Friday, March 28, 2008
Industrial Espionage at TNK-BP
On a Side Defending Commercial Secrets
The concept of commercial secret appeared in Russian legislation in 1994, when the Civil Code of the Russian Federation was adopted, with a definition of that type of secret in article 139. Sanctions for receiving and disclosing commercial, tax and banking secrets were set in article 183 of the new Criminal Code that came into force in 1997. The maximum punishment set by that article is ten years' imprisonment. In 2004, the president of the Russian federation signed the law “On Commercial Secrets.” The first criminal case of stealing commercial secrets was initiated by the FSB Sverdlovsk Region Department in 2003. Counterintelligence agents uncovered unauthorized copying of documents at Uralmashzavod, allegedly done in the interests of a commercial firm. Searches were carried out at the office of those companies, and to Uralmashzavod employees signed confessions. Investigators from other regions and Russia and other countries were involved in the investigation. It soon became clear, however, that the plans copied had no secret classification and the management of the company did not know that the information was a commercial secret. The management of Uralmashzavod officially announced that “a violation of the law by Uralmashzavod employees was uncovered that caused damage amounting to an insignificant sum.” The case was closed. The first sentences for disclosing commercial secrets took place in 2007. One of the first sentenced under that article was St. Petersburg senior tax inspector Sergey Sergeev, who disclosed the financial balance of companies to third parties in exchange for 3000 rubles. He received a suspended sentence. The sales manager of the Cherepovets Metals Combine, which belongs to OAO Severstal, was fined in December 2007 for sending secret information on production costs at Severstal to a business acquaintance by email in exchange for 250,000 rubles.
// FSB investigates
Mar. 21, 2008 - Kommersant by Alexey Sokovnin, Yulia Taratuta, Denis Rebrov
- The British Council implicated
The FSB yesterday explained the reason for its seizure of documents from the offices of TNK-BP. It was part of an investigation of a criminal case involving TNK-BP Management employee Ilya Zaslavsky and his brother Alexander, who is the head of the British Council project Graduate's Club. They have been accused of industrial espionage. “The company is cooperating with the law enforcement organs' investigation,” TNK-BP has announced officially. Unofficially, they call attention to the fact that the FSB searched the offices of TNK-BP and BP in their investigation of a single employee. Until yesterday, the reason for the search at TNK-BP was known only to those who performed it. The FSB denied its involvement in the actions, and Interior Ministry spokesmen claimed that they were investigating a case related to SIDANKO. Yesterday, the FSB public relations center told Kommersant that the confiscation of document was carried out as part of a criminal case of industrial espionage (article 276 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) initiated by the investigative unit of the FSB. “The Zaslavsky brothers were detained on March 12 while attempting to obtain information that was a commercial secret from a Russian citizen employed by one of the restricted access facilities of the oil and gas complex,” the FSB public relations center said. According to the FSB, the Zaslavsky brother “carried out the illegal gathering of commercial information for a number of foreign oil and gas companies for the purpose of creating specific advantages for them over their Russian competitors, including on the markets of the CIS countries.” The suspects were released the same day on writs not to flee, and charges were made against them on March 18. The next day, documents were seized in TNK-BP and BP Trading Ltd. as part of the investigation of the criminal case. During the searches, the FSB claims, “substantive evidence of industrial espionage was uncovered and confiscated. The FSB has classified as evidence copies of documents from state agencies of the Russian Federation, reports and analytical memos concerning resource management that have preliminarily been identified as concerning commercial secrets and business cards of members of foreign military agencies and the FBI. The FSB public relations center was unable to explain to Kommersant why the seizure of documents took place only a week after the suspects were detained. That was sufficient time to destroy all documents germane to the case, especially since the Zaslavsky brothers were not in confinement. One representative of the FSB alleged that the Zaslavsky brothers made contact with the investigators themselves and indicated where to search for the relevant documents. That is why the investigators did not petition the Lefortovsky Court to detain the suspects under arrest. At TNK-BP, they