Odd Occurences
Occurence 1.
Fire of unknown origin set in the roof of the building where I owned a 210 square meter luxury apartment at Kamenoostrovskiy Prospect 35 on May 29 2009. This is the date of former US president John F. Kennedy's birthday.
On the date of this fire, I had not long before sold out with the owners of the Yellow Pages of Russia where I served as CEO and general manager, resulting in my netting of approximately $1 million dollars.
I recall coming home on that Friday afternoon and noticing the fire and smoke billowing from the roof of the building immediately entered the building and made my way to apartment 7 on the 5th floor. My then wife Svetlana and son Nicholas, then 8 years old returned home within minutes as I gathered important papers, computer and our family cat.
My son Nicholas and I begged Svetlana to exit the apartment and building with us. She declined preferring to sit in the kitchen. I advised her again, but left her and the apartment and building with my son. Svetlana joined us on the street perhaps 15-20 minutes later. I asked her why she had waited and she responded that she went knocking on other neighbors doors to advise them of the fire on the roof. As by then in 2009 I had lived with Svetlana for over ten years and as she is my second wife, I feel I have an opinion that is relevant as to her behavior over that time. I have always found Svetlana extremely lazy, unmotivated and selfish but for the attention she doled out on our young son, and it struck me odd that she would in the moment of a fire, abandon her son and go knocking on neighbors doors. But I let it pass.
I asked a fireman what to expect; would I lose my apartment to the blaze. He assured me that they would put out the fire and that my problem would be the resulting water damage and that I would need to perform an entire new remodeling.
He was correct. I spent probably from $60,000 to $80,000 to repair the apartment after it dried. Svetlana and son Nicholas went on an extended vacation in the Crimea at my expense and I remained to repair the apartment.
Upon her return she only pushed for one thing to be added to the remodeling. The installation of a security system with video surveillance capabilities. I was initially against this as I had little confidence in the Russian police as they have a reputation for corruption and I had seen from time to time this first hand when being pulled over and asked for bribes as is the norm in that country. But I relented and invested the approximately $2000 Svetlana asked for. I considered that as I had no intention to remain in Russia forever that this property was an investment and as such with a security system might be more attractive for a potential tenant or buyer.
Oddly, to my mind then, Svetlana project managed the entire installation: contractor selection, system design, and installation. Now here is the odd bit, after having argued feverishly as to why we needed this security system, not once did Svetlana ask me to turn it on. At the time, I did not consider the matter further.
I recall coming home on that Friday afternoon and noticing the fire and smoke billowing from the roof of the building immediately entered the building and made my way to apartment 7 on the 5th floor. My then wife Svetlana and son Nicholas, then 8 years old returned home within minutes as I gathered important papers, computer and our family cat.
My son Nicholas and I begged Svetlana to exit the apartment and building with us. She declined preferring to sit in the kitchen. I advised her again, but left her and the apartment and building with my son. Svetlana joined us on the street perhaps 15-20 minutes later. I asked her why she had waited and she responded that she went knocking on other neighbors doors to advise them of the fire on the roof. As by then in 2009 I had lived with Svetlana for over ten years and as she is my second wife, I feel I have an opinion that is relevant as to her behavior over that time. I have always found Svetlana extremely lazy, unmotivated and selfish but for the attention she doled out on our young son, and it struck me odd that she would in the moment of a fire, abandon her son and go knocking on neighbors doors. But I let it pass.
I asked a fireman what to expect; would I lose my apartment to the blaze. He assured me that they would put out the fire and that my problem would be the resulting water damage and that I would need to perform an entire new remodeling.
He was correct. I spent probably from $60,000 to $80,000 to repair the apartment after it dried. Svetlana and son Nicholas went on an extended vacation in the Crimea at my expense and I remained to repair the apartment.
Upon her return she only pushed for one thing to be added to the remodeling. The installation of a security system with video surveillance capabilities. I was initially against this as I had little confidence in the Russian police as they have a reputation for corruption and I had seen from time to time this first hand when being pulled over and asked for bribes as is the norm in that country. But I relented and invested the approximately $2000 Svetlana asked for. I considered that as I had no intention to remain in Russia forever that this property was an investment and as such with a security system might be more attractive for a potential tenant or buyer.
