Norebo conflict

In the mid 1990s Orlov and Tugushev met as students at Murmansk High Marine School. Orlov, upon graduation, moved to Norway to work at Scandsea Int. A/S, a Norwegian trading company which was buying fish from Russian fishing companies based in Murmansk.[6] At that company, Orlov joined efforts with Swedish entrepreneur Magnus Roth. In 1997 they created a new company with 50/50 shareholding, Ocean Trawlers A/S. Aside from buying fish, the company offered Norwegian trawlers for rent on the terms of bareboat charter. This was crucial for the post-Soviet fishing industry, as Russian fishing companies at that time owned only outdated Soviet vessels.

One of fish sellers for Orlov and Roth was Alexander Tugushev. While Orlov was working in Norway, Tugushev utilized several old Soviet vessels to make his own fishing company in Russia. By 1998 Tugushev joined Ocean Trawlers as a partner and they began to form the holding company called Karat. The name Karat Fishing Holding was used for the holding of 16 companies, and the name Norebo was taken in 2016.[7]

In early 2000s Orlov and Roth were enlarging their business and forming a holding company later known as Karat Fishing Holding and subsequently as Norebo (by 2019 the holding contained 16 companies, see article Norebo).[8] One of the companies that participated in the creation of the holding was called Almor Atlantica. It was founded in 2001 by Orlov and Roth, and by that time they accepted Tugushev as a co-shareholder and granted 25%[9] of company shares to him.[10]

Orlov claims that Tugushev later, by 2003, disposed of his shares to become a high-ranked Russian official — the deputy head of a Russian governmental committee called Goskomrybolovstvo (Госкомрыболовство) — the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Fishing. Tugushev’s position included authority to allot fishing quotas that belonged to the Russian Federation. According to Russian law, no shareholding in commercial entities is allowed for such officials. Because of that, Tugushev's shares were relocated to holding's top manager Andrey Petrik.

In July 2003, the significant reform of the fishing quota system in Russia started to eliminate the authority of Goskomrybolovstvo to allot fishing quotas. The reform followed a series of corruption scandals and murders of governors. The head of Goskomrybolovstvo Aleksandr Moyseev invited Tugushev to join the committee to help in reforming the quotas system.[11] In September 2003, Tugushev was appointed as the deputy head of Moyseev by order of then-prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov.[12]

Russian court found later, he managed to receive a bribe for a quota from a Far-Eastern fishing company called Polluks. That company, to pay the bribe, used funds borrowed from their partners in South Korea. After not receiving any quotas (without them, their business was impossible), Polluks applied to Russian law enforcement. This led to the arrest of Tugushev on June 2, 2004 (while about 150 policemen were involved in operations at 15 locations). Tugushev was charged with the bribe of $3.7 million received from Polluks.[13] Simultaneously, Polluks started a civil lawsuit against Tugushev to compensate the loss of 3.7 million US dollars.

In February 2007, Russian court found Tugushev guilty and sentenced him to 6 years in prison. In 2009 Tugushev was released from prison on parole and returned to working at Norebo.[14]

Several years later, Tugushev signed a settlement agreement with Polluks' owner Sergei Alexandrov in respect of their civil claim.

Before Tugushev's move to London in 2018,[15] he was arrested in absentia by Oktyabrsky District Court of Murmansk and put by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia on the international wanted list because of accusations of obtaining more than 40 million roubles (about USD 540 000) from a big Murmansk fishery supplier OOO (LLC) Vostok and its co-founder Alexander Sychev.[16][10]

After re-starting to work at Karat/Norebo as assistant to Orlov, Tugushev began to claim a part of the whole business which has been constantly growing in worldwide scale (Norebo's fish is nowadays particularly used by McDonald's[3]). This led to his conflict with Orlov as Orlov made allegations of extortion and telephone threats.[17] Tugushev filed a criminal complaint accusing Orlov of fraud.[18] The first proceedings were commenced on 24 November 2015 at Koptevskiy court in Moscow apparently by Tugushev (but he denies). Tugushev says that this was sham litigation instigated by Orlov to obstruct and destroy claims of Tugushev.[19] In 2015, a similar situation was staged in the Loukhi District Court of the Republic of Karelia.[20]

In 2016, Orlov complained to the police about receiving the threatening telephone calls from someone possibly acting on behalf of Tugushev.[21] Later the one who called Orlov was identified as Mr Dzhamaldaev. The police put Tugushev under house arrest the same year, however Tugushev denied any links to Dzhamaldaev. In December 2017, the investigation was closed with Tugushev found not linked with the Dzhamaldaev.[22][23]

In 2016, Tugushev also made criminal complaints against Orlov in Russia accusing him of fraud which resulted in criminal proceedings commenced on 25 July 2018.[24] Both complaints were based on the allegation that Orlov had unlawfully obtained Tugushev’s stake in Norebo. As part of these proceedings, Norebo office and the related persons were subjected to several police raids between 26 and 28 September 2018, in which large quantities of documents were collected.[25][24][26] Tugushev also convicted Orlov in falsification of documents submitted to the Murmansk court.[27]

At the same time, the media reported on Tugushev’s filing of crime complaints in connection with forgery by Orlov of the evidence and Tugushev’s signatures on the share purchase agreements signed in 2000.[20]

In 2016 a series of bargains between the holding's shareholders and related companies occurred that lead to full relocation of the shares worth $201 million of the co-owner Magnus Roth to the possession of Vitaly Orlov. This resulted in concentration of 100% of Norebo shares, ranking Orlov No. 90 on Russian Forbes list of richest people. As mass media report, Roth is supposed to be involved in series of tax evasions in Russia and Norway while nominally living in Hong Kong and factually living in Switzerland (but making business in Norway and Russia).[10][28]