favor another explanation, although unofficially. A Kommersant source at TNK-BP pointed out that the investigative activities were conducted not only in the personnel office of the company and at Ilya Zaslavsky's personal work area (he was highly specialized employee of the TNK-BP management division and had frequent contact with the media as an expert on the heating and power complex), but also in many other part of the company. Kommersant sources had the impression that the industrial espionage investigation was but a pretext for a larger sweep that had been prepared in the enforcement agencies, and Ilya Zaslavsky was a convenient figure to concentrate on because his brother is the head of a British Council project. On February 4 of this year, in response to the decision of the Russian Foreign Ministry to close down the branches of the British Council in the Russian regions, the club of graduates of British programs, which Alexander Zaslavsky is the president of, sent an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The graduate of the British programs asked the head of state “to exert influence to resolve the conflict and restore the operations of the regional branches of the British Council.” The letter read, in part, “We understand that there are disagreements at present between Russia and Great Britain. However, it is impermissible for culture and education, and the interests of Russian citizens, to become hostages to it.” Alexander Zaslavsky was not among the 154 signatories of that letter. Officially, they say at TNK-BP that they found out about the charges against their employee from the FSB and they intend to cooperate with law enforcement in every aspect of the investigation. “We have always decisively opposed any illegal activities that do damage to the Russian Federation and any unscrupulous forms of competition,” TNK-BP's official statement reads. The company did not specify the nature of Ilya Zaslavsky's professional activities. Sources say he handled legal issues connected with TNK-BP natural gas business. TNK-BP is now negotiating with Gazprom on the sale of the major Kovykta gas condensate deposit. The deal was to have been concluded last year, but they were unable to come to an agreement on the price of the asset. Deputy chairman of the Gazprom supervisory board Alexander Medvedev suggested in The Financial Times yesterday that the deal would be closed by the end of April. Although the FSB has stated that the Zaslavsky brothers are accused of industrial espionage, several Kommersant sources familiar with the case have stated that it may concern the disclosure of state secrets. The law “On State secrets” states that it pertains to data “on the volume of untapped reserves, extraction, production and consumption of strategic types of mineral wealth,” including oil. A Kommersant source said that the charges against the Zaslavsky brothers may include revealing “certain accounts” that concern the Russian energy strategy through 2020. Another source claimed that the president of the BP division in Russia, BP Russia, Richard Spies, received a summons from law enforcement related to the case of the Zaslavsky brothers. Spies has been head of BP Russia since September 2005. Previously he managed BP projects in Latin America. The FSB declined to comment on that information. British Council representatives declined to comment on the case of the Zaslavsky brothers yesterday. At the British Embassy in Moscow, which coordinated the activities of the British Council in Russia, Kommersant was told that “The Zaslavsky brothers are embers of the British graduate's club,” but “they are not employees of the British Council.” “We are studying the situation as it emerges and are in constant contact with BP,” a spokesman for the embassy said. When asked whether British diplomats consider the charges against the Zaslavsky brothers to be connected with the conflict over the British Council and whether they are a sign of new tensions in Russian-British relations, the answer was ambiguous. “It's hard to say,” the spokesman said. Kommersant has learned that the British embassy has already contacted Alexander Zaslavsky by telephone, but the contents of that conversation remain unknown. The Zaslavsky brothers and their lawyers were unavailable for comment yesterday. The Russian Foreign Ministry urged Kommersant not to tie the detainments and searches of TNK-BP with the conflict over the British Council and growing tensions in Russian-British relations. A day earlier, the ministry issued its latest accusations against “The British elite, whose political mindset has not made a decisive breakthrough from the stereotypes of the Cold War.” Deputy pres secretary of the ministry Andrey Krivtsov stated that “It is a matter of Russian citizens, and there are many members of the graduate's club, so I do not see an interconnection. It is not worth trying to tie it all together. All sorts of coincidences happen in life.”