Oddly, to my mind then, Svetlana project managed the entire installation: contractor selection, system design, and installation. Now here is the odd bit, after having argued feverishly as to why we needed this security system, not once did Svetlana ask me to turn it on. At the time, I did not consider the matter further.
However, on or about June 20th of this year Svetlana revealed to me before disappearing into Russia and kidnapping our now 13 year old son that
1. she had never loved me,
2. that she had always loved her pimp/boyfriend ALEXANDER VALERIEVICH TREGUBOV
3. who she informs me was sterile from a wound incurred in Chechnya and could not give her child,
4. that he had remained in the security services and like me in our US Navy electronics technicians schools, had been top of his class. But unlike me he had gone to if I correctly understood Svetlana one of the FSB's schools in psychological operations (I believe there are four, 3 in Moscow and 1 in their hometown of Nizhniy Novgorod).
5. That together they had monitored my computer and cellphone communications since approximately 1997 awaiting for the appropriate time to complete their fraud. Suggests FSB/GRU capabilities.
Svetlana also told me that as he could not give her child or support her as he was bright but of a low level in the mid 90s in Yeltsin's Russia and I could, she joined me when I invited her to join me in Kemerovo, Russia where as reported above I worked as the sales and marketing director of a start up cell phone company. Today this company is owned by European cellphone operator TELE2.
While Svetlana is a remarkably beautiful woman even at age 46, her morals are not inline with western standards.
When we began living together in Siberia she regaled me tales of prostitution and of fraud wherein she participated in trading vodka for apartments to elderly alcoholics for their apartments and to leave these newly homeless to wander the old streets.
Nizhniy Novgorod was a brutal place in the mid 90s as I recall and many a girl, not only Svetlana, chose this path over poverty.
I had hoped that she would appreciate being 'lifted up' via our relationship, but I was a bit romantic and inexperienced as to the ways of Russian women of this sort at this time.
I had hoped that she would appreciate being 'lifted up' via our relationship, but I was a bit romantic and inexperienced as to the ways of Russian women of this sort at this time.
And in retrospect I was wrong.
While not nearly as experienced in matters of deception then as I am today, there was always something odd about Svetlana, and her aforementioned emotional revelations seemed to explain so much of what I had experienced in our failed marriage. So why did she reveal this to me on the phone? I had correctly identified that she had a relationship with this TREGUBOV fellow as she had, after I had left Russia she thinking me far far away, had let him 'like' her vkontakte picture taken while she was on vacation in the Crimea the summer of 2009 after the May 29th roof fire.
Out sex life died shortly after our son Nick was born as we did not get along well, but I could not abandon this child who I had gathered so within days of his birth on September 15, 2000, I applied for his US citizenship and this was speedily granted.
As I described our sex life was near non existent and in order that I not develop a 'girlfriend on the side' relationship I slowly succumbed to the practice of using local bordellos in Saint Petersburg, of which there are many.
Why is this relevant to this report? Because my infidelities provided opportunity and motivation for Svetlana and TREGUBOV to transition from mere although illegal surveillance to active operations to further their plans to kidnap my son, take my assets and leave me dumbfounded and in poverty.
Specifically in August 2011 I was seeing a number of young women from bordellos, not realizing that TREGUBOV and Svetlana had identified the bordellos which I used, and then he as he is in the Russian Security Services at a high level, used his authority to set a number of 'honey traps' for me.
On August 3, 2011 I sent an email to a EVGENIYA VIKTOROVNA KOSHELEVA, whom I had met and slept with approximately ten times the year before on a weekly basis from approximately June to November of 2010 while she was 19. EVGENIYA was a petite girl and while ethnically Russian, she is an Uzbek national and likely Muslim, but to me very attractive as she seemed so desperate. I inquired as to whether or not she would like to meet as we had the year prior as Svetlana and Nicholas were again on vacation in Crimea. I sent her my email and my number. A man called me and I nearly hung up but his voice had something to it and I listened. He identified himself as ALEXANDER VALERIEVICH TREGUBOV and he informed me that he was her pimp and boyfriend and that I could meet this girl. I was put off but not entirely. In retrospect, by then I was quite debauched from living as a successful expatriate in Russia.
I agreed and unbeknownst to me he contacted her and flew her in from Tashkent. I know this as I later photographed her passport showing both the exit visa from Uzbekistan on August 13 and arrival into Russia on August 14, 2011.
