Ziya Bazhayev

Ziya 'Ziyaudi' Yusupovich Bazhayev (Зия Юсупович Бажаев; July 11, 1960 — March 9, 2000) was a prominent Russian businessman of Chechen origin specializing in oil trading. During the 1990s, he was president of Sidanko («СИДАНКО»), the Swiss company Lia Oil (Швейцарская фирма «Лиа Ойл») from 1992 to 1995, the state unitary oil company in war-torn Chechnya, Southern Oil Company (YUNCO) (Южная нефтяная компания (ЮНКО)) and the oil company Alliance Group («Группа Альянс»), which he founded in April 1998. With numerous personnel from Sidanko, Alliance gained control of the Khabarovsk Refinery at Khabarovsk, which previously was owned by Sidanko, and, a year later, gained control of the Kherson Refinery in Ukraine. He died in Moscow during a crash of a Yakovlev Yak-40 aircraft shortly after takeoff on March 9, 2000, together with a Russian journalist, Artyom Borovik.

Bazhayev's death is mentioned in many Nigerian 419 scam e-mails.

Literature

 * Musa Geshaev. Famous Chechens. — Moscow: Musaizdat, 2006. — Vol. 4. — pp. 126–159.