Gallery owner fears for her life as oligarch father held
Patron of Royal Academy tells of death threats after Siberian mining tycoon is charged with extortion
IT READS like a plot from the BBC’s hit series McMafia.
A leading London gallery owner has been dragged into one of Russia’s biggest corruption scandals after her father, a Siberian coal mining tycoon, was charged with extortion.
Elena Shchukina, a patron of the Royal Academy, says she has received death threats over the case, implicating not only her father but six officials including two deputy governors of a remote Siberian province.
The FSB, Russia’s secret service, is said to have taken a keen interest in Mr Shchukin’s business affairs, while one key protagonist has vanished, presumed murdered.
The extortion case will stir interest in the UK at a time when authorities are supposed to be scrutinising the origins of oligarchs’ money that has flooded into London.
Ms Shchukina, 35, a mother of two, has received millions of pounds from companies and family trusts that channel huge profits made by her father Alexander Shchukin. She lives with her husband, her father’s business partner, and two young children, in a £15million four-floor mansion on a private road in London. Through the Gallery Elena Shchukina in Mayfair she has “established herself as a respected voice to critique, support and challenge established artistic conventions,” according to one report.
Mr Shchukin, 67, has been under house arrest for almost two years while under investigation but has now been charged with extortion. The case exposes the cut-throat world of coal mining in the Siberian province of Kemerovo, more than 2,100 miles from Moscow. In the “wild Nineties”, the region was known for frequent assassi- nations of mine directors who failed to pay into protection rackets.
Ms Shchukina said: “I feel frustrated and angry at what is going on. But I cannot go to Russia to see him because I am scared. We have had a number of death threats here. It made me worry for my children and my husband. It has been a reign of terror.” The dual UK- Russian national insisted her father had done nothing wrong and that she had nothing to hide, adding: “I see this situation as a massive, illegal asset grab by some really evil people.”
Her husband, Ildar Uzbekov, 39, a Kazakh-born British citizen, said threats had been reported to police in the UK, in Monaco and in Cyprus where much of their wealth is held in complex trusts. But he also accepted his father-in-law, a former miner who made his fortune in the aftermath of the break-up of the Soviet Union and the sale of state-owned coal mines, had a reputation as a tough operator.
“He is a difficult man to get along with. He has lived a hard, hard life,” said Mr Uzbekov, insisting his fatherin-law had done nothing wrong.
Mr Shchukin, once known as the “King of Kemerovo” for his wealth and influence, faces up to 15 years in prison if found guilty of extortion.
It is alleged that he had the region’s head investigator Sergei Kalinkin in his pocket for years, bribing him with two BMW X5 luxury SUVs, according to the findings of a state investigation.
Prosecutors allege that in July 2016, Mr Kalinkin detained the owner of the Inskoi coal mine, Anton Tsygankov. The two deputy governors threatened to keep him behind bars until he signed over his 51 per cent stake in the mine, worth more than £11million, to Mr Shchukin. The businessmen agreed under duress, but once he was released, he complained to the FSB sparking an investigation.
A director of another mine, Yevgeny Lazarevich, claimed his mine had also been seized. He has since disappeared and a murder investigation opened.
Mr Kalinkin has said he was acting under the orders of the head of the region. Mr Shchukin has admitted giving him one BMW, as a gift to a friend.
Mr Shchukin’s lawyer told The Sunday Telegraph she would comment at a press conference in Siberia on Oct 31.
Documents seen by The Telegraph suggest that Ms Shchukina played a role at one time in her father’s business empire. She served on the board of directors and was an owner of the Polosukhinskaya mine that makes almost £100million a year profits.
‘I am scared. It made me worry for my children and my husband. It has been a reign of terror’