We met near the Tchikalovskyay metro station on Petrogradskiy and together went to a nearby banya that he claimed to have remodeled as part of his remodeling business.
He said a few odd things to me as we got acquainted drinking beer in towels. I was foolish to have agreed, but my attitude in those days was quite cavalier in these matters. He began saying he was an army vet from Chechnya, had killed several people and remarked how easy it was to kill people in a single moment. I thought him odd and wanted to move on to have relations with Ms. KOSHELEVA. He offered that we engage in a ménage a trois with her and I excitedly agreed.
I will take a step back as this fraud is complex.
While not nearly as experienced in matters of deception then as I am today, there was always something odd about Svetlana, and her aforementioned emotional revelations seemed to explain so much of what I had experienced in our failed marriage. So why did she reveal this to me on the phone? I had correctly identified that she had a relationship with this TREGUBOV fellow as she had, after I had left Russia she thinking me far far away, had let him 'like' her vkontakte picture taken while she was on vacation in the Crimea the summer of 2009 after the May 29th roof fire.
Out sex life died shortly after our son Nick was born as we did not get along well, but I could not abandon this child who I had gathered so within days of his birth on September 15, 2000, I applied for his US citizenship and this was speedily granted.
As I described our sex life was near non existent and in order that I not develop a 'girlfriend on the side' relationship I slowly succumbed to the practice of using local bordellos in Saint Petersburg, of which there are many.
Why is this relevant to this report? Because my infidelities provided opportunity and motivation for Svetlana and TREGUBOV to transition from mere although illegal surveillance to active operations to further their plans to kidnap my son, take my assets and leave me dumbfounded and in poverty.
Specifically in August 2011 I was seeing a number of young women from bordellos, not realizing that TREGUBOV and Svetlana had identified the bordellos which I used, and then he as he is in the Russian Security Services at a high level, used his authority to set a number of 'honey traps' for me.
On August 3, 2011 I sent an email to a EVGENIYA VIKTOROVNA KOSHELEVA, whom I had met and slept with approximately ten times the year before on a weekly basis from approximately June to November of 2010 while she was 19. EVGENIYA was a petite girl and while ethnically Russian, she is an Uzbek national and likely Muslim, but to me very attractive as she seemed so desperate. I inquired as to whether or not she would like to meet as we had the year prior as Svetlana and Nicholas were again on vacation in Crimea. I sent her my email and my number. A man called me and I nearly hung up but his voice had something to it and I listened. He identified himself as ALEXANDER VALERIEVICH TREGUBOV and he informed me that he was her pimp and boyfriend and that I could meet this girl. I was put off but not entirely. In retrospect, by then I was quite debauched from living as a successful expatriate in Russia.
I agreed and unbeknownst to me he contacted her and flew her in from Tashkent. I know this as I later photographed her passport showing both the exit visa from Uzbekistan on August 13 and arrival into Russia on August 14, 2011.
We met near the Tchikalovskyay metro station on Petrogradskiy and together went to a nearby banya that he claimed to have remodeled as part of his remodeling business.
He said a few odd things to me as we got acquainted drinking beer in towels. I was foolish to have agreed, but my attitude in those days was quite cavalier in these matters. He began saying he was an army vet from Chechnya, had killed several people and remarked how easy it was to kill people in a single moment. I thought him odd and wanted to move on to have relations with Ms. KOSHELEVA. He offered that we engage in a ménage a trois with her and I excitedly agreed.
I will take a step back as this fraud is complex.
When Svetlana and I moved to Siberia, she would procure hashish and other girls for us to engage in sex together, so I was not unaccustomed to this sort of thing, but had not participated for many years with another man, perhaps back to 1999 when Svetlana and I traveled to Amsterdam and before that to Thailand.
Back to August 2011. At this time my mother, then 79 was in failing health. I began to see Genya and began unexpectedly to develop strong feelings for her. In retrospect I understand why.
Back to August 2011. At this time my mother, then 79 was in failing health. I began to see Genya and began unexpectedly to develop strong feelings for her. In retrospect I understand why.
Genya and TREGUBOV put on a complex show to con me into thinking he was her boyfriend and was abusing her. I fell for it. Also in parallel, I unexpectedly shed over 35 pounds within a month or two.
