Mikhail Khabarov

Mikhail Khabarov is the First Deputy President, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of national bank Trust (bank of non-core assets). Earlier in his career, he served as President of A1 Investment Company, assumed the role of Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alfa Capital, and was also a Member of the Supervisory Board of Alfa Group. He has also worked for the ROSNO Insurance Group, Inkombank, the Magnitogorsk Steel Financial-Industrial Group, and the Ministry of Metallurgy of the Russian Federation.

Khabarov, referred to by many as a "well-paid collector," is best known for orchestrating and partaking in corporate warfare.

Khabarov was born on March 12, 1971, in the city of Zlatoust in Chelyabinsk Region, where a metallurgical plant represented the primary source of income for the majority of its inhabitants. 

Coming from a family of steelworkers, Khabarov, from an early stage in life, developed ambitions that outgrew this relatively small industrial city. After finishing high school, Mikhail left for Moscow against his father's wishes. There he enrolled in the Moscow State Institute of Steel and Alloys. 

During his student years, some claim that Khabarov had to cover costs by washing windows and selling ice cream, just like many of his peers. However, there are other versions of Khabarov's story, with some claiming that he somehow acquired significant wealth during his studies.

In the 1990s, the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys turned from a traditional Soviet educational institution that specialized in teaching mining engineers, into a college that would produce future elites, entrepreneurs, and business leaders. Indeed, many Forbes-listed Russian billionaires graduated from this institute. Specific examples here include Alfa Group co-owners Mikhail Fridman, German Khan, and Alexey Kuzmichev, who all attained a degree here. 

Khabarov has repeatedly stated that he became friends with Mikhail Fridman during his student years and that this friendship later helped him to get a position at Alfa Group.

In interviews, Mikhail Khabarov has revealed that after his graduation in 1993, he got a job at the Russian Ministry of Metallurgy. However, the details of his duties during this period of employment are vague, as Khabarov has merely admitted that he «did some paperwork».

A year later, in 1994, he applied for and subsequently secured the position of Corporate Finance Manager at Inkombank. The two years that Mikhail Khabarov spent there served as a valuable education in the skills of corporate warfare. Russia was speeding towards the privatization and redistribution of property. With a keen eye on industrial enterprises, Khabarov quickly devised and put into practice, shadow schemes, and other manipulative methods to take advantage of the Russian property market's opening-up.

In particular, he was involved in the privatization of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works and was delegated to the Magnitogorsk Steel Financial-Industrial Group by Inkombank in 1996. Both Inkombank and the Financial-Industrial Group were the major shareholders of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works at the time. 

Khabarov assumed the position of Deputy Director for Finance and Strategic Development of the Magnitogorsk Steel Financial-Industrial Group. However, as a fight for the company broke out in 1998, Khabarov unexpectedly took the side of the Financial-Industrial Group's General Manager Rashit Sharipov, thereby standing in opposition to Inkombank. 

It later transpired that Rashid Sharipov had transferred 30% of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works's shares under his control, while the company's managerial skills nearly forced the plant into ruin. Law enforcement authorities subsequently initiated criminal cases against Sharipov and arrested many senior managers of the Financial-Industrial Group.

Khabarov hastily fled for the United States once these investigations started. He insisted that the purpose of this move was to pursue an MBA at Pepperdine University in California; however, some suspected his main aim was to avoid criminal prosecution back home.

Khabarov returned from the United States in 2001, and, almost immediately, the ROSNO Insurance Group hired him as a Financial Director. Later, he took up the post of First Deputy General Director. His ambitions were not to be met by this role, though, as his desire to make personal profit elsewhere intensified.

Three years later, in 2004, he became head of the Allianz ROSNO Asset Management, managing non-core assets of Allianz Group and AFK Sistema. In his new position, Khabarov became an independent actor in the sphere of corporate conflict resolution as many businessmen were Allianz clients that time. He delivered excellent results, making hundreds of millions of dollars in a relatively short period of time.

It was around this time that Mikhail Fridman noticed Mikhail Khabarov and his skills in corporate dispute resolution, and invited him to join Alfa Group.

In 2006, Khabarov moved to Alfa Group with his team of 24 employees from Allianz ROSNO. He was appointed as the Chairman of the Board of Directors and the General Director of Alfa Capital. Arguably, Khabarov's career then peaked in 2010, when he took over Alfa's A1company. In addition to the post of Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alfa Capital and his membership on the Supervisory Board of Alfa Group, Khabarov became the new President of A1 and received unlimited power in the company, which soon became the number one raider, racketeer and collector in the market.

