Russian banker Mikhail Friedman has a net worth of $ 10 billion.AP/Alexander Zemlianichenko
Russian banker Mikhail Friedman has resigned from the board of the investment company he co-founded.
Friedman is banned from entering LetterOne’s offices and talking to employees, according to the FT.
The billionaire is among the EU-sanctioned oligarchs in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russian billionaire and banker Mikhail Friedman has been expelled from the co-founding investment firm after being affected by European Union sanctions, the company said on Wednesday.
London-based LetterOne said in a press release that Friedman and Russian banker Peter Aven had resigned from the company’s board and would no longer have relations with the group. Friedman and Aven together hold less than 50% of LetterOne, so the company avoids the sanctions imposed on the two men.
Chairman Mervin Davis, who has now taken control of LetterOne, told the Financial Times that officials were not allowed to speak to Friedman. LetterOne, founded in 2013, has also locked Friedman out of its offices and blocked his access to documents, Davis told the FT.
Friedman’s assets in the company were “effectively frozen” and his rights as a shareholder were revoked, according to a press release from LetterOne. He will not receive dividends, funds or messages in any way, LetterOne said.
A company spokesman told Insider that Friedman was “not involved in the day-to-day management or decision-making of LetterOne and appropriate arrangements have been put in place to implement this”.
LetterOne’s actions came after the EU sanctioned Friedman as part of a package of responses to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Friedman is one of many Russian oligarchs subject to Western sanctions aimed at crippling Russia’s economy.
The board is not obliged to return Friedman’s shareholders’ rights if EU sanctions are lifted, according to a press release from LetterOne.
Friedman, who has a net worth of $ 10 billion, according to Bloomberg, was one of the first Russian business leaders to speak out against the invasion of Ukraine.
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In a letter to LetterOne officials, Friedman said “war can never be the answer” and that “this crisis will cost lives and damage two nations that have been brothers for hundreds of years.”
LetterOne, which describes itself as “an international investment business run by successful entrepreneurs and former CEOs and international businessmen,” owns $ 22.3 billion in net assets by 2020, according to its website.
Read the original article in Business Insider