The aforementioned agent Boyce informed me earlier this month that TREGUBOV or Svetlana had poisoned me. He informed me of this with great confidence which led me to be suspicious as to how he living in Virginia Beach would have gained this knowledge. I have had my health checked but have not regained the weight and to date I have not identified the toxin. Russia has a wide history of using arcane poisons so I may never know.
On September 19th, 2011 my mother died. In parallel Svetlana began to hit me in front of our son. Not understanding what she was up to, I spiraled into a deep depression.
In early June 2014, I took an appointment with a Dr. Mostek at Psychiatric Associates in Virginia Beach mostly to check the box so that I could tell all that I was not the individual that Svetlana had successfully convinced our social circle in Saint Petersburg that I had become.
The aforementioned agent Boyce informed me earlier this month that TREGUBOV or Svetlana had poisoned me. He informed me of this with great confidence which led me to be suspicious as to how he living in Virginia Beach would have gained this knowledge. I have had my health checked but have not regained the weight and to date I have not identified the toxin. Russia has a wide history of using arcane poisons so I may never know.
On September 19th, 2011 my mother died. In parallel Svetlana began to hit me in front of our son. Not understanding what she was up to, I spiraled into a deep depression.
In early June 2014, I took an appointment with a Dr. Mostek at Psychiatric Associates in Virginia Beach mostly to check the box so that I could tell all that I was not the individual that Svetlana had successfully convinced our social circle in Saint Petersburg that I had become.
Agent BOYCE later threatened me in July that after I had successfully left the Virginia Beach against his wishes that he forcefully expected that I would go back to a psychiatrist so that he could continue to polish up my image as an individual in need of Psychiatric care.
Dr. Mostek informed me that likely I had been in a deep depression and had had ADD and prescribed medication to address the earlier depression. Earlier I had always been able to manage difficult and challenging tasks simultaneously and enjoyed it.
Examples include being #2 salesman at Harris Corp. RF Communications division in Rochester internationally 1995-1996, managing our sales efforts throughout Scandinavia, Finland, Turkey and Greece as well as the former Soviet Union.
Upon my return to Russia in 2006 I managed a successful sales training company, worked as CEO of the Saint Petersburg Yellow Pages, all while managing a detailed apartment remodeling and seeing a significant number of women at the time as well as keeping in touch with my wife and son via Skype in the US.
But having made money and having had success and losing my mother and being in a tremendously unrewarding relationship with Svetlana I took 2 poor decisions while home attending to my mothers passing.
1. I decided to help the failed neighborhood hero ADAM STANHOPE - I decided that I would loan family friend Adam Stanhope, a wunderkind friend of my younger brother John's from his high school years, $3000 for him to start up as he described a business to take advantage of the exploding domestic interest in nutritional supplements, power drinks and energy boosters like '5 hour energy'. Adam was similar to me in that he had a foreign wife; in his case Thai, whereas mine was Russian.
Adam had owned www.bangkok.com for a time and had sold it gaining a significant profit (I later learned he had never reported this to the IRS). He also had developed certain software technologies that were fundamental to the internet when in its early days and had secured a contract with AT&T for a 20 year royalty contract which I believe paid him approximately $75,000 annually for that period.
Adam attended Berkely, described that he had high level Thai contacts (Adam speaks Thai) used methamphetamine, LSD, and a number of other drugs while attending school there. Adam has a back covering tattoo as well. Adam is hugely overweight and due to a pain issue became an opiate addict. As I had only used marijuana in high school and then hashish with Svetlana in Siberia and in Saint Petersburg during sex, I had no understanding of opiates and no interest in them.
2. While sitting with Adam in his yard of his bank repossessed house, I decided that I would forgo other girls on the side and focus on one, this EVGENIYA KOSHELEVA thinking that somehow I would gain meaning by lending her a hand as I had Adam.
Both decisions were poor decisions fueled by my mother's death, my need for meaning, and Adam Stanhope's feeding me a number of drugs I had never before tried. This matters naught, but those narcotics certainly influenced my thinking.
Dr. Mostek informed me that likely I had been in a deep depression and had had ADD and prescribed medication to address the earlier depression. Earlier I had always been able to manage difficult and challenging tasks simultaneously and enjoyed it.
