The oligarch’s oligarch forever at centre of intrigue while denying any dirty dealings
He is the oligarch’s oligarch: a self-made man who used ingenuity, hard work and doggedness to climb from obscurity to become a billionaire with unrivalled political connections.
Oleg Deripaska first hit the headlines in Britain in 2008 when it was revealed he had held controversial undisclosed meetings with both George Osborne, then shadow chancellor, and Peter Mandelson, the New Labour grandee, with a wellpublicised meeting on his yacht causing a backlash for both politicians.
Now it is his relationship with Vladimir Putin that is under scrutiny.
Born in 1968 in a region west of Moscow, and raised mostly by his grandparents on a farm near southern Russia’s Black Sea coast, he discovered a talent for maths at an early age and went on to study physics in Moscow.
When the Soviet Union collapsed and academic funding suddenly vanished, he threw himself into the metal trading business.
At 25, he acquired control of a Siberian aluminium plant that would form the basis of the business empire now known as Basic Element, a canny, but dangerous investment.
He soon found himself embroiled in the “aluminium wars” – a struggle for control of lucrative former Soviet metals assets in which 100 people are believed to have been killed.
He survived and became one of the country’s richest men. Today, he is worth $6.7billion (£4.75billion).
Mr Deripaska has denied doing anything illegal himself during that tumultuous decade. But rumours have dogged him ever since.
In 2006, his US visa was cancelled over apparent FBI concern about links to organised crime (that he denies). Spanish police once interrogated him over money-laundering allegations. He was never charged.
Michael Cherny, a former business associate, said in court papers in 2012 that Mr Deripaska was part of an organised crime group. Mr Cherny, suing Mr Deripaska for $1billion at the time, referred to claims the oligarch had ordered the murder of a rival businessman in 1995, bribed a regional governor to help a business takeover, and employed former Russian secret servicemen to gather intelligence.
Mr Deripaska denied the allegation and accused Mr Cherny of extorting protection money from him. The case was settled out of court.
Some put his success down to his impeccable political contacts. Polina Yumasheva, his wife, is a daughter of Boris Yeltsin’s stepdaughter.
And while his relationship with Vladimir Putin has been strained in the past, he has also been described as one of the businessmen the Russian president trusts most.
Last year, it was reported that he had hired Paul Manafort, the former Donald Trump campaign manager, at a fee of $10million a year to promote Russian business and political interests in the US and Europe during the mid-2000s. Mr Deripaska sued AP for defamation, but later dropped the case. The US treasury announced sanctions against Mr Deripaska accused him of “acting ...on behalf of a senior figure in the Russian government”.
In 2008, it became known that Mr Mandelson, then European Commissioner for trade and in charge of aluminium tariffs, and George Osborne, then shadow chancellor, had dinner with him in Corfu.
It was alleged Mr Mandelson had cut EU aluminium tariffs in ways that benefited Mr Deripaska’s company and that Mr Osborne used the occasion to solicit a donation to the Conservative party. Mr Deripaska denied any wrong doing.
Last month, it emerged Global Counsel, Lord Mandelson’s advisory group, won a contract to advise Mr Deripaska’s EN+ on climate change policy. Mr Deripaska was last at the centre of another influence peddling scandal in February, when he was caught cruising the Norwegian fjords with Sergei Prihodko, a Russian deputy prime minister, and Nastya Rybka, an escort (or “sex coach”).
The story took an even more bizarre twist when Ms Rybka and Aleks Lesli, her “manager”, fled to Thailand, were arrested, and claimed from prison to be in possession of explosive evidence regarding Russian meddling in the 2016 US election. That evidence has yet to emerge.