Page:2020-07-29 PSI Staff Report - The Art Industry and U.S. Policies that Undermine Sanctions.pdf/30

 almost $40 million of Arkady Rotenberg's assets, "including a luxury hotel in Rome and two villas in Sardinia." Following the seizure, the Russian government endorsed legislation that would reimburse those whose overseas assets were seized by foreign authorities. However, that legislation, known as "the Rotenberg law," never became law.

i. Arkady Rotenberg

Arkady Rotenberg first met Vladimir Putin at the age of twelve, when they joined the same judo club. After Arkady Rotenberg finished college, he worked as a judo trainer and continued to practice judo with Putin and others from the class. Arkady Rotenberg then started a cooperative that organized sporting competitions and later became the general director of a professional judo club in St. Petersburg, where Putin served as vice-mayor of the city. After Putin became President of Russia, Arkady and Boris Rotenberg invested in companies that serviced Gazprom, the major Russian gas company which is majority-owned by the Russian government. The Rotenberg brothers also founded SMP Bank, which they used "to acquire stakes in construction, gas, and pipe companies."

In 2008, Gazprom sold Arkady Rotenberg five construction and maintenance companies, which he merged into one company he named Stroigazmontazh ("SGM"). SGM became the chief contractor for Gazprom. The company earned more than $2 billion in revenue during its first year of operations. It handled construction work for the oil and gas industry, including onshore and offshore pipeline construction.

Three years later, in March 2011, Gazprom sold Gazprom Burenie to Milasi Engineering Limited ("Milasi Engineering"), a Cypriot company owned by Arkady