Bermuda Regulator Wants to Liquidate MegaFon Holder IPOC

MOSCOW, Feb 8 (Prime-Tass) -- The government of Bermuda has asked a court to liquidate a company holding a stake in Russia's third largest mobile operator MegaFon, Bermuda's The Royal Gazette said, Russian business daily Vedomosti reported Thursday.

Bermuda's Finance Minister Paula Cox has asked the country's Supreme Court to liquidate Bermuda-based IPOC International Growth Fund, which holds a stake in MegaFon, and eight of its affiliates.

A ministry spokesman told the Russian daily that an officially authorized registrar of the nine companies, with IPOC among them, had filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court to liquidate the companies.

IPOC and the eight companies are reportedly controlled by Danish lawyer Jeffrey Galmond, while Russia's IT and Telecommunications Minister Leonid Reiman has been identified as the owner of IPOC.

The decision to file the lawsuit was made following an audit of IPOC carried out by KPMG, the daily reported.

IPOC is the owner of an 8% stake in MegaFon and has been waging a court battle for a 25.1% stake in the operator for several years. Of the other eight companies, one has a controlling stake in Russian telecommunications holding Telecominvest, another has a 50% stake in CDMA operator Sky Link, and a third company has a 50% stake in telecommunications operator Multiregional TransitTelecom (MTT), Vedomosti reported.

Meanwhile, a court recently identified Russia's Reiman as the beneficial owner of IPOC. In 2006, the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce in Zurich found that IPOC's beneficiary was chairman of the board at Russia's national telecom holding Svyazinvest and a witness in a court case, identified as Witness #7. Reiman has been chairman of Svyazinvest since 2000. The minister has denied any affiliation.

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Posted to the site on 8th February 2007