft was formed. it was then auctioned off. but the auction was rigged so roman abramovich would win. was this an auction in any real sense? absolutely not, no, absolutely not. it was like a pre arranged deal which was dressed up as an auction. but nobody else really was allowed to participate. that s corruption. this is what you call corruption. this is where the bidding for sibneft took place. by the time the auction had begun, the opposition had been neutralised and the price had been fixed. it was a complete stitch up. and the main beneficiary? roman abramovich.
when i heard this kidnapping story, it was very shocking. what did the chinese camp think of that tactic? they don t want to make any fuss on this matter, they just want to be very silent on this matter. what was the message to the chinese? you are not welcome to take part in this auction. there s no suggestion that roman abramovich knew anything about the kidnapping plot, or played any part in it. his lawyers told us that the kidnap claim is entirely unsubsta ntiated and he has no knowledge of such incident. whatever the reason for the chinese withdrawal, roman abramovich s partnership had the only bid left on the table. and they bought slavneft at a knockdown price. it was a prearranged sale,
roman abramovich formed a partnership with another firm to buy it. but representatives from a chinese company were heading to moscow, they were bidding almost twice as much. vladimir milov was the deputy energy minister in the run up to the auction. he says senior political figures had already decided who d win. i said, look, the chinese want to come in and they want to pay a much bigger price. they say, doesn t matter, shut up, none of your business. it s already decided. slavneft goes to abramovich, the price is agreed. chinese will be dragged out somehow. from the kremlin to the russian parliament, there was widespread opposition to the chinese bid. many powerful people would lose out if the chinese won the auction. but the chinese didn t get to take part.
and there s more. it looks like most of the money borrowed by roman abramovich to buy the new oil company came from the russian government. the secret document says: shortly before the auction, a government minister deposited $137 million of the budget money that s russian taxpayers cash ina bank. that bank then lent mr abramovich the money to buy sibneft. russia s former chief prosecutor, yuri skuratov, doesn t know about the document. but he also says that roman abramovich s bid was funded by the russian state. translation: basically, the government financed | the participation of this bank in the auction where sibneft was purchased. in a normal country,