• Founder and CEO, Unicoin.com
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    Created the largest bank in Russia by age of 25 before defecting to the United States in 1992 and starting from scratch.

Banker Linked to Jailed Russian Fighting to Stay in U.S.

A week before Christmas, a green BMW rolled up to the Canadian border near Buffalo. As the driver, Alexandre Konanykhine, a Russian seeking political asylum in Canada, paid a bridge toll to leave the United States about a dozen armed federal agents surrounded his car and arrested him, Mr. Konanykhine said.

American authorities then whisked him to a local airport and on to the Russian Embassy in Washington, Mr. Konanykhine said, where they unsuccessfully attempted to enforce a federal order that he be deported to Russia. Mr. Konanykhine, an ex-banker, now sits in an Arlington, Va., jail awaiting a federal court hearing next week.

Although Mr. Konanykhine is wanted in Russia on embezzlement charges filed several years ago, he cites another reason for his predicament. A former partner of imprisoned Russian tycoon Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, Mr. Konanykhine claims that the only reason American officials are sending him home now is that Russian prosecutors want to interrogate him about Mr. Khodorkovsky's business dealings.

"I am sure that I will be tortured in order to produce, from my own mouth, evidence which I know is not true, but which will lead to Mr. Khodorkovsky's illegal conviction and death," Mr. Konanykhine asserted in an affidavit he filed in federal court in Alexandria in late December.

Federal immigration authorities, who work for the Department of Homeland Security, declined to comment on Mr. Konanykhine's case.

Mr. Konanykhine has been hounded for more than a decade by questions about possible financial improprieties or crimes, as well as his own proclamations about uncomfortable encounters with Russian organized crime and corrupt former KGB agents. All of this has complicated his efforts to seek political asylum in America, and suggests possible directions that Russian prosecutors may be following in their controversial case against Mr. Khodorkovsky.

Mr. Konanykhine first crossed paths with Mr. Khodorkovsky more than a decade ago, when both men were starting banks in Russia. In late 1992, after he said he was forced out of his bank, Mr. Konanykhine joined Mr. Khodorkovsky's bank, Menatep, as vice president for international development. Mr. Konanykhine, in a telephone interview this week, said that while most Russian banks at the time were infiltrated by organized crime, his first bank and Menatep were not.

In 1994, Mr. Khodorkovsky briefly served as a director of the European Union Bank, an Internet bank Mr. Konanykhine opened above a bar and restaurant on the Caribbean island of Antigua. At the time, law enforcement officials regarded Antigua as a haven for money laundering and other illicit banking activities, and European Union Bank later collapsed amid accusations from various regulators and auditors that it was a fraud. Mr. Khodorkovsky has said that he was a director for just one week in 1994 and had no further involvement with it. Neither he nor Mr. Konanykhine were ever charged with wrongdoing in connection with the bank, and Mr. Konanykhine said this week that the bank's only purpose was to provide off-shore tax shelters for clients.

Mr. Konanykhine left Menatep in 1994, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation notified him a year later that Russian organized crime figures had paid to have him killed, according to court documents filed in conjunction with his immigration case. Mr. Konanykhine said the contract on his life was arranged by the KGB, which he said had a vendetta against him for exposing how former agents and the mafia used banks to steal money from Russia.

American officials arrested Mr. Konanykhine on visa violation charges in 1996, and Russian authorities accused him of embezzling at least $3 million from a Moscow bank, a charge he denies. After a year in jail and tangled court proceedings in the United States, he was granted asylum here in 1999.

In the meantime, Menatep, the European Union Bank and Antiguan banking transactions were closely scrutinized by federal and European law enforcement officials in the sprawling Bank of New York money laundering investigation of the late 1990's. In the end, no banks were charged in the case, and only two people pleaded guilty to money laundering.

A senior American law enforcement official involved in the investigation said it stalled because Western authorities received inadequate cooperation from their Russian counterparts, who, the official said, may have been intimidated by the case's possible ties to senior Kremlin officials.

That all occurred under the Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, and the official said that President Vladimir V. Putin might be more willing to help the investigation. Mr. Konanykhine said he was never questioned in the Bank of New York investigation, and Mr. Khodorkovsky has also denied any involvement. While Mr. Khodorkovsky has said he believed that criminal funds moved from Russia through the Bank of New York, he said he thought they were controlled by government officials.

Mr. Konanykhine's current troubles began last November when immigration officials revoked his asylum and ordered him returned to Russia, just a few weeks after Mr. Khodorkovsky was jailed in Moscow. Immigration officials accused Mr. Konanykhine of violating residency requirements, a charge he and his lawyers dispute.

