Page 6 - GLNG Week 39 2021

GLNG COMMENTARY GLNG

Novatek deputy chairman

arrested over allegedly

hiding $93mn from IRS

Novatek’s deputy chairman, Mark Gyetvay, has already

met his $80mn bail but has surrendered his passports and
remains in Florida

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

Gyetvay played a
key role in arranging
financing for Novatek’s
ambitious $27bn Yamal
LNG export project.

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 39 01•October•2021