Dear Supporters

Many thanks for your support.

I decided to prepare today's update based on my conversation with journalists, and, in particular, their surprised questions about why my relationship with PhosAgro, whose shares have been traded on the London Stock Exchange since 2011, was not recorded in writing. The second question of interest to journalists, related to the first, is how I prove the existence of our oral agreement. 

Yes, indeed, despite the fact that PhosAgro's shares have been traded on exchanges since 2011, it has not stopped the practice of not recording real relationships in writing. From the point of view of Russian law, this is a violation of the law by PhosAgro, but this violation does not affect the validity of such agreements. In this context, it is important to note that PhosAgro nevertheless was violating the law and was doing it intentionally. And, of course, in beautiful presentations and reports for regulators and investors, information about such practices was not disclosed. As well as information about a much more serious violation of the law – namely, the use of secret offshore companies in PhosAgro’s activities – of course, information about this was not being disclosed. It was through secret offshore companies that PhosAgro paid me a small part of what we agreed verbally. Even I myself find out the names of PhosAgro's secret offshore companies (through which they paid money to me) only a year after making the payments. At the same time, I learned that these payments were formalized secretly from me with the help of loan agreements. 

There are a few piquant moments in this story. The first is that when payments were being made, of course, I asked PhosAgro representatives how these payments were formalized. And I was always told that no contracts are drawn up for this, that is, they lied in the most primitive way. But these conversations (as well as others) are recorded on a voice recorder, so I have evidence of fraudulent deception (and it's not just these audio recordings). 

The second piquant point is that the secret offshore companies of PhosAgro, which aggressively and with various threats demanded that I return the money received from them, when it came to the English court (to which this petition is dedicated), simply rudely hid from the trial – they refused to participate in it and defend themselves, admitting that the story with loans was fraudulent, and their previous demands to return money under various threats were nothing more than fraud and extortion. By the way, it follows from this that half of the lawsuit is actually won.

Now, as for the reasons for PhosAgro's strange practice (oral contracts, secret offshore companies). I really don't know the answer to this question, it seems that the reason is simply due to the stubbornness of the PhosAgro owners. The fact is that during the 18 years of our cooperation, there was not a single day when our real relationship would correspond to the written one. I have asked PhosAgro shareholders many times about the reasons for this and have never received a clear answer. But we must pay tribute to them – for all 18 years they fulfilled their oral obligations, with the exception of only the last oral agreement. 

Moreover, using the oral agreements is so irrational and at the same time extremely important for the PhosAgro owners that they tried to kill me several times just when, at my insistent demands, they agreed to formalize the last oral agreement in writing. They never did it, just stalled for a long time and just at that time attempts were made on my life. In general, I have no rational explanation for PhosAgro's absolutely inappropriate and criminal behavior. 

Now, as for the second part of the question asked to me – how do I prove the existence of the oral contract that PhosAgro has not fulfilled? Everything is very simple – from a certain point I started recording my conversations with the owners of PhosAgro on a voice recorder. Why did I start doing this? The point is that I was deceived in two stages. At first, I was deceived by the main owner of PhosAgro, Guryev Sr. (this is the one who is depicted in the photo for the petition in the campaign with Putin and who is the owner of the most expensive real estate in England, a luxury yacht Alfa Nero and several private planes). At one point, in the most primitive way, he retracted his words, and when I learned about this from his accomplice Antoshin, depicted in the campaign with Putin in the photo for the previous update, I decided that I would record all subsequent conversations on a dictaphone. By the way, Antoshin is not only one of the largest owners of PhosAgro, but also its former director and a member of the Board of Directors (until recently). 

