The 2013 purchase by two tycoons was the third-biggest oil acquisition of all time. Now another oligarch is demanding a piece of the profits.
Russian billionaire Leonid Lebedev has filed a $2bn lawsuit against Viktor Vekselberg and Len Blavatnik, alleging that he was a secret shareholder in an oil venture that became part of TNK-BP and later Rosneft through a $55bn deal last year.
To acquire TNK-BP, Rosneft bought out BP as well as its four Soviet-born billionaire partners: Mikhail Fridman, German Khan, Mr Vekselberg and Mr Blavatnik – with the latter two netting $7bn apiece from the March 2013 deal.
The legal case, which was filed in a New York state court, is set to be the biggest oligarch legal battle in the US – a departure from previous years when a stream of Russians aired their grievances in London’s High Court, incurring millions of pounds in legal fees.
Representatives for Mr Vekselberg and Mr Blavatnik did not respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit, filed on Tuesday. In a statement, Mr Lebedev said: “It is with regret that I resort to the courts to resolve a dispute with my former partners, with whom I shared so many achievements through a lengthy collaboration. I have been deprived of the full value of my ownership interest” in TNK-BP.
Mr Lebedev, who made his fortune in the Russian oil sector in the 1990s, went on to become a senator and then one of Russia’s leading independent film producers.
The dispute dates back to a 1997 joint-venture struck between the oil moguls that evolved to eventually include stakes in TNK-BP. Mr Lebedev alleges he contributed $25m cash and transferred his equity stake in TNK and a Russian production company, to Mr Blavatnik and Mr Vekselberg to help them buy control of TNK.
Russian oligarchs NY court battle
Mr Lebedev alleges that his business partners never transferred the stock to him.
To mollify the dispute, the three men met several times in New York in 2001 – at private residences and a stroll through Central Park – to hammer out a deal, he claims.
In the following decade, Mr Vekselberg went on to become a shareholder of the world’s largest aluminium group Rusal, in addition to TNK-BP. In recent years he has focused on the utilities sector and Skolkovo, a Kremlin-sponsored tech project akin to Silicon Valley.
Mr Blavatnik is a US citizen and has moved from natural resources to the music and media industries over the years. He now owns Warner Music as well as Dr Dre’s Beats Electronics.
According to the lawsuit, Mr Lebedev was paid $600m in dividends through an arrangement struck in 2003, but he is suing over his share of the $13.8bn in profits that their joint venture allegedly made from the sale to Rosneft, plus damages.