Page 20 - FSUOGM Annual Review 2021

FSUOGM SEPTEMBER FSUOGM

Novatek deputy chairman

arrested over allegedly

hiding $93mn from IRS

Mark Gyetvay has already met his $80mn bail but is confined to his Florida home

RUSSIA THE deputy chairman of Russia’s second-larg- criminal prosecution.”
est gas producer Novatek, Florida businessman The tax charges relate to Gyetvay’s activities
WHAT: Mark Gyetvay, has been arrested in the US on between 2005, two years after he was appointed
Novatek deputy chairman tax charges relating to $93mn that was hidden in as Novatek's CFO, and 2016. The DoJ said he
Mark Gyetvay has been offshore accounts. had “allegedly received lucrative stock options
arrested for reportedly Gyetvay played a key role in arranging financ- and/or stock-based compensation” as part of his
hiding $93mn from the ing for Novatek’s ambitious $27bn Yamal LNG compensation for the role.
IRS. export project in the Russian Arctic, which came “Beginning in 2005, Gyetvay allegedly
online in December 2017. His arrest comes as opened the first of two different Swiss bank
WHY: the Russian gas company continues its search accounts to hold these assets, which at one point
The Florida businessman for external financing for its next scheme, Arctic had an aggregate value of over $93mn,” the DoJ
has pleaded not guilty LNG-2, which is expected to start production in said. “Over a period of several years, Gyetvay
and vowed to fight what 2023. allegedly took steps to conceal his ownership and
he says are "baseless" The US Department of Justice (DoJ) said in a control over the foreign accounts and associated
charges. statement on September 23 that a federal grand assets, such as removing himself and making his
jury in Fort Myers, Florida, was charging Gyet- then-wife, a Russian citizen, the beneficial owner
WHAT NEXT: vay “with defrauding the US by not disclosing of the accounts.”
The controversy comes his substantial offshore assets, failing to report Despite being a certified public accountant,
at a time when Novatek substantial income on his tax returns, failing to the department continued, the indictment states
is seeking external pay millions of dollars of taxes and submitting that Gyetvay did not his US tax returns on time,
financing for Arctic a false offshore compliance filing with the IRS or the required Reports of Foreign Bank and
LNG-2. in an attempt to avoid substantial penalties and Financial Accounts (FBARs) forms that some

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