Tajik Aluminum Company sues RUSAL for $500,000,000

Tajik Aluminum Company (Talco) (before April 3, 2007 — Tajik Aluminum Smelter “TadAZ” — REGNUM) has sued the RUSAL Company (Russia) for more than $500,000,000 at a British court.

According to Talco press office, RUSAL and its affiliate companies are suspected of a major fraud against TadAZ committed in the period between 1996 and 2004. In May 2003, TadAZ sued nine natural and juridical persons regarding involvement in the fraud, including former director of the smelter Abdukadir Ermatov, Tajik businessman Avaz Nazarov and Ansol Ltd led by him. The company insists that it was revealed that Nazarov conducted illegal payments estimated in millions of dollars to Ermatov and his family that most possibly, according to the company, were done in order to assist the fraud. TadAZ supposes that RUSAL high-ranking officials knew about the relations and used the fact in their own interests. TadAZ has found out that RUSAL and its affiliate companies were encouraging activities aimed against TadAZ interests by taking part in them through alumina and other raw materials shipment at overcharged prices and purchase of aluminum at cut rates.

REGNUM reference:

Tajik Aluminum Company (Talco) is a state-run enterprise located in the city of Tursunzade, 60 km to the west from Dushanbe. The company is by 100% owned by the government of the Republic of Tajikistan. Talco is a leading company in the country that makes for most of the government’s foreign currency profit. The smelter’s planned production capacity is 517 tons of raw aluminum. In 2006, its production was 413,800 tons of aluminum.