Igor Sychev
Title of article about my story "Man battles Russian Oligarchs in court, survives assassination attempts”
Fundraising for London Friend
Story
Important updates of January 2023
First, my extremely unusual story was described in an article, published on the main page of Orato World Media under the title “Man battles Russian Oligarchs in court, survives assassination attempts”.
Second, an article describing my story, published in August in Latvia, where I live as a refugee, was duplicated on English information resources, for example, here.
Third, my petition, which describes the crimes of these oligarchs against me and justice, has overcome the very important barrier for change.org of 20,000 supporters, thereby moving into the category of one of the most signed ones.
My story
Dear Friends
The story that forced me to turn to you for help is the story of the incredible meanness on the part of Putin's oligarchs (owners of PhosAgro), whom I saved from ruin and prison before they became close to Putin. According to their own calculations, I brought these oligarchs a profit in the amount of about $ 1 billion. As a "reward" for this, they fraudulently deceived me, not only by not paying what we agreed on, but also with the help of fraudulent tricks making me owe them millions of dollars.
The history of the conflict has been going on for 8 years, and these “grateful” oligarchs during this time have done everything possible to turn my life into a real hell. "Thanks" to them, I have been forced to flee from Russia to a country completely unknown to me then. I have lost my home, my family, my friends, that is, my whole life, and I also spent all the money on legal expenses. Now I am practically a beggar, but I continue to defend my rights in the English court.
The fraudulent nature of the actions of Putin's oligarchs (that is, the legal side of the issue) is described in two opinions of well-known law firms, which you can read here if you wish.
When I started to defend my rights, these oligarchs first tried to kill me (but without success), after that they fabricated a crazy criminal case against me, with the help of which they tried to take me hostage by confiscating my passport, and began to blackmail me, demanding that I drop claims against them in exchange for the termination of the fabricated criminal case.
But thanks to a happy miracle, I managed to escape from Russia; Interpol, at my request, stopped my international search very soon, since the criminal case is extremely ridiculous, and the European authorities (Latvia) granted me refugee status.
A colorful description of the crazy things that the "grateful" Russian oligarchs did to me is contained in the 12-page written testimony of my former and very well-known lawyer in Russia, 70-year-old Valery Stepanov, which he gave to the English court, where I filed a lawsuit against these oligarchs. Practice has shown that this document is enough for anyone uninitiated in detail to understand the situation and all its horror. I will give some colorful quotes.
(1) “From my many years of experience I can declare that I have never met a stranger and more absurd criminal case and have never heard of anything like it. In terms of the number and quality of elementary violations, this criminal case has no analogues. I am convinced that this criminal case is completely fabricated and was initiated not with the aim of investigating something, but with the aim of being used as an instrument of the crime committed against Sychev, that is, to be an instrument of illegal pressure on Sychev in the conflict with PhosAgro”.
(2) “Sychev called me and asked me to come to his home to participate as his lawyer during the search. I arrived about two hours later, during which the search took place in the absence of a lawyer. About 10 people took part in the search, there was also a dog handler with a dog. As attesting witnesses, there were two people whom Sychev knew as members of the security service of PhosAgro. Investigator Gall A.E. at the same time assured us that this is an absolutely random coincidence, which, of course, is impossible to believe”.
(3) “Later it became known to me that just at that time, negotiations were taking place with Sychev, initiated by the mediator Kondratyev, who acted in his own words on behalf of Antoshin [the former CEO of PhosAfro]. The demands on Sychev, voiced by Kondratyev, boiled down to the fact that the amount of obligations to him would decrease several times and that Sychev had to pay 4 million dollars. For this, Sychev was promised the termination of the criminal case against him, as well as non-presentation of demands for the return of $ 5 million transferred under loan agreements. Sychev recorded his conversations with Kondratyev on a dictaphone. I listened to them and can confirm that this is nothing more than extortion committed against Sychev in order to significantly reduce the amount of obligations to him, as well as extortion of a bribe in the amount of $ 4 million. In addition, threats of physical elimination were voiced against Sychev. It was against the background of these negotiations, which lasted several weeks, that the indictment of Sychev was repeatedly postponed”.
(4) “After that, lawyer Lashevich [PhosAgro's lawyer] contacted lawyer Dergachev [my second Russin lawyer] twice. He offered to end the criminal prosecution of Sychev on the condition that he renounce all demands against PhosAgro and Antoshin. At the same time, it was proposed to formalize the termination of criminal prosecution through the recognition of Sychev as insane. Both meetings are described by lawyer Dergachev in emails dated 08/20/16 and 02/03/21. A similar demand to Sychev was ‘sent’ through Kirill Trukhanov [another PhosAgro's lawyer]. In this case, this demand was voiced by him in England to the Sychev's lawyer Katerina Haslam-Jones. I know that at the same time, Mr. Trukhanov, commenting on Sychev's lawsuit in England, said that PhosAgro's financial capabilities are incomparable with Sychev's financial capabilities and that his claim will be "crushed" for this reason”.
(5) ”Sychev, in about 2018, introduced me to an audio recording of his telephone conversation with Mr. Lushkin [person affiliated with PhosAgro], during which the latter actually repeatedly threatened Sychev with murder in Latvia if Sychev did not drop his claim in England. I confirm that these are precisely murder threats and that the demand repeatedly voiced by Mr. Lushkin boils down to a demand to drop the claim in England”.
Shortly after submitting of this witness statement to the oligarchs, Mr Stepanov died in Russia under very strange circumstances, about which the oligarchs did not hide their joy. Shortly before his death, Valery Stepanov told me that they tried to hack his WhatsApp account, which he connected with his participation as a witness in my case.
The oligarchs, because I continue to defend my rights, are harassing me even in Europe, threatening to kill me on a regular basis, demanding that I drop my claims against them and the English lawsuit. On this occasion, a criminal case was initiated in Latvia in October of this year. An incomplete list of threats includes 37 positions, and you can find it, as well as the decision to open a criminal case, here. These threats are addressed not only to me, but even to my minor children. Some quotes (confirmed by audio recordings):
I want your children to be alive and well.
You don’t understand that you can be killed today or tomorrow, Igor?! Especially since everyone knows that you are in Riga, everyone knows!
Stop the court claim, you will save your life, do you understand?!
Drop the claim! You will lose your wife and children!
In Britain, where my lawsuit against these oligarchs is being considered, they have bribed my lawyers and are using corruption to the fullest. Details are described in my petition supported by 21,000+ people (as of 21 January). The only way to counteract the insane behavior of the "grateful" oligarchs, who are capable of absolutely monstrous things, is publicity, which is why I created this petition. I kindly ask you to support it (by signing and sharing).
My story has been repeatedly described in the media. If we talk about the Russian-language press, then I will refer to the articles (this and this) in Forbes. From the latest – a big article about me, published in August of this year in Latvia. The article in English about my asylum request is here.
Since I have become practically penniless, I am forced to apply for your financial support and will be very grateful for any amount.
Thank you very much!
P.S.: If you are interested in more detailed information about my story, please contact me:
831claim@gmail.com