Austrian lawyer Johannes Klezl-Norberg, who holds 25.1% of the gas station network Amic Ukraine, has directed the company owned by Lukoil top manager Sergey Zenkin for more than a decade. The Austrian registered the Russian’s business at his residential address.
Journalists determined that the home of lawyer Johannes Klezl-Norberg, co-owner of the Amic Energy gas station chain, serves not only as a residence but also for servicing assets of top managers from the Russian fuel company Lukoil, according to a joint investigation by Slidstvo.Info and the Anti-Corruption Action Center.
Klezl-Norberg lives in Hinterbrühl, a suburb of Vienna, Austria. 28 legal entities and one individual are registered at his address.
Investigators found that the sole individual is Russian Alexander Matytsin, first vice president of Lukoil for finance. For more than 26 years he has managed the Austrian company Lukoil International GmbH and holds a Kremlin award after in 2015, Vladimir Putin presented him with the Order of Honor.
In addition, in July 2008 Johannes Klezl-Norberg registered the company A.Reales Holdings GmbH at his home. He managed it until June 2018. The founder of that company was Alexander Matytsin.
“My involvement with A. Reales Holding GmbH was limited to providing standard legal services. This was a routine professional mandate from many years ago. There is nothing unusual about an Austrian attorney performing the functions of a managing director within the framework of a client mandate or investment structure,” Klezl-Norberg, the co-owner of Amic Ukraine, said in response to the finding.
Another Lukoil top manager whose business was set up at Klezl-Norberg’s address is Sergey Zenkin, head of one of the company’s departments.
The Anti-Corruption Action Center identified two companies for which Amic Ukraine shareholder Johannes Klezl-Norberg remains director and Sergey Zenkin is the current owner.
Those are the management company SVZ Holding and the controlled entity Ramsau Holding, both founded in April 2014. Klezl-Norberg acknowledged his involvement in these companies in a response to a query from Slidstvo.Info journalists:
“The matter involving Mr. Sergey Zenkin concerns a historical transaction dating back to 2014. My involvement concerned the purchase of a small vacation apartment in 2014, which was formalized through a company owned by Mr. Zenkin. If this matter can be considered important from the point of view of the Ukrainian people, I am certainly ready to immediately exit any residual participation.”
The company itself states that Klezl-Norberg does not participate in the operational activities of Amic Ukraine and does not influence them. It also adds: “The international Amic Energy group, including Amic Ukraine, has never had any connections with Russia and has never received any claims regarding any ‘Russian trace.’”