Examples include being #2 salesman at Harris Corp. RF Communications division in Rochester internationally 1995-1996, managing our sales efforts throughout Scandinavia, Finland, Turkey and Greece as well as the former Soviet Union.
Upon my return to Russia in 2006 I managed a successful sales training company, worked as CEO of the Saint Petersburg Yellow Pages, all while managing a detailed apartment remodeling and seeing a significant number of women at the time as well as keeping in touch with my wife and son via Skype in the US.
But having made money and having had success and losing my mother and being in a tremendously unrewarding relationship with Svetlana I took 2 poor decisions while home attending to my mothers passing.
1. I decided to help the failed neighborhood hero ADAM STANHOPE - I decided that I would loan family friend Adam Stanhope, a wunderkind friend of my younger brother John's from his high school years, $3000 for him to start up as he described a business to take advantage of the exploding domestic interest in nutritional supplements, power drinks and energy boosters like '5 hour energy'. Adam was similar to me in that he had a foreign wife; in his case Thai, whereas mine was Russian.
Adam had owned www.bangkok.com for a time and had sold it gaining a significant profit (I later learned he had never reported this to the IRS). He also had developed certain software technologies that were fundamental to the internet when in its early days and had secured a contract with AT&T for a 20 year royalty contract which I believe paid him approximately $75,000 annually for that period.
Adam attended Berkely, described that he had high level Thai contacts (Adam speaks Thai) used methamphetamine, LSD, and a number of other drugs while attending school there. Adam has a back covering tattoo as well. Adam is hugely overweight and due to a pain issue became an opiate addict. As I had only used marijuana in high school and then hashish with Svetlana in Siberia and in Saint Petersburg during sex, I had no understanding of opiates and no interest in them.
2. While sitting with Adam in his yard of his bank repossessed house, I decided that I would forgo other girls on the side and focus on one, this EVGENIYA KOSHELEVA thinking that somehow I would gain meaning by lending her a hand as I had Adam.
Both decisions were poor decisions fueled by my mother's death, my need for meaning, and Adam Stanhope's feeding me a number of drugs I had never before tried. This matters naught, but those narcotics certainly influenced my thinking.
In retrospect I understand that he had other motives relating to Russia.
I flew back to Russia and returned to my unpleasant relationship with Svetlana. During the Christmas holiday Svetlana and Nicholas journeyed to her hometown of Nizhniy Novgorod leaving me unattended in Saint Petersburg. I continued to see EVGENIYA KOSHELEVA but now I took her out of the bordello thinking that I could lead her to a more normal life. We attended concerts, etc.
On December 25 2011, TREGUBOV in an 'street theater's apparent drunken rage beat her for seeing me. On the 26th GENYA and her madam called my phone to inform me that TREGUBOV had beaten her. I dashed across and took her to the clinic and then to my apartment for five days so that she might recover. And in those five days I fell deeply and hopelessly in love with this little girl. Much to my own disadvantage. This I learned in time was false 'street theater'.
In parallel over this time, I had been invited by Billionaire former owner of Lenta, and acquaintance, AUGUST MEYER to his flat on Kanal Griboedova. We developed what I felt was a somewhat intimate relationship, with me sharing with him the details of the many girls with whom I was sleeping, my mothers passing and he telling me of how he had won the 'battle of Lenta' over his Russian partner, local boy done well OLEG ZHEREBTSOV. I was impressed. I had understood that August had been provided perhaps $30,000,000 of start up capital from his father who I believe owned a television station earlier. August was well raised and had become a prosecutor in San Diego. I thrilled to his exploits and found myself tickled to have a billionaire amongst my friends.
In retrospect, and for as long as I have lived in Russia, usually the Russian partner kicks out the foreigner. But August's case was different. He had beaten back OLEG ZHEREBTSOV, their shareholder battles a thing for the papers. How and why?
August Meyer sold out at a very high price to TPG, based out of Fort Worth, Texas. TPG set up a Moscow office in 2007 and had three investment professionals there, none of them partners. Stephen Peel, the partner running the Russian operations was based in Hong Kong, and John Oliver, the operating partner in charge of Lenta was in London. TPG's Bonderman met with Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister, in 2009 and joined the board of VTB (large Russian bank) after TPG bought a $100 million stake in Russia's second biggest lender in February 2011. As far as I know, TPG remains the only global buyout firm with operations in Russia.
