Leonid Melamed is the former CEO of RUSNANO and the founder of Alemar Bank. Included in the list of 500 richest citizens of the Russian Federation. He worked closely with Anatoly Chubais, was one of his agents and was responsible for the financial component of RAO UES.
In July 2015 he was detained at home, Leonid was charged with misappropriation and embezzlement of a large amount of money. He is currently under house arrest and awaiting trial on December 1, 2015.
Carier start
Melamed Leonid Borisovich was born in St. Petersburg on July 11, 1967. Since childhood, he showed interest in the exact sciences, but after school he could not enter the desired university the first time. The future financier decided not to give up and, in the end, became a student at the Electrotechnical Institute. There he began to create software and, after graduation, began working at RTF NETI.
Leonid realized very quickly that he would not be able to grow in this company, and in 1992 decided to found Alemar, an investment and financial corporation, then became the head of Limbork, which advised on commercial activities and enterprise management. He did not stop there and after 3 years became the executive director of the Soyuzenergoservice association, as well as the chairman of the board of directors at Novosibirskenergo, where he acquired a large share of the shares.
Acquaintance with Mikhail Abyzov
Leonid Melamed developed an innovative program for the development of the enterprise and planned to gain full control, but the politician Abyzov intervened, who, as it turns out in the future, played an important role in the life of Leonid.
Mikhail Abyzov had his own plans for the company, he expected to use it as a platform for career development. Soon, Mikhail realized that it was more profitable to be friends with Melamed, and offered him his connections at the federal level in exchange for the financier's innovative ideas.
Abyzov was accepted into the team of Anatoly Chubais, who became the head of RAO "UES", and his paths diverged with Leonid for some time. In 1998, the head of Rosenergoatom was removed from office, Leonid Melamed became the general director. The biography is full of events that radically changed his life. It happened this time too: he did not understand anything in nuclear energy, but replaced the specialist as director. However, the company did not last long; for multiple violations, it was not issued a work permit.
Activities led by Anatoly Chubais
Here friends remembered him: they quickly offered him a place in RAO UES. Leonid met Chubais and in 2000 became his deputy. The latter will eventually call him the best financier of the country. Leonid was instructed to deal with the consequences of energy reforms and be responsible for the finances of the company. He was also a member of many subsidiaries of RAO, for example, Tyumenenergo and Lenenergo. As a result, Melamed, along with his old acquaintance Abyzov, controlled most of the financial flows in the electric power industry of Russia.
Leonid Melamed also developed his very first Alemar company. Although politicians are forbidden to do business, he found ways to help his brainchild. As a result, Alemar became a bank with a pension fund, a registrar and several other companies under its supervision. In 2003, Leonid met with Chubais, who advised Melamed to go in for private business, believing that he was now needed there. And so Leonid leaves his post and becomes the CEO of Alemar.
Work at Alemar and Rusnano
It is not surprising that Alemar immediately became one of the main partners of RAO UES, and by 2007, Melamed’s fortune was estimated at 2.4 billion rubles, he became one of the richest people in the Russian Federation. In the same year, the Rusnanotech Group of Companies was founded, whose board of directors included Chubais and proposed Leonid to the position of general director, he was to be responsible for the financial activities of the company.
The appointment was covered in the media quite extensively, attracting several deputies of United Russia and even Andrei Fursenko, who said that by 2015, Russia's share in the global nanotechnology market would be 2% or $ 20 billion. And on September 7, 2007, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree appointing Melamed a member of the board of directors and the general director of Rusnano. However, Chubais wanted to independently lead the corporation, and a year later Leonid Melamed was forced to resign. At RUSNANO, he only had the position of member of the supervisory board. During the year he was able to lift the company off its knees, he was even one of the initiators of publishing his income, which amounted to 400 thousand rubles.
Schemes of the "gray" work of Melamed
Chubais did not abandon his partner and offered to follow a proven scheme: Leonid returned to Alemar, and it was in this bank that the accounts of companies that received money from Rusnano began to be opened. According to official statements, these accounts had about 9 billion rubles and 4 billion euros.
Some projects conducted by these companies in 2013 attracted the attention of the Accounts Chamber. For example, together with old friend Svyatoslav Panurov, Melamed Leonid Borisovich won a dispute for the right to analyze future projects that were offered to the corporation. They acted according to the scheme: Leonid headed Alemar, and Svyatoslav - the Rusnano tender committee, and the last company lost the first in disputes.
One of the projects that Alemar approved was the investment of the company’s budget money in pharmaceutical projects of US Domain Associates funds. The project was led by Leonid Melamed, namesake (middle name - Adolfovich). When the money was transferred to America, the project was frozen, and there were many such cases.
Melamed investigation
So, the Accounts Chamber conducted an audit of RUSNANO, it turned out that many of the companies that transferred the company's money were one-day ones. These data were transferred to the Prosecutor General and the Investigative Committee. The combinations that took place at Rusnano, when Leonid Melamed was the head, opened up. The photo was taken in July 2015, when the businessman was arrested. But the case did not immediately spread.
However, already in June 2015, Chubais announced 6 criminal cases filed against Rusnano. For embezzlement and misappropriation of 300 million rubles, Melamed Leonid was detained. The arrest was made, until December 1, he must be at 72 Leninsky Prospekt.