Pavel Fuks

Pavel Yakovlevich Fuks (Павло Якович Фукс, Павел Яковлевич Фукс (surname sometimes also spelled Fuchs); born 27 October 1971) is a Ukrainian oligarch who is known for founding a construction company, Mos City Group which is not operational in Russia.

According to the FBI Fuks is a Russian intelligence asset.

Fuks has made most of his wealth through business ventures in Russia.

Fuks is a Ukrainian and Russian citizen, but claims that he surrendered his Russian passport in 2022.

Fuks was a member of the Supervisory Board of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center (BYHMC).

Pavel (Pavlo) Fuks was born in October 1971, in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

In 1994, he graduated from the Kharkiv State University after studying at its department of economic and social planning.

From 1995 to 1999, he was an adviser to the chairman of the board of JSCB Prominvestbank.

Between 1997 and 2003, Fuks continued his studies at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics on the faculty of World Economy.

In 1999–2000, Fuks served as the vice president of CJSC Foreign Economic Corporation.

Fuks' career began when he moved to Russia after his graduation.

In 2000, he invested in an oil company called Nefthold LLC, which is linked to Russian politicians and government officials.

Among his first projects was the construction of the shopping center "Kaluzhskii," which has operated since 2001.

In 2002, he became involved in the construction business.

In June 2008, he negotiated with Donald Trump about the construction of Trump Tower in Moscow, but was unable to reach an agreement.

Bloomberg failed to verify the claim.

In 2009, MCG bought a stake in the Eurasia Tower (Moscow City) from the former owner of BTA Bank, fugitive and former Kazahh banker, Mukhtar Ablyazov.

The new owner of the bank, Kenes Rakishev, stated that MCG did not pay the second tranche totaling 30$ million in a deal to buy a 50% stake in the Eurasia construction project.

In addition, the BTA Bank spent 4.2£ million on legal fees.

According to Rakishev, the lawyers had filed personal claims against Pavel Fuks.

In 2010, Pavel Fuks was the largest shareholder of Sovkombank, where he owned a 21.83 percent stake.

Fuks sold his business assets in Russia in 2011–2012.

Pavel Fuks started to invest in Ukrainian assets in 2014.

In March 2015, he sold his shares, which were valued at US$80 million.

As per Ministry of Internal Affairs records, he was given a Russian nickname "Naemnik", which means mercenary in English.

As a result, in September 2015, Fuks, together with Oleksandr Onyshchenko, acquired the frozen assets of Quickpace Limited for $30 million (in proportions of 33 percent and 67 percent) and a private jet.

He completely moved to live in Ukraine in 2015.

In 2017, Fuks hired Rudy Giuliani's law firm to help improve Kharkiv's public image.

According to reporting by Novoye Vremya, a Ukrainian magazine, Fuks had employed Giuliani’s expertise to establish an investment support office in the U.S. for Kharkiv.

According to New York Times, Fuks claimed that Rudy Giuliani was hired by Fuks to be a lobbyist.

Giuliani, however, refuted any awareness of such claims and denied engaging in lobbying activities for Fuks within the U.S.

In March 2018, the London International Arbitration Court ordered the now defunct MosCityGroup (MCG) to pay $55 million to a division of BTA Bank.

In January 2018, the English-language channel Al Jazeera published a 99-page report partly based on information from the nominal director of one of the Cypriot offshore companies associated with Pavel Fuks.

The document showed that Pavel Fuks was negotiating the purchase of the Cypriot company, Quickpace Limited, which had assets of $160 million in the accounts controlled by the fourth President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych and sanctioned oligarch Serhiy Kurchenko.

In 2019, an international arrest warrant was issued for the Fuks brothers, who are wanted in Russia and in Kazakhstan for allegedly embezzling millions of dollars from the Moscow-City project.

In July 2023, an FBI whistleblower submitted a 22-page disclosure to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The disclosure reveals that the FBI assessed Fuks as a “co-opted asset” of Russian intelligence services, implicating Fuks as a tool used by Russian intelligence to further its objectives.

The disclosure, while not specifying a particular Russian intelligence agency, indicates that Fuks was associated with the FSB, the modern successor to the KGB.

The allegations extend to accusations of Fuks laundering money for Russian spies and staging provocations in Ukraine to support Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim of “de-Nazification” as a pretext for the Russian invasion.

However, Pavlo Fuks denied the accusations against him to Business Insider and provided a statement that the report with the accusations "has nothing to do with reality" and "contains a large number of false, exaggerated facts that harm my honor and dignity."