| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : NOVEMBER 20, 2000 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| INTERNATIONAL -- EUROPEAN BUSINESS
Under the Spotlight SHARES TO MANAGERS' FAMILIES Gazprom has sold shares at below-market prices, as well as $1 billion in annual contracts, to Stroytransgaz, a Moscow-based company majority-owned by Gazprom managers and their relatives. SUSPECT SPIN-OFFS Gazprom has diluted its stake in a valuable gas-producing subsidiary in a bargain-priced share issue. A big buyer of the shares is Itera Group, a company that shareholder activists claim is controlled by Gazprom managers. TRANSFER-PRICING SCHEMES Gazprom has transferred cheaply valued gas in lieu of cash as a tax payment to a local Siberian government, which in turn sold the gas, at the same low value, to Itera. Itera then sold the gas at much higher world-market prices. DATA: STROYTRANSGAZ PROSPECTUS, RUSSIA'S FEDERAL SECURITIES COMMISSION, RUSSIAN DUMA'S AUDIT CHAMBER _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ |
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RELATED ITEMS Gazprom on the Grill (int'l edition) TABLE: Under the Spotlight TABLE: Gazprom at a Glance INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online | |||
