Boris Rotenberg (businessman)

Boris Romanovich Rotenberg (Russian: Борис Романович Ротенберг; born 3 January 1957) is a Russian businessman and oligarch. He is co-owner (with his brother Arkady Rotenberg) of the SGM (StroyGazMontazh) group, the largest construction company for gas pipelines and electrical power supply lines in Russia. He was listed by Forbes as Russia's 69th wealthiest person in 2016 with a net worth of $1.07 billion.[1] He is considered a close confidant of president Vladimir Putin.[2][3]

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming conventions, the patronymic is Romanovich and the family name is Rotenberg.
Boris Rotenberg
Boris Rotenberg
Born
Boris Romanovich Rotenberg

(1957-01-03) 3 January 1957
Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russia)
NationalityRussian
Finnish
OccupationBusinessman
Known forCo-founder of SMP Bank

Since 2014, following Russia's annexation of Crimea, Rotenberg has been subject to sanctions by the United States government. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the UK government has also imposed sanctions on Rotenberg.[4][5]

Biography

Rotenberg was born in 1957 in a family of Jewish descent.[6][7] He was very involved in martial arts between 1968 and 1978, particularly judo. He trained alongside Vladimir Putin[2] and won several awards for the Soviet Union. In 1992, he became a professional judo trainer in Helsinki. In 1998, he returned to St. Petersburg.[8]

In 2001, he and his brother founded the SMP bank, which operates in 40 Russian cities with over 100 branches, more than half of them in the Moscow area. SMP oversees the operation of more than 900 ATM machines.

Based on his friendship with Vladimir Putin, his company became closely aligned with Gazprom.[2] Rotenberg is a member of the St. Petersburg Connection, a powerful energy lobby under the leadership of Putin.

He was involved in 20 construction projects for the Sochi Winter Olympics worth 5 billion Euro. The largest site was the coastal highway to Adler, where the Olympic Park was constructed for the numerous sport arenas.[2]

From July 2013[9] to 17 July 2015, Rotenberg was the president of FC Dynamo Moscow.[10] He is also the president of the Russian Judo federation. Mr. Rotenberg's two older sons are Roman Rotenberg, chief of marketing for the ice hockey club SKA St. Petersburg and Boris Rotenberg, a football player of the FC Lokomotiv Moscow.[11][12] After leaving Dynamo, he bought another football club, FC Dynamo Saint Petersburg, which was eventually moved to Sochi under the name PFC Sochi and was promoted to the Russian Premier League for the 2019–20 season.

As a result of the 2014 Crimean crisis, the federal government of the United States under Barack Obama blacklisted the Rotenberg brothers and other close friends of the Russian president, including Sergei Ivanov and Gennadi Timchenko. In July 2014, the European Union also blacklisted Boris Romanovich Rotenberg's company Giprotransmost for conducting the feasibility study of the construction of a bridge from Russia to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.[13][14]

On 27 March 2014, both Visa and MasterCard executed the boycott of SMP Bank, Investcapitalbank and Investitsionny Soyuz (Investment Union) bank. However, just a few days later, it was announced that the institutions do not meet the criteria under which the U.S. Treasury introduces economic sanctions.[15]

Rotenberg was named in the Panama Papers.[16]

Rotenberg also holds Finnish citizenship.[17]

His nephew, Igor Rotenberg (Russian: Ротенберг, Игорь Аркадьевич; born September 9, 1974) is a Russian billionaire businessman.[18][19]

In January 2020, Finnish national broadcaster YLE reported that Rotenberg had lost a court case against four Finnish banks in Helsinki District Court. Rotenberg had complained that the banks did not grant him basic banking services and he was not able to make even small transfers using his Finnish accounts. Helsinki District Court resolved the lawsuit by deciding Rotenberg has no right to basic banking services because he does not permanently reside in European Economic Area. Rotenberg was ordered to pay the four banks' legal costs of 530,000 euros.[20]

On 22 February 2022, Boris along with his nephew Igor Rotenberg had sanctions imposed on them by the United Kingdom government as a result of the Russo-Ukrainian crisis. On 3 March, the United States imposed sanctions on Rotenberg, his wife, and sons.[21] In April 2022, Rotenberg had sanctions imposed on him by the EU.[22]

Motorsport

SMP Bank has sponsored auto racing teams under the brand SMP Racing. Russian drivers like Mikhail Aleshin, Sergey Sirotkin and Vitaly Petrov have competed in Formula 1, Formula 2, the FIA World Endurance Championship, IndyCar Series and the European Le Mans Series.

