Prigozhin’s empire: from patties in a canteen to mercenaries in central Africa

This joint project of Current Time and «Municipal scanner» is dedicated to the highly intricate and secretive network of companies affiliated with the Saint Petersburg entrepreneur Yevgeny Prigozhin, relations between these companies, their joint property and activities of Russian «civil specialists» in the CAR.

This investigation does not answer the question who killed Orkhan Jemal, Alexander Rastorguev and Kirill Radchenko in Central Africa. We tried to figure out what they could have learned and seen there before they were killed. Seven months after their deaths, we seem to have learned why our colleagues went to the CAR.

CONTENTS

MAIN CONCLUSIONS

For your convenience, we’ve prepared a digest of the main conclusions of this investigation:

— Yevgeny Prigozhin uses a network of companies that win tenders from state customers. The companies are formally independent CT proves their affiliation with Prigozhin using both information from open sources and financial documentation of these companies.

— Companies of Prigozhin’s empire finance and supply equipment to their subsidiaries in Sudan (Meroe Gold) and the CAR (Lobaye Invest). The affiliantion of this company can be confirmed not only by payment records, but also by the transfer for use of several helicopters and a plane.

— One of the identified «civil specialists» in Africa has served in the National Guard of Kyrgyzstan and later — in the French Foreign Legion. Another one has fought in Donbass on the separatists’ side.

— Activities of Russian «civil specialists» in Africa provide financing for companies of Prigozhin’s empire.

— Prigozhin’s personal connection to the activities of Russians in the CAR and Sudan can be proven in multiple ways: through chains of companies, activities of his trustees and Prigozhin’s direct involvement into the discussions of contracts.

— At least six companies related to Prigozhin use Sberbank accounts, including «Concord management and consulting», which is currently subject to the US sanctions.

— Companies of Prigozhin’s empire actively loan money to each other, sometimes through offshore companies. The same companies actively bid for government contracts and «compete» with each other.

Go to part one: Land, water and sky of Yevgeny Prigozhin

Mikhail Maglov, Timur Olevskiy, Dmitry Treshchanin