Vladimir Peftiev

Vladimir Pavlovich Peftiev was born on 1 July 1957 in the city of Berdyansk, Ukraine.^[4]

Peftiev was co-owner of BelTechExport, a Belarusian arms and military equipment exporter. As of 2012, Peftiev sold his holdings in BelTechExport and "completely ceased his participation in this group of companies".^[5][6][7]

He owned BT Telecommunications, investment^[8] and construction^[9] agent.

Peftiev also co-owned Sport-Pari, an interactive lotteries operator. Another co-owner of Sport-Pari through one of his companies is Max Mirnyi, Belarusian tennis player and olympic champion.^[10]

Peftiev was a minority shareholder of GSM operator "velcom".^[11] "velcom" was subsequently sold to A1 Telekom Austria Group and rebranded as A1.^{[12][13] [14]}

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

In 2011, after controversial 2010 presidential election in Belarus, the Council of the European Union listed Peftiev and his companies "BelTechExport", "Sport-Pari" and "BT Telecommunications" as sanctioned entities. In the Council's decision, Peftiev has been described as a "person associated with President Lukashenko and his family, chief economic advisor of President Lukashenko and key financial sponsor of the Lukashenko regime".^[15][16]

Peftiev brought action against the Council in the General Court of the European Union.^[17]

The team that defended Vladimir Peftiev in court included specialists in the field of human rights, including professor of Yale University and former President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Michael Reisman, and former Director of International Law department of University of Bonn professor Rudolf Dolzer.^[18]

According to The Times, The European Court of Justice annulled sanctions against Mr Peftiev in 2014, after finding that the EU council had adduced no specific evidence to support its allegation that he was a key financial supporter of President Lukashenko, and as a result of that ruling the sanctions are deemed never to have existed.^[19]

The General Court of European Union decided in Peftiev's and his companies’ favour on 9 December 2014, annulling the sanctions and ruling that the Council of the European Union and European Commission failed to prove their assertions of Peftiev's links to Lukashenko.^[20][21][22]

The General Court's judgment of 9 December 2014 concerning Peftiev's company reads the following, deeming the sanctions to have never existed (clause 149):^[23]

...the Court held that [sanctions involving Belarus] should be annulled in so far as they concern Mr Peftiev. By virtue of that annulling judgment, the annulled acts, in so far as they concern Mr Peftiev, are deleted retroactively from the legal order and deemed never to have existed ... and consequently Mr Peftiev is deemed never to have been listed.

Situation with sanctions against Peftiev was referenced by professor Rudolf Dolzer in his interview on May 8, 2018, to Latvian newspaper “Dienas bizness”, in which he pointed out to the false information in the Internet that was used against Vladimir Peftiev, and namely baseless accusations regarding illegal incomes of Mr. Peftiev and illicit arms trade.^[24]

This decision of European General Court was left unattended by mass media. Moreover, various sources continued to publish disproved information that originated before or during sanctions, instead of deleting it from their servers according to the court's decision. This was described by Professor Rudolf Dolzer in his article «Weeding Out Fake Journalism» for 10th issue of Forbes Georgia:^[25][26]

Notwithstanding this clear decision, published in 2014, many concerned Internet sources, including respected data information providers, have decided, for whatever reason, to ignore the highest European Court, and still today, in 2018, have on their servers the outdated, discredited information. Another aspect of fake news has come out. A portion of the media ignored the judgment of the European Court of Justice in favor of Mr. Peftiev, even though the original fake news underlying the sanctions had been published in virtually all media. While fake news was considered newsworthy, its refutation by the court went unnoticed by the same media.

In 2022, Peftiev was blacklisted by Canada.^[27]

Peftiev was mentioned in the Bahamas offshore leaks in 2016: allegedly, he held three companies in Bahamas through an intermediary.^[28]

In 2020, an investigation by The Times and Transparency Networks found that Peftiev's family owned 12 flats in London, with a total worth around £18 million. This portfolio was purchased through a number of offshore companies. Peftiev's family were not under sanctions and the purchases did not breach sanctions.^[29]