Security Service of Ukraine indicts oligarch investment banker Mikhail Fridman for financing Russia’s military-industrial complex

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has indicted the oligarch investment banker Mikhail Fridman for financing Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine.

According to the agency’s press release, Fridman “poured” close to two billion Russian rubles (about $20.5 million in today’s money) into several industrial plants producing weapons and equipment for the Russian military. These included an ammunition plant based in Tula and the Yarlamov optics plant, which produces high-tech equipment for combat aircraft and helicopters.

The agency alleges that Fridman financed Russia’s military-industrial complex using the assets of Alfa Group, and investment consortium he co-founded with entrepreneurs German Khan and Alexey Kuzmichev.

Other allegations against the financier include organizing charitable drives in support of the Russian military and sponsoring the distribution of supplies and rations to the Russian units on the front line in Ukraine. In addition, Fridman’s insurance company AlfaStrakhovanie insured Russian military personnel, as well as military vehicles and equipment.

The Ukrainian authorities qualify Fridman’s actions as financing the activities aimed at overthrowing the country’s constitutional government and usurping state power by violent means. In mid-August, Ukraine’s National Police also accused Fridman of having moved over 700 million hryvnias (or close to $19 million) to offshore companies, pressing charges of money laundering, fraud, and tax evasion.

Because of his ties to the Russian government, Mikhail Fridman came under European, British, and U.S. sanctions since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.