Talk:Alexander Mashkevitch/Temp

Alexander Mashkevich (אלכסנדר משקביץ; also transliterated Alexandr Mashkevic; Александр Машкевич), born in 1954, is a billionaire businessman with major holdings and close political relationships in Kazakhstan. He holds both Kazakh and Israeli citizenship; according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, he usually travels on his Israeli passport and "rarely spends more than a week each month in Kazakhstan." As of 2006 he is on the Forbes list of billionaires at #620.

Mashkevich was born in Frunze, Kyrgyz SSR, Soviet Union in 1954 to Rakhel Yoffe (born in Belarus) and Anton (born in Lithuania). He is a graduate of Kyrgyz State University where he studied philology. Mashkevich started out an academic career but became a businessmen during perestroika. Mashkevich, Patokh Chodiev, and Alijan Ibragimov form "the Trio," a group of Kazakh businessmen who became billionaires. As of 2004 Mashkevich was believed to control as much as one-fourth of Kazakhstan's economy.

Using offshore companies with a web of Swiss bank accounts, the Trio, with the help and support of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, gained control of the recently privatized chromium, alumina, and gas operations in Kazakhstan (some of the largest ones in the world). Despite criticisms and repeated reaction from international watch groups and the opposition, the Trio was able to extract billions of dollars out of Kazakhstan and into Switzerland in the late 1990s. In return for turning a blind eye to this, the Trio paid generous bonuses to Nazarbayev, with whom Mashkevich "enjoys special relations."

Mashkevich and other members of the Trio worked with U.S. businessman and former Exxon Mobil executive James Giffen, who is awaiting trial in a New York court under the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Passed in 1997, the F.C.P.A. makes it unlawful for any American to bribe foreign officials, either directly or through an agent, "for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business." Swiss investigators found that Japan Chrome, one of Trio’s companies registered in the British Virgin Islands, transferred millions of dollars into the accounts of another offshore company, Hovelon, owned by Giffen. These funds along with millions more were then transferred into an offshore account of a company owned by Nazarbayev.

Mashkevich and fellow Trio members are awaiting trials in Belgium for money laundering, falsifying documents and criminal association. Even though these charges were filed five years ago, legal proceedings have been slow and the cases have not yet started.

Mashkevich currently serves as President of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC). In this capacity, he has visited a number of synagogues around the world and met with many prominent individuals. He also has the ear of some highly placed Israeli government leaders. For instance, in 2002, Mashkevich had a private meeting with then-Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. In apparent consultation with Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, he asked his personal friend Kazakh President Nursultan Nazabayev to intervene with Iran concerning Israeli soldiers captured by Hizbullah. Also, while in Israel, Mashkevich "several times rather closely cooperated" with Kazakh Ambassador, now Deputy Foreign Minister, Kairat Abdurakhmanov.

Mashkevich is one of the owners of Alferon Management. Based in London, Alferon Management has acquired mining operations in different places: Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Kosovo, Russia, and other countries that lack transparency and corporate governance structures.