• Founder and CEO, Unicoin.com
    Unicoin is the official cryptocurrency of Unicorn Hunters which Forbes called “The most iconic business series of recent times”.
  • CEO, TransparentBusiness
    TransparentBusiness SaaS platform was designated by Citigroup as the Top People Management Solution
  • International Entrepreneur
    Created the largest bank in Russia by age of 25 before defecting to the United States in 1992 and starting from scratch.

U.S. rethinks Konanykhin case

The Moscow Times

January 29, 2004

By Catherine Belton. Staff Writer

The U.S. Justice Department late Tuesday reversed a decision to deport controversial former banker Alexander Konanykhin back to Russia and said it would reopen hearings into his political asylum case.

The move means Konanykhin, a former business associate of jailed oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and his wife Yelena Gracheva will be able to stay in the United States for as long as the hearings go on, a process that could take many years.

"I'm ecstatic," Gracheva said by telephone from Washington late Tuesday.

"Just [Monday] morning we still could have been put on a plane to Moscow. Now we have several more years to prove our case."

The decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals is an unexpected about-face from its Nov. 20 ruling, which found no basis for Konanykhin's asylum status in the United States and ordered his deportation.

The board said at the time that there was no evidence the Russian justice system was corrupt or could be used as an instrument of political persecution.

Acting on that order, U.S. Homeland Security officials arrested and attempted to deport the Konanykhins to Russia on Dec. 18 as they tried to flee to Canada in a bid, they said, to escape being forcefully returned to Russia.

A federal judge ruled to stay their deportation just minutes before they were to be put on a plane back to Moscow.

Konanykhin arrived in the United States in 1992 to run banking operations for Khodorkovsky there. He claims the attempt to deport him to Russia could be connected to the legal campaign against Khodorkovsky, which many in Moscow see as part of a political power battle between President Vladimir Putin and the businessman.

On Tuesday, the Board of Immigration Appeals said new evidence presented by Konanykhin's attorney on "politically selective" prosecutions in Russia was sufficient grounds to reopen the asylum case.

The case will now return to a Richmond, Virginia, District Court, which granted Konanykhin asylum back in 1999 after protracted legal wrangling over his status in the United States.

Tuesday' s decision comes on top of a ruling by a judge in Alexandria, Virginia, on Monday that the December attempt to deport Konanykhin was unlawful.

The same judge was due to decide later on Wednesday whether Konanykhin should remain in detention.

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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.