The concept of commercial secret appeared in Russian legislation in 1994, when the Civil Code of the Russian Federation was adopted, with a definition of that type of secret in article 139. Sanctions for receiving and disclosing commercial, tax and banking secrets were set in article 183 of the new Criminal Code that came into force in 1997. The maximum punishment set by that article is ten years' imprisonment. In 2004, the president of the Russian federation signed the law “On Commercial Secrets.” The first criminal case of stealing commercial secrets was initiated by the FSB Sverdlovsk Region Department in 2003. Counterintelligence agents uncovered unauthorized copying of documents at Uralmashzavod, allegedly done in the interests of a commercial firm. Searches were carried out at the office of those companies, and to Uralmashzavod employees signed confessions. Investigators from other regions and Russia and other countries were involved in the investigation. It soon became clear, however, that the plans copied had no secret classification and the management of the company did not know that the information was a commercial secret. The management of Uralmashzavod officially announced that “a violation of the law by Uralmashzavod employees was uncovered that caused damage amounting to an insignificant sum.” The case was closed. The first sentences for disclosing commercial secrets took place in 2007. One of the first sentenced under that article was St. Petersburg senior tax inspector Sergey Sergeev, who disclosed the financial balance of companies to third parties in exchange for 3000 rubles. He received a suspended sentence. The sales manager of the Cherepovets Metals Combine, which belongs to OAO Severstal, was fined in December 2007 for sending secret information on production costs at Severstal to a business acquaintance by email in exchange for 250,000 rubles.
// FSB investigatesMar. 21, 2008 - Kommersant by Alexey Sokovnin, Yulia Taratuta, Denis Rebrov
- The British Council implicated
The FSB yesterday explained the reason for its seizure of documents from the offices of TNK-BP. It was part of an investigation of a criminal case involving TNK-BP Management employee Ilya Zaslavsky and his brother Alexander, who is the head of the British Council project Graduate's Club. They have been accused of industrial espionage. “The company is cooperating with the law enforcement organs' investigation,” TNK-BP has announced officially. Unofficially, they call attention to the fact that the FSB searched the offices of TNK-BP and BP in their investigation of a single employee. Until yesterday, the reason for the search at TNK-BP was known only to those who performed it. The FSB denied its involvement in the actions, and Interior Ministry spokesmen claimed that they were investigating a case related to SIDANKO. Yesterday, the FSB public relations center told Kommersant that the confiscation of document was carried out as part of a criminal case of industrial espionage (article 276 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) initiated by the investigative unit of the FSB. “The Zaslavsky brothers were detained on March 12 while attempting to obtain information that was a commercial secret from a Russian citizen employed by one of the restricted access facilities of the oil and gas complex,” the FSB public relations center said. According to the FSB, the Zaslavsky brother “carried out the illegal gathering of commercial information for a number of foreign oil and gas companies for the purpose of creating specific advantages for them over their Russian competitors, including on the markets of the CIS countries.” The suspects were released the same day on writs not to flee, and charges were made against them on March 18. The next day, documents were seized in TNK-BP and BP Trading Ltd. as part of the investigation of the criminal case. During the searches, the FSB claims, “substantive evidence of industrial espionage was uncovered and confiscated. The FSB has classified as evidence copies of documents from state agencies of the Russian Federation, reports and analytical memos concerning resource management that have preliminarily been identified as concerning commercial secrets and business cards of members of foreign military agencies and the FBI. The FSB public relations center was unable to explain to Kommersant why the seizure of documents took place only a week after the suspects were detained. That was sufficient time to destroy all documents germane to the case, especially since the Zaslavsky brothers were not in confinement. One representative of the FSB alleged that the Zaslavsky brothers made contact with the investigators themselves and indicated where to search for the relevant documents. That is why the investigators did not petition the Lefortovsky Court to detain the suspects under arrest. At TNK-BP, they favor another explanation, although unofficially. A Kommersant source at TNK-BP