Rotenberg also owns BR Engineering, a race car constructor.[23]

Wealth

In January 2022 Forbes estimated his net worth to be $1.2B USD.[24] He owned a Bombardier Challenger 300 registered M-ARRH however in 2019 it was seized by Credit Suisse and marketed for sale by Boutsen Aviation due to Rotenberg having sanctions put on him.[25]

References
  1. "#1694 Boris Rotenberg". Forbes. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
  2. Lucian Kim (28 April 2010). "Putin's Judo Friend Says Premier Didn't Help Win Gazprom Deals". Bloomberg.com.
  3. "UK targets three oligarchs and five Russian banks in first tranche of new sanctions - ICIJ". 2022-02-22. Retrieved 2022-03-02.
  4. "The Sanctions Imposed So Far on Russia From the U.S., EU and U.K." SWI swissinfo.ch. Retrieved 2022-03-26.
  5. Stevis-Gridneff, Matina (2022-02-23). "European Sanctions Target Putin's Inner Circle". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-03-26.
  6. Sheldon Kirshner (23 November 2015). "Russia's New Tsar". THE TIMES OF ISRAEL.
  7. Paul Roderick Gregory (14 October 2014). "Putin's Reaction To Sanctions Is Destroying The Economy And China Won't Help". Forbes.
  8. "Борис Ротенберг". 24SMI (in Russian). Retrieved 2023-03-30.
  9. "Boris Rotenberg replaced Solovyev on a post of the president of FC Dynamo". Wrestling.com.ua. 18 July 2013.
  10. Борис Ротенберг покидает пост президента (in Russian). FC Dynamo Moscow. 17 July 2015.
  11. Saul Pope (4 May 2015). "The Unusual Career of Boris Rotenberg". Futbolgrad.com.
  12. "Boris Rotenberg Jr, family friend of Vladimir Putin, has unexpected and mercurial rise to peak of Russian football". Telegraph.co.uk. 6 May 2015.
  13. Valentina Pop (30 July 2014). "EU blacklists three Putin 'cronies'". Euobserver.com.
  14. "RÈGLEMENT D'EXÉCUTION (UE) No 826/2014 DU CONSEIL du 30 juillet 2014". Eur-lex.europa.eu (in French). 30 July 2014.
  15. D Butrin, O Shestopal, S Dementyeva (2014). Visa and MasterCard withdraw sanctions against two Russian banks. Russia Beyond the Headlines. 24 March 2014.
  16. "Panama Papers: The Power Players". International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Archived from the original on April 4, 2016.
  17. Kuittinen, Teppo (11 December 2014). "Suomalaisoligarkkien "karu" pakotearki: valtavia tilauksia Venäjän valtiolta". is.fi (in Finnish). Retrieved 7 March 2018.
  18. "Igor Rotenberg". Forbes. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
  19. "Кто есть кто: Ротенберг Игорь Аркадьевич" [Who Is Who: Rotenberg Igor Arkadyevich]. Delovoy Petersburg (in Russian). Retrieved October 26, 2018.
  20. "Boris Rotenberg hävisi kiistansa suomalaispankkien kanssa – joutuu maksamaan yli puoli miljoonaa pankkien oikeudenkäyntikuluja" (in Finnish). Retrieved March 21, 2020.
  21. Nick Wadhams; Jennifer Jacobs (3 March 2022). "U.S. Sanctions Usmanov, Prigozhin, Tokarev, Other Russian Elites". Bloomberg News.
  22. Russland und Belarus: Neue Sanktionen Archived 2022-04-12 at the Wayback Machine (PDF-Dokument), April 2022
  23. "Компания Бориса Ротенберга представила новый гоночный автомобиль". Autosport.com.ru (in Russian). 2021-05-18. Retrieved 2023-03-30.
  24. "Boris Rotenberg". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-01-15.
  25. "Russian Billionaire Brothers Forced to Sell Private Jets Over Sanctions — Forbes". The Moscow Times. 2019-01-23. Retrieved 2022-01-15.
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