Gennady Timchenko: a Putin's man of straw?

«The newly released HSBC Swiss client list included royalty such as Morocco’s King Mohammed, politicians, corporate executives including former Santander <SAN.MC> chairman Emilio Botin, who died last year, and wealthy families, the ICIJ said. A spokesman for the Moroccan royal palace declined to comment.

Uruguayan football player Diego Forlan, who was also on the list, on Monday denied evading taxes by hiding money in Swiss accounts with HSBC.

The documents also listed arms dealers, people linked to former dictators and traffickers in blood diamonds, and several individuals on the current U.S. sanctions list, including Gennady Timchenko, an associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Timchenko’s Volga Group declined to comment» (http://www.euronews.com/business-newswires/2929464-hsbc-admits-swiss-bank-failings-over-client-taxes/).

Timchenko, Timchenko... Who is this guy? Well, I remember: «currently the world’s 61st most wealthy individual, Timchenko is a citizen of Finland who lives in Switzerland. The rumor mill has it that Timchenko manages Putin’s foreign assets» (http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2014/03/03/want-putins-attention-follow-his-money/). By the way, this man is under probe on allegations of money-laundering, in the USA (http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-money-laundering-probe-touches-putins-inner-circle-1415234261: «The prosecutors are probing transactions in which the Geneva-based commodities firm Mr. Timchenko co-founded, Gunvor Group, purchased oil from Russia’s OAO Rosneft and later sold it to third parties, one of the people familiar with the matter said. Investigators have in recent months requested information about the prices Gunvor charged, the person said. The transactions predate the financial sanctions leveled by the U.S. on Mr. Timchenko and other Putin allies in March in the wake of Russia’s intervention in Ukraine. But transfers of funds related to the transactions could constitute illegal money laundering if the funds were found to have originated from illicit activity such as, for example, irregular sales of state assets like oil»). Diavolo, che sia un prestanome di Putin? Del resto « Five years ago Gennady Timchenko was a little-known Russian oil trader with a fortune of just $400,000, ranked a mere two slots from the bottom of Forbes magazine's list of wealthiest Russians. In his first interview with foreign journalists in 2008 he stipulated that his photograph not be published. Since then, however, Timchenko's rise has been dizzying. He has metamorphosed into the most prominent figure of a group of billionaires rumored to benefit from close personal ties to President Vladimir Putin. This year Forbes said Timchenko was the sixth wealthiest person in Russia, worth $15.3 billion» (http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/putin-ally-timchenko-figurehead-for-us-ire/510707.html). Bref, yankees are following Putin's money: «“Timchenko is a stand-in for what the U.S. government is more interested in, which is Putin's personal wealth,” said Karen Dawisha, a professor at Miami University, Ohio, and author of  “Putin's Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia?”» (ibid.).