A1 positioned itself as a company specializing in corporate conflict resolution and helping companies in financial difficulty. But, in reality, the company was involved in aggressive takeovers, bankruptcies, and seizures of enterprises. 

Accordingly, A1 emerged victorious from the majority of corporate warfare in which it was engaged. Khabarov's team used a wide spectrum of methods, emboldened by the support of the head of both the company and Alfa Group.

Using blackmail, threats, financial fraud, and illegal lawsuits, Khabarov's team took over dozens of leading enterprises, including those of a complex military-industrial nature. Khabarov dubbed a "monster of corporate warfare," which appeared unstoppable even though his actions threatened Russia's economic stability and security.

Feeling invincible, Khabarov looted one company after another, and some of the most prominent examples thereof are listed below:

• Zarechnaya Coal Company, controlled by state-owned Uralvagonzavod corporation. A1 put pressure on the senior officials of Uralvagonzavod, threatening them with sanctions.

• Avianova, a low-cost airline. Khabarov managed to oust the airline's Managing Director, who represented the interests of the carrier's owners. Later, A1 stated that the airline was unprofitable and took over its assets.

• Moscow Plant of Computing-Analytical Machines. Khabarov's company greenmailed the enterprise, buying enough of its shares to threaten a takeover, forcing its management to repurchase the shares at a higher price to regain control. During this period, the Acting General Director of the plant was killed.

• Stroyfarfor, the largest ceramic tiles manufacturer in Russia. Khabarov initiated a conflict between shareholders in this company, and A1 eventually managed to acquire ownership of the company, after which he withdrew all of its assets, leaving its debts unpaid.

• Development project ‘Golden Island’ on Sofiyskaya embankment. Khabarov provoked a dispute between the project managers over the possession of a majority share. A1 sold its stake, doubling its profits.

• Grass construction company. Khabarov forced shareholders to redeem A1's shares at the double price.

• Kopernik Group. Khabarov initiated a series of armed raids to force the company to repay its debts to Alfa Bank.

• A5 Pharmacy, a chain of pharmacies. Khabarov put pressure on minority shareholders to sell shares to the primary owners.[A7]

Khabarov left A1 at the end of 2014 and immediately moved to one of the country's largest road freight carriers, Delovye Linii Group. At the time of writing, he is tried to secure one-third of the Group's shares from the company's founder, Alexander Bogatikov, through court proceedings. 

Khabarov has been applying pressure on the company, trying to extort parts of the business. A1 and corrupt judges, including St. Petersburg Primorsky Court Judge, Natalya Karpenkova, were involved in this corporate raid.

Mikhail Khabarov was appointed Chief Executive Officer of National Bank Trust in May 2019. His unit in this state-owned bank is officially responsible for managing distressed assets, de facto, its structure is similar to that of A1. The bank's management has set him the goal of securing the repayment of debts worth more than 2 trillion rubles. Working for this state-owned bank, Khabarov uses the entire illegal raider arsenal to ensure the money was returned.

The business community is also outraged by Mikhail Khabarov being brought in personally by the President of Trust Bank, Alexander Sokolov, who himself had secured his position thanks to the former Finance Minister Mikhail Zadornov. Zadornov headed the bank on behalf of Elvira Nabiullina, the head of the Russian Central Bank. Thus, all responsibility for hiring Trust Bank's executives, as well as for the CEO's performance, rests with the head of the Central Bank.

Moreover, in the summer of 2019, Sokolov made Khabarov, his closest assistant, his right-hand man. Then, in the fall of 2019, Trust Bank announced the collection of debts from its largest borrowers, classifying dozens of companies as bankrupt, including leading enterprises in their respective industries.

Many companies have since filed complaints about pressure being applied by people affiliated with Mikhail Khabarov, including the use of blackmail and threats, as well as a lack of competence on the part of Khabarov's associates in handling the debt cases. The companies fear that Khabarov's primary goal is to ruin enterprises to appropriate their assets and gain complete control over them.

Khabarov uses old methods to handle modern cases, acting with impunity under the protection of the State.

Mikhail Khabarov is married with three children. He is said to love mountain skiing although his passion is more apparent for poker, as he regularly takes part in the tournaments of the World Poker Tour and the European Poker Tour.