Fredrik Baksaas intends to focus on protecting the interests of their companies and help the investigation the prosecutor's office of the Netherlands.
President and CEO of Telenor Group Fredrik Baksaas will leave the supervisory board of VimpelCom Ltd holding due to a corruption scandal in Uzbekistan. This is stated in the message of Telenor.
The reason for leaving Fredrik Baksaas called investigation into Dutch prosecutors about corruption at the exit VimpelCom to the Uzbek market. The very Norwegian company, which owns 33% shares of the company, intends to take all necessary measures to protect their interests, according to Telenor reported.
"I'm out of the VimpelCom Supervisory Board and intends to focus exclusively on the protection of Telenor's position. The company has zero tolerance for corruption. As owners of VimpelCom, we intend to help the investigation, which is underway, "- are reported words of Baksaas.
The representative of VimpelCom Ltd. Artem Minaev did not comment on Bloomberg care Baksaas.
For today the shares of VimpelCom Ltd. They fell on the NASDAQ stock exchange on 7,86%, c $ 4,63 to $ 4.26 per share.
In mid-March, representatives of the Prosecutor's Office of the Netherlands paid a visit to the headquarters of the holding VimpelCom Ltd. After that, they announced that the company is in a "criminal investigation focus."
"The investigation is likely to be associated with the operations of the company in Uzbekistan. The company is willing to cooperate fully with the investigation, "- said in a statement VimpelCom. The organization wants to keep your business in Uzbekistan, however, does not bind the investigation in an attempt to force the company to withdraw from the market of Uzbekistan. This RBC said the official representative of VimpelCom Artem Minaev. "Here's another story. MTS Uzbekistan left for the Uzbek authorities ", - he said.
The investigation also involved the US Commission on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). "Participation in the investigation of the Securities and Exchange Commission due to the fact that VimpelCom shares are traded on the NASDAQ, at the same time we obey the Dutch and American law," - said RBC Minh.
Participation SEC could be related to the operator relations with Uzbekistan toMpano Takilant in 2007-2009, elaborate on Bloomberg. In the documents of VimpelCom, filed with the SEC for the year 2013 said that the operator "Takilant collaborated with in the past" for the purchase of the frequency license in Uzbekistan.
Takilant was a minority shareholder of the Uzbek "daughter» VimpelCom - Unitel - in 2007-2009. The company mentioned in the corruption case involving the Swedish-Finnish operator TeliaSonera and the government. The investigation involved the Swedish prosecutor's office, which is suspected TeliaSonera to pay about $ 340 million presidential daughter Gulnara Karimova for the right to work in Uzbekistan. The representative of VimpelCom Artem Minaev spring of 2014 confirmed the cooperation with RBC Takilant, but the relationship with the Dutch prosecutor's office checks the activities of the Uzbek company said it was not aware of anything.
In 2006, a group of companies "VimpelCom" acquired working in the Uzbek market Communications Ltd. "Bakri Uzbekistan Telecom» (Buzton) and OOO «Unitel» (Unitel). The amount of transactions was approximately $ 260 million. Since September 2006, Unitel started to render services "Beeline" under the brand name. At the end of the third quarter of 2013, the number of Abonyntov company exceeded 10.3 million people.
Fredrik Baksaas joined the Supervisory Board of VimpelCom Ltd. in 2010, when the foundation of the company.