AND NOW I WILL PRESENT MY LAST PERSONAL CONVERSATION WITH THIS PERSON, FROM WHICH EVERYTHING WILL BECOME EXTREMELY CLEAR. An audio recording and a detailed description of the conversation are available at these links (audio recording, description). A member of the PhosAgro Board of Directors, Antoshin, said that their obligations to me will no longer be fulfilled, because in the absence of a written contract, I will not prove the existence of an oral one. A member of the PhosAgro Board of Directors, not knowing that I was recording the conversation, was extremely frank and cynical. During the conversation, he repeatedly confirmed the existence of our oral agreement, but with an ominous laugh and accompanying his laughter with obscene words, he said - you can't prove anything, only you remember everything, and I don't remember anything from now on. That is, right during the conversation and in front of my eyes, the person lost his memory in an instant and decided to inform me about it (memory loss). It is unlikely that anyone was able to witness the moment when someone lost his or her memory, and I was lucky – in the case of my interlocutor, it happened right in front of my eyes.

But the memory was only partially lost. A member of the PhosAgro Board of Directors, after informing me about his memory loss, began to aggressively and using the most selected foul language to ask me why I worked for PhosAgro for all 18 years. I can't reproduce the verbatim wording here because they are absolutely obscene, but the meaning is - why did you work for us for 18 years? For some reason, this question did not arise from the owners and members of the PhosAgro Board of Directors during all these 18 years, when I was bringing them huge profits, and during the most difficult period for them I was saving them from bankruptcy and prison. It only came about when I, for my part, fulfilled all my obligations, and a member of the PhosAgro Board of Directors suddenly lost his memory about their obligations. 

But this is not all the obviously inadequate things that happened that day in front of my eyes. My interlocutor, a member of the PhosAgro Board of Directors, BEGAN TO INSIST ON MY ANSWERING THE QUESTION OF WHETHER HE (MY INTERLOCUTOR) IS AN INDIVIDUAL OR A LEGAL ENTITY (PHOSAGRO). I tried to forward this question to my interlocutor himself – after all, who better than him to know what kind of person he has – an individual or a legal entity? But he didn't answer and was demanding that I guess the answer to this question.

Against the background of the absolutely inadequate behavior of my counterpart, I had no choice but to get up and leave. 

These events took place 8 and a half years ago - on 7 August 2014. After this conversation, I turned to lawyers who prepared an opinion that all this inadequacy has a clear definition in the criminal legislation - fraud (both refusal to fulfill obligations – legal opinion is here, and the story of secret offshore companies and secret loans – legal opinion is here).

I, for my part, began to defend my rights in the legal field and now this story is being considered in The High Court of Justice of England and Wales, and PhosAgro, for its part, fabricated a completely insane criminal case against me, with the help of which it blackmailed me, demanding a reduction in their obligations by 5 times and that I pay a bribe to investigators in a fantastic sum of $ 4 million. When I refused their “offer”, they arrested me in absentia and put me on the international wanted list, while at the same time demanding that I fully forgive them their debt in return for ending my international search. The most interesting cherry of this story is how it was proposed to formalize this - by declaring me insane. I also refused this "generous" and exotic offer. This was followed by death threats demanding that I drop the English claim, as well as threats that PhosAgro would bribe my English lawyers (law firm CANDEY) and English judges. 

Journalists ask a question whether English judges are aware of the events described above. THEY ARE WELL AWARE OF THIS, but this did not prevent them from making the decisions they made without seeing not only the shocking details of the case, but also nothing unusual in it at all. Moreover, knowing all this, the English judges accused me that it is behavior of mine goes beyond the norm – I again return you to the previous update. 

As a result, I have become penniless and literally counting every cent, and my opponents – PhosAgro and its shareholders, whom I saved from ruin and prison - are basking in luxury and even throwing out a $ 120 million yacht to avoid revealing their secret offshore empire. By the way, analysts have calculated that PhosAgro's profitability has surpassed that of bitcoin. 

But the most important thing that I want to say in response to the question of how I perceive this situation from an emotional point of view is that I do not regret those 18 years (as I was involved in extremely complex, but very interesting projects), and that I got involved in an unequal battle and became a beggar. Not to join the fight after 7 August 2014 would be to betray me myself. 

Once again: the audio recording of the conversation on 7 August 2014 is here, and the description of this conversation (in two languages) is here. 

Many thanks,

Igor Sychev