The federal judge hearing Mr. Konanykhine's case has already voiced concerns about how American officials have handled the matter, suggesting that larger political forces are involved. For his part, Mr. Konanykhine said he has nothing but respect for Mr. Khodorkovsky and suspects him of no wrongdoing.

"Some people may have conspiracy theories about me and Menatep Bank and the European Union Bank, but I'm prepared to be examined by anybody in a court," Mr. Konanykhine said in a telephone interview. "Just not in Russia under torture."

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More News...

Washington Post:
Konanykhin, one of the first Russian millionaires after the fall of the commies, left in 1992 and was granted asylum here in 1999. He's built a very successful Web advertising business in New York City. He had been chosen "New York Businessman of the Year." "As such, you will be honored and presented with your award," NRCC chairman Thomas M. Reynolds (R-N.Y.) said, at a "special ceremony" April 1. " President Bush and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger are our special invited guests.
CNN:
Alex Konanykhin controlled Russia's largest commercial bank in the 1990s
Wall Street Journal:
Mr. Konanykhin was a whiz-kid physics student who became a pioneering Russian capitalist in early 1990s, building a banking and investment empire valued at an estimated $300 million all by his mid-20s. He was a member of President Boris Yeltsin's inner circle.
The Sun:
Alex Konanykhin fled Russia in 1992 and won asylum in the US after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The entrepreneur had set up 100 different companies in Russia and had an estimated net worth of $300million by the time he was 25. He is regarded as one of the first Russian millionaires after the fall of the Iron Curtain. One of the newly open country's leading lights, he even met with US President George HW Bush in 1991 on a joint visit with Russian leader Boris Yeltsin. However, he was then kidnapped in 1992 while visiting Budapest and all of his business assets were seized in Russia. … Being hunted by the Russian state, Konanykhin won asylum in the US in 1997 and set up a new life - but the shadow of the Kremlin continued to loom over him.He went on to rebuild a business empire and set up multimillion dollar firms such as TransparentBusiness in the US.
The Deal:
... a New York-based software startup called TransparentBusiness Inc. has drawn backing from Fortune 500 executives through a relatively new type of securities offering called 506(c) as part of an effort to raise $10 million this year ... Alex Konanykhin, CEO of TransparentBusiness, said he decided to reach out directly to accredited investors by purchasing ads in financial publications. One particularly bold ad includes the figure, 90,000%, with a question mark next to it. Konanykhin said the ad speaks to the large market opportunity for his company's software, which helps governments eliminate fraud by verifying billable hours charged by outside contractors. ... One of the investors, Ken Arredondo, told The Deal he invested in TransparentBusiness and agreed to serve on its board of directors because of the company's strong management team and the huge market opportunity to increase transparency of outsourced contracts worldwide. He believes in the company's product and said it's unique. "It's a Saas-based, easy-to-use tool," he said. "There are a lot of technology players out there that are a lot bigger, but none of them have what they have. There will be competition, but they have the product now. They have first-mover advantage."
The Baltimore Sun:
Business whiz kid.
WJLA TV / ABC:
Russian Bill Gates.
The Times:
By the time he was 25 he was one of the most important figures in post-Communist Russia. But in 1992, while on a business trip to Hungary, Alex Konanykhine was kidnapped.
The New York Times:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation notified Konanykhin that Russian organized crime figures had paid to have him killed.
Los Angeles Daily Journal:
Representing himself through much of the process, Konanykhin managed to convince an immigration judge of an alleged INS and KGB conspiracy and cover-up. Following the court's admonishment, the INS agreed to drop all charges and also pay $100,000..The judge also ordered an investigation of the Justice Department. In separate actions, Konanykhine subsequently won multimillion dollar libel judgments against two Russian newspapers. A $100 million lawsuit against the Justice Department is pending, alleging perjury, fraud, torture and witness tampering by U.S government officers on behalf of the Russian Mafia.
Profit Magazine:
Imagine you are a teenage physics genius who quickly amasses a $300 million empire of real estate and banking ventures, has dozens of cars, six hundred employees, several mansions and two hundred bodyguards—but you are nonetheless kidnapped by those you trusted, threatened with torture and death, and have your entire empire stolen from you one dark night in Budapest. You escape with your life by racing through Eastern-block countries and flying to New York on stashed-away passports—only to have the KGB and Russian Mafia hell-bent on your hide and the U.S. government jailing you and conspiring to serve you up into their clutches. All this before your 29th birthday. Sound like a Tom Clancy thriller? No. . . just a slice in the life of Alexander Konanykhine.