Was it that TPG from Texas and Mr. Putin from Saint Petersburg shared a common goal in either embarrassing or in damaging the current Obama administration and their policies? And all it would cost was to slip some drugs and use a 'honey trap' into an unhappy former St. Petersburg American Chamber of Commerce Chairman? A likeable guy, but in no way a player and TREGUBOV and SVETLANA had a baby boy to kidnap as they could not make one on their own
Perhaps the Texans are unhappy with Obama, and who better to use than a New Englander, tarred with a bad divorce from his beautiful Russian wife who after he would not be around any more to defend himself could be portrayed as a 'nutter' who had set his own building on fire on John F. Kennedy's birthday? This is highly speculative.
AUGUST MEYER had and has a right hand man named DMITRI KOSTYGIN with ties to the Russian security services. It is my belief that AUGUST was allowed in part to win those battles based on a commitment he via DMITRI likely made to the FSB. And in any case, he sold his 41% of the company to TPG and TPG earlier this year sold out in an IPO.
Now I enter into speculation, for I know no other reason for the timing of a number of seemingly unrelated occurrences.
During the summer, fall and winter AUGUST MEYER provided myself and number of other expatriate friends cocaine. I joined in as we were all in the same social circle and why not. Nothing extravagant but still. AUGUST introduced me to his Russian cocaine dealer named PAVEL. I still have his cell number (now disconnected). AUGUST would also regale me with tales of being in exclusive cruise ship parties with the likes of Walmart executives and Jimmy John, the entrepreneur and owner of Jimmy John's fast food chain where piles of cocaine and easy women would be readily available.
I believe now in retrospect this was intentionally done to 'push' me emotionally as Adam Stanhope had done in America. AUGUST and I spoke of our drug experiences together. One evening after enjoying hashish that SVETLANA had provided to me and cocaine that AUGUST had provided I assume from PAVEL, AUGUST appeared interested in some form of intimate activity, mentioning an amount of $3 million for 30 seconds of pleasure and thought it best to thank him for a pleasant evening and leave.
Going back for a moment to 2006, when I had returned to Saint Petersburg with my 'Rick Macy Sales Training' (www.rickmacy.ru - unexplainably, recently, the site came back into operation recently although I had shut that business down earlier) business, I bought a large 210 square meter apartment from AUGUST MEYER on oddly preferential terms. At that time the market price for a city center apartment needing a complete remodeling was $2500 to $3000/square meter. The Kamenoostrovskiy Prospekt 35 apartment was not only offered to me at $2100/square meter, but AUGUST had already installed an entire hardwood floor, replaced all the old wooden windows with modern windows and had finished the walls and ceiling, including marble windowsills. It was too good to pass up and I purchased this apartment from AUGUST, although I needed to mortgage my American home in order to do so.
Another EXPAT few characters to introduce,
1. David Mueller Meerkatz. German friend an partner to August in a number of his business centers. Also possibly Russia's largest AMWAY distributor. David also owns an offshore software programming company called 'The Web Production'.
David and his then wife Susanna had oddly invited Svetlana and I into their lives.
I flew back to Russia and returned to my unpleasant relationship with Svetlana. During the Christmas holiday Svetlana and Nicholas journeyed to her hometown of Nizhniy Novgorod leaving me unattended in Saint Petersburg. I continued to see EVGENIYA KOSHELEVA but now I took her out of the bordello thinking that I could lead her to a more normal life. We attended concerts, etc.
On December 25 2011, TREGUBOV in an 'street theater's apparent drunken rage beat her for seeing me. On the 26th GENYA and her madam called my phone to inform me that TREGUBOV had beaten her. I dashed across and took her to the clinic and then to my apartment for five days so that she might recover. And in those five days I fell deeply and hopelessly in love with this little girl. Much to my own disadvantage. This I learned in time was false 'street theater'.
