Owner of "Gazprom" clones in Britain demands his money back

Gazprom, Russia's largest company, produces 94% of the country's natural gas and controls 25% of the world's reserves. It is also the world's largest gas producer. Interestingly, Gazprom does not have any shares of the following five companies proudly carrying a name of Gazprom: Gazprom Investment Limited, Gazprom Limited, Gazprom Holdings Limited, Gazprom trading Limited and Gazprom Services Limited (GSL). All of the five companies are registered in Great Britain. A list of all these companies has been created and published on the official holding's website.

According to AK&M of Gazprom, it has not been confirmed yet that the twin companies are affecting the work of the original Russian gas monopolist. Therefore, Gazprom does not intend to file a lawsuit against those companies. In the meantime, the company’s legal department recommends its "clones" announce the fact that they are not related with Russian Gazprom.

According to the company's representative, there exists a company's subsidiary on the territory of Great Britain entitled Gazprom (UK) Limited. This company has nothing in common with the five above mentioned companies. Gazprom also has a subsidiary in Netherlands- Gazprom Finance BV.  
 
Nowadays, the company's security services have an order to look for other clones of Gazprom in other countries, reports RusEnergy.  
 
Lenta.Ru states that the first four Gazprom clone companies have been registered on October 25, 2001. Their authorized capital stock is 10,000 pounds. However, only several shares for 1 pound have been officially paid off in each one of these companies. They all belong to an entrepreneur Sergo Grigoryan.
 
Grigoryan, MGIMO graduate, has earlier worked in top management of Raznoimport trading (UK) Ltd., a subsidiary of the soviet metal manufacturer "Raznoimport." Another one of his companies is ARMCO. The company offers its services to those Russians who are willing to immigrate to various English-speaking counties.

Grigoryan has commented that the actual word "Gazprom" in his own facilities is a mere "coincidence." "The letters G, A and Z simply resemble those letters of my last name and those of my partners. The word 'prom' is short for 'promotion.' I have personally registered all of these companies along with partners who have nothing to do with gas," stated the entrepreneur.
 
The fifth company, Gazprom Services Limited, has been established on March 31, 2003, using the address of the Action for Sick Children fund (ASC) of the British National Children bureau. According to the documents, Violetta Artemieva is considered the company's director and owner. Sam Virani is the company's founder and Paul Terner, its secretary.
 
According to the records obtained from London's registering chamber, both Terner and Virani have the same address in London. ASC however, reports that they are completely unaware of such names as Virani, Terner and Artemieva and that they have nothing in common either with GSL, or Gazprom fund.

Based on materials of Inform agencies