Boris Berezovsky (businessman)

Boris Abramovich Berezovsky was born in 1946, in Moscow, to Abram Markovich Berezovsky (1911–1979), a Jewish civil engineer in construction works, and his wife, Anna Aleksandrovna Gelman (22 November 1923 – 3 September 2013).

Boris Abramovich Berezovsky (Борис Абрамович Березовский; 23 January 1946 – 23 March 2013), also known as Platon Elenin, was a Russian business oligarch, government official, engineer and mathematician and a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

He had the federal state civilian service rank of 1st class Active State Councillor of the Russian Federation.

After graduating from the Moscow Forestry Engineering Institute in 1968, Berezovsky worked as an engineer from 1969 until 1987, serving as assistant research officer, research officer and finally the head of a department in the Institute of Control Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Berezovsky researched optimization and control theory, publishing 16 books and articles between 1975 and 1989.

Alexander Khinshtein (State Duma deputy, member of the United Russia faction) claimed that in 1979 Boris Berezovsky was detained by the OBKhSS authorities in Makhachkala (Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic) for profiteering.

In Khinshtein's opinion, Berezovsky has been a KGB officer since 1979.

He studied applied mathematics, receiving his doctorate in 1983.

In 1989, Berezovsky took advantage of the opportunities presented by perestroika to found LogoVAZ with Badri Patarkatsishvili and senior managers from Russian automobile manufacturer AvtoVAZ.

LogoVAZ developed software for AvtoVAZ, sold Soviet-made cars and serviced foreign cars.

The dealership profited from hyperinflation by taking cars on consignment and paying the producer at a later date when the money lost much of its value.

Berezovsky made his fortune in Russia in the 1990s, when the country implemented privatization of state property.

He profited from gaining control over assets, including the country's main television channel, Channel One.

One of Berezovsky's early endeavors was All-Russia Automobile Alliance (AVVA), a venture fund he formed in 1993 with Alexander Voloshin (Boris Yeltsin's future Chief of Staff) and AvtoVAZ Chairman Vladimir Kadannikov.

Berezovsky controlled about 30% of the company, which raised nearly US$50 million from small investors through a bonded loan to build a plant producing a "people's car".

The project did not collect sufficient funds for the plant and the funds were instead invested into AvtoVAZ production, while the debt to investors was swapped for equity.

In 1994, Berezovsky was the target of a car bombing incident, but survived the assassination attempt, in which his driver was killed and he himself was injured.

Alexander Litvinenko led the FSB investigation into the incident and linked the crime to the resistance of the Soviet-era AvtoVaz management to Berezovsky's growing influence in the Russian automobile market.

Berezovsky's involvement in the Russian media began in December 1994, when he gained control over ORT Television (see Channel One (Russia)) to replace the failing Soviet TV Channel 1.

He appointed the popular anchorman and producer Vladislav Listyev as CEO of ORT.

Three months later Listyev was assassinated amid a fierce struggle for control of advertising sales.

Berezovsky was questioned in the police investigation, among many others, but the killers were never found.

Under Berezovsky's stewardship, ORT became a major asset of the reformist camp as they prepared to face Communists and nationalists in the upcoming presidential elections.

From 1995 to 1997, through the controversial loans-for-shares privatisation auctions, Berezovsky and Patarkatsishvili assisted Roman Abramovich in acquiring control of Sibneft, the sixth-largest Russian oil company, which constituted the bulk of his wealth.

In 1997, Forbes estimated Berezovsky's wealth at US$3 billion.

Berezovsky helped fund Unity, the political party that would form Vladimir Putin's first parliamentary base, and was elected to the Duma in the 1999 Russian legislative election.

The first charges had been brought during Primakov's government in 1999.

Despite an Interpol Red Notice for Berezovsky's arrest, Russia repeatedly failed to obtain the extradition of Berezovsky from Britain; the situation became a major point of diplomatic tension between the two countries.

However, following the Russian presidential election in March 2000, Berezovsky went into opposition and resigned from the Duma.

Berezovsky would remain a vocal critic of Putin for the rest of his life.

In late 2000, after the Russian Deputy Prosecutor General demanded that Berezovsky appear for questioning, he did not return from abroad and moved to the UK, which granted him political asylum in 2003.

After he moved to Britain, the Russian government took over his television assets, and he divested from other Russian holdings.

In Russia, Berezovsky was later convicted in absentia of fraud and embezzlement.

By 2000, AVVA held about one-third of AvtoVAZ.

In an article in The Washington Post in 2000, Berezovsky revealed that financier George Soros declined an invitation to participate in the acquisition.

In 2012, Berezovsky lost a London High Court case he brought over the ownership of the major oil producer Sibneft, against Roman Abramovich, in which he sought over £3 billion in damages.

The court concluded that Berezovsky had never been a co-owner of Sibneft.

Berezovsky was found dead in his home, Titness Park, at Sunninghill, near Ascot in Berkshire, on 23 March 2013.

A post-mortem examination found that his death was consistent with hanging and that there were no signs of a violent struggle.

However, the coroner at the inquest into Berezovsky's death later recorded an open verdict.