In parallel over this time, I had been invited by Billionaire former owner of Lenta, and acquaintance, AUGUST MEYER to his flat on Kanal Griboedova. We developed what I felt was a somewhat intimate relationship, with me sharing with him the details of the many girls with whom I was sleeping, my mothers passing and he telling me of how he had won the 'battle of Lenta' over his Russian partner, local boy done well OLEG ZHEREBTSOV. I was impressed. I had understood that August had been provided perhaps $30,000,000 of start up capital from his father who I believe owned a television station earlier. August was well raised and had become a prosecutor in San Diego. I thrilled to his exploits and found myself tickled to have a billionaire amongst my friends.
In retrospect, and for as long as I have lived in Russia, usually the Russian partner kicks out the foreigner. But August's case was different. He had beaten back OLEG ZHEREBTSOV, their shareholder battles a thing for the papers. How and why?
August Meyer sold out at a very high price to TPG, based out of Fort Worth, Texas. TPG set up a Moscow office in 2007 and had three investment professionals there, none of them partners. Stephen Peel, the partner running the Russian operations was based in Hong Kong, and John Oliver, the operating partner in charge of Lenta was in London. TPG's Bonderman met with Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister, in 2009 and joined the board of VTB (large Russian bank) after TPG bought a $100 million stake in Russia's second biggest lender in February 2011. As far as I know, TPG remains the only global buyout firm with operations in Russia.
Was it that TPG from Texas and Mr. Putin from Saint Petersburg shared a common goal in either embarrassing or in damaging the current Obama administration and their policies? And all it would cost was to slip some drugs and use a 'honey trap' into an unhappy former St. Petersburg American Chamber of Commerce Chairman? A likeable guy, but in no way a player and TREGUBOV and SVETLANA had a baby boy to kidnap as they could not make one on their own
Perhaps the Texans are unhappy with Obama, and who better to use than a New Englander, tarred with a bad divorce from his beautiful Russian wife who after he would not be around any more to defend himself could be portrayed as a 'nutter' who had set his own building on fire on John F. Kennedy's birthday? This is highly speculative.
AUGUST MEYER had and has a right hand man named DMITRI KOSTYGIN with ties to the Russian security services. It is my belief that AUGUST was allowed in part to win those battles based on a commitment he via DMITRI likely made to the FSB. And in any case, he sold his 41% of the company to TPG and TPG earlier this year sold out in an IPO.
Now I enter into speculation, for I know no other reason for the timing of a number of seemingly unrelated occurrences.
During the summer, fall and winter AUGUST MEYER provided myself and number of other expatriate friends cocaine. I joined in as we were all in the same social circle and why not. Nothing extravagant but still. AUGUST introduced me to his Russian cocaine dealer named PAVEL. I still have his cell number (now disconnected). AUGUST would also regale me with tales of being in exclusive cruise ship parties with the likes of Walmart executives and Jimmy John, the entrepreneur and owner of Jimmy John's fast food chain where piles of cocaine and easy women would be readily available.
I believe now in retrospect this was intentionally done to 'push' me emotionally as Adam Stanhope had done in America. AUGUST and I spoke of our drug experiences together. One evening after enjoying hashish that SVETLANA had provided to me and cocaine that AUGUST had provided I assume from PAVEL, AUGUST appeared interested in some form of intimate activity, mentioning an amount of $3 million for 30 seconds of pleasure and thought it best to thank him for a pleasant evening and leave.
Going back for a moment to 2006, when I had returned to Saint Petersburg with my 'Rick Macy Sales Training' (www.rickmacy.ru - unexplainably, recently, the site came back into operation recently although I had shut that business down earlier) business, I bought a large 210 square meter apartment from AUGUST MEYER on oddly preferential terms. At that time the market price for a city center apartment needing a complete remodeling was $2500 to $3000/square meter. The Kamenoostrovskiy Prospekt 35 apartment was not only offered to me at $2100/square meter, but AUGUST had already installed an entire hardwood floor, replaced all the old wooden windows with modern windows and had finished the walls and ceiling, including marble windowsills. It was too good to pass up and I purchased this apartment from AUGUST, although I needed to mortgage my American home in order to do so.
Another EXPAT few characters to introduce,
1. David Mueller Meerkatz. German friend an partner to August in a number of his business centers. Also possibly Russia's largest AMWAY distributor. David also owns an offshore software programming company called 'The Web Production'.
David and his then wife Susanna had oddly invited Svetlana and I into their lives.
