Megafon fall-out hits Commerzbank

It emerged recently that BaFin, Germany's chief financial regulator, is looking into Commerzbank's links with Telecominvest (TCI), a Russian telecoms company which owns 31 per cent of Megafon. In addition, Frankfurt's general public prosecutor has told the FT it has asked the investigating prosecutor to examine whether there are grounds for a probe of its own. Another member of Commerzbank's managing board, Andreas de Maizière, could become embroiled in the controversy because, like Mr Müller, he had dealings with TCI, which was controlled by Commerzbank until two years ago. Both men even met Leonid Reiman, who helped set up TCI in the early 1990s before becoming Russia's telecoms minister. Commerzbank's link with TCI is significant: how the telecoms company is ultimately controlled is one of the central issues arising from a bitter struggle for control of St Petersburg-based Megafon between Mikhail Fridman's Alfa Group and a Bermuda-based fund called Ipoc International Growth Fund. Ipoc owns 6 per cent of Megafon and claims it was entitled to a 25 per cent stake held by Alfa but which it claims Alfa acquired illegally. If it is successful, it will own 31 per cent of an important Russian telecoms asset. But TCI, which is based in St Petersburg, also owns 31 per cent. And TCI and Ipoc are linked because they are ultimately managed by the same company in Bermuda, Ipoc Capital Partners.