pointed out that the investigative activities were conducted not only in the personnel office of the company and at Ilya Zaslavsky's personal work area (he was highly specialized employee of the TNK-BP management division and had frequent contact with the media as an expert on the heating and power complex), but also in many other part of the company. Kommersant sources had the impression that the industrial espionage investigation was but a pretext for a larger sweep that had been prepared in the enforcement agencies, and Ilya Zaslavsky was a convenient figure to concentrate on because his brother is the head of a British Council project. On February 4 of this year, in response to the decision of the Russian Foreign Ministry to close down the branches of the British Council in the Russian regions, the club of graduates of British programs, which Alexander Zaslavsky is the president of, sent an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The graduate of the British programs asked the head of state “to exert influence to resolve the conflict and restore the operations of the regional branches of the British Council.” The letter read, in part, “We understand that there are disagreements at present between Russia and Great Britain. However, it is impermissible for culture and education, and the interests of Russian citizens, to become hostages to it.” Alexander Zaslavsky was not among the 154 signatories of that letter. Officially, they say at TNK-BP that they found out about the charges against their employee from the FSB and they intend to cooperate with law enforcement in every aspect of the investigation. “We have always decisively opposed any illegal activities that do damage to the Russian Federation and any unscrupulous forms of competition,” TNK-BP's official statement reads. The company did not specify the nature of Ilya Zaslavsky's professional activities. Sources say he handled legal issues connected with TNK-BP natural gas business. TNK-BP is now negotiating with Gazprom on the sale of the major Kovykta gas condensate deposit. The deal was to have been concluded last year, but they were unable to come to an agreement on the price of the asset. Deputy chairman of the Gazprom supervisory board Alexander Medvedev suggested in The Financial Times yesterday that the deal would be closed by the end of April. Although the FSB has stated that the Zaslavsky brothers are accused of industrial espionage, several Kommersant sources familiar with the case have stated that it may concern the disclosure of state secrets. The law “On State secrets” states that it pertains to data “on the volume of untapped reserves, extraction, production and consumption of strategic types of mineral wealth,” including oil. A Kommersant source said that the charges against the Zaslavsky brothers may include revealing “certain accounts” that concern the Russian energy strategy through 2020. Another source claimed that the president of the BP division in Russia, BP Russia, Richard Spies, received a summons from law enforcement related to the case of the Zaslavsky brothers. Spies has been head of BP Russia since September 2005. Previously he managed BP projects in Latin America. The FSB declined to comment on that information. British Council representatives declined to comment on the case of the Zaslavsky brothers yesterday. At the British Embassy in Moscow, which coordinated the activities of the British Council in Russia, Kommersant was told that “The Zaslavsky brothers are embers of the British graduate's club,” but “they are not employees of the British Council.” “We are studying the situation as it emerges and are in constant contact with BP,” a spokesman for the embassy said. When asked whether British diplomats consider the charges against the Zaslavsky brothers to be connected with the conflict over the British Council and whether they are a sign of new tensions in Russian-British relations, the answer was ambiguous. “It's hard to say,” the spokesman said. Kommersant has learned that the British embassy has already contacted Alexander Zaslavsky by telephone, but the contents of that conversation remain unknown. The Zaslavsky brothers and their lawyers were unavailable for comment yesterday. The Russian Foreign Ministry urged Kommersant not to tie the detainments and searches of TNK-BP with the conflict over the British Council and growing tensions in Russian-British relations. A day earlier, the ministry issued its latest accusations against “The British elite, whose political mindset has not made a decisive breakthrough from the stereotypes of the Cold War.” Deputy pres secretary of the ministry Andrey Krivtsov stated that “It is a matter of Russian citizens, and there are many members of the graduate's club, so I do not see an interconnection. It is not worth trying to tie it all together. All sorts of coincidences happen in life.”
# posted by Deval : 8:20 AM
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