Especially odd at the time and in retrospect was the invitation that David and Susanna extended to myself and Svetlana for New Year's Eve, 1998/9. We accepted, got dressed up in suit and tie, and dress, and were the only couple out of perhaps six couples not from Germany. The entire evening in German, uncomfortable and remarkably odd. Why had these wealthy Germans who I really did not know invite us to join them for such an evening?
I thought nothing of it back in 1998 when we moved to Saint Petersburg from Siberia. General Manager of Kelly Services and best man at my wedding to Svetlana in 2000, army ranger veteran and American Matthew Igel, mentioned to me that tobacco company RJR was selling out cheap it's real estate assets. While at a dinner hosted by David in 2000/1, I mentioned to him in passing that one used factory was available not far from the telephone company, Peterstar Telecommunications, where I was employed at the time. The property I mentioned was on line 11. David quickly bought it and he told me that to thank me he set up a college fund for Nicholas and had put $5000 into this fund. I was more than touched as where I come from people don't do this sort of thing. I never asked for proof thinking if he had, how nice, and if he had not, who cared as I would obviously provide for my son.
2. Stephen Gardener. American. I had been hired by Stephen Gardener, to work at Peterstar. Interestingly, the interview went so well that we went out for a wild night of drinking.
I thought nothing of it back in 1998 when we moved to Saint Petersburg from Siberia. General Manager of Kelly Services and best man at my wedding to Svetlana in 2000, army ranger veteran and American Matthew Igel, mentioned to me that tobacco company RJR was selling out cheap it's real estate assets. While at a dinner hosted by David in 2000/1, I mentioned to him in passing that one used factory was available not far from the telephone company, Peterstar Telecommunications, where I was employed at the time. The property I mentioned was on line 11. David quickly bought it and he told me that to thank me he set up a college fund for Nicholas and had put $5000 into this fund. I was more than touched as where I come from people don't do this sort of thing. I never asked for proof thinking if he had, how nice, and if he had not, who cared as I would obviously provide for my son.
2. Stephen Gardener. American. I had been hired by Stephen Gardener, to work at Peterstar. Interestingly, the interview went so well that we went out for a wild night of drinking.
Stephen's father was reportedly a senior FBI official, and Stephen himself a former Cable and Wireless telephony salesman. Stephen married beautiful Russian girl Maiya and they have two children and live in the Sarasota area. Steve is likely CIA.
3. Christian Courbois. American. Owner of Westpost, a local mail business. Still in business, oddly, although owned by an American. As I worked in telecoms when Mr. Putin came to power and was in the role of Operations Director looking over 4 cable TV companies at the time located in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Arkhangelsk and Minsk I experienced first hand the tightening of the ministries of information and of communications. On TV, on telecoms, on post. It always stuck me as odd that Christian seemed unaffected by these changes and remained a viable small operator for all these years while developing a tremendous drinking problem. Christian is divorced from Luba and they have two children although Christian has a public reputation as a playboy. And likely CIA.
5. Stephen Caron. American 50% owner or a local travel company called Sindbad. I had heard rumors through a deputy Norwegian consul Henning Pentz Pedersen that officials at the US consulate believed that this company was largely used for money laundering. Stephen is now remarried with no children. Though likely CIA.
I had started upon leaving Harris Corp in 2005 as I was largely a round peg in a square hole having been changed by my 7 years in Russia.
More to follow...
3. Christian Courbois. American. Owner of Westpost, a local mail business. Still in business, oddly, although owned by an American. As I worked in telecoms when Mr. Putin came to power and was in the role of Operations Director looking over 4 cable TV companies at the time located in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Arkhangelsk and Minsk I experienced first hand the tightening of the ministries of information and of communications. On TV, on telecoms, on post. It always stuck me as odd that Christian seemed unaffected by these changes and remained a viable small operator for all these years while developing a tremendous drinking problem. Christian is divorced from Luba and they have two children although Christian has a public reputation as a playboy. And likely CIA.
5. Stephen Caron. American 50% owner or a local travel company called Sindbad. I had heard rumors through a deputy Norwegian consul Henning Pentz Pedersen that officials at the US consulate believed that this company was largely used for money laundering. Stephen is now remarried with no children. Though likely CIA.
I had started upon leaving Harris Corp in 2005 as I was largely a round peg in a square hole having been changed by my 7 years in Russia.
More to follow...
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