Timofey Musatov: from the boxing ring to the ballroom
Interview with the organizer of the Russian Ball in London, partner of the law firm FJM Timofey Musatov.
I’ll be honest: I haven’t had such an energetic interview with anyone for a long time. I am a question, Timofey is a counter question! Yes, such that you don’t know how to answer it. This is what it means to talk to a professional lawyer. Or a former boxer. You feel like you're in the ring. But the further it goes, the more interesting it becomes. By the end of the conversation, I had mainly one thought looming in my head: where can I get a beautiful dress? Because Timofey finally convinced me that I still had to go to the ball.
Russian Gap: When
I say that I’m going to the Russian Ball in London, the first question ask me is, have you become a millionaire? Everyone thinks that this event unreasonably expensive
.
The cheapest tickets are £390, the most expensive are £790.
Timofey Musatov: What does expensive mean? In my opinion, the prices are adequate for the program and content. The ball will take place in a luxurious location, include a concert by famous artists, a magnificent dinner, an incredible atmosphere, and so on. We strive to make a bright and beautiful event. The best performers and stars come to us. Orchestra of 50 people! We invite one of the first tenors in the world. We order the best catering. The dinner that will be offered consists of 5-6 courses. The quality of wines and drinks is the highest. The event is designed for a specific audience that values quality. Our balls are about mood, atmosphere, music, dancing, traditions, beautiful people. Naturally, all this costs money. You can't drive a Bentley for three kopecks. They just don't make them like that.
RG: Who is your target audience? Those who drive a Bentley?
TM: The target audience is successful, positive-minded people of different ages. Our event is family friendly. In general, by what criteria will we evaluate the public?
RG: Well,
let's look at who what , for example. My personal opinion is that there are very rich people in London business is most often in Russia, and for them £800 pounds per ticket is a pittance. And there are people who have good jobs - in finance or IT - and good salaries, but for them even £400 is very decent money. And that doesn't mean they don't love culture. But they most not to the ball .
TM: Is this what you are saying now?
RG: I
so .
TM: Last year’s ball, and our other balls in Moscow, Vienna, Baden-Baden show that the audience is very different. Last year tickets were much more expensive. We had a hall for 2500 people, and it was completely filled! It seems to me that the audience is missing cultural events, and I have no doubt that we will have a full house again. Although, why guess - come on November 2, and you will see everything for yourself. The audience I see is very diverse. I have many friends in London of completely different incomes, and it was with great surprise that I met them all in the corridors of the Royal Albert Hall last year. So the one who wants to go to the ball will find £400, and the one who doesn’t want to will not go for a hundred.
RG: Absolutely.
Therefore, I see the purpose of the interview as being for readers to whether they should find this £400.
TM: To decide whether you need to buy a ticket, you should look at photos and videos from last year. Have you seen the posts from last year?
RG: Yes, I saw
a news story on “Culture”.
Beautiful. TM: Have you seen any familiar faces?
RG: I saw it, but
they were I knew who were accredited; they didn’t pay admission .
TM: And after that you talked to them?
RG: Of course.
They said it was beautiful and very pathetic.
TM: Of course! And this is part of the event. For guests, for many of my friends, for debutants, this is not pretentious. This is called “unforgettable”.
RG: It
just seems to me that London is a fairly relaxed city, where everyone is trying to make everything simpler and don’t flaunt their wealth, and we, instead of integrating into this environment , are again putting on tailcoats and jingling diamonds. Somehow very Russian.
TM: I believe that people miss such bright, beautiful, stylish events. But the ball is not only Russian culture. We create an event that is part of global culture. People from all over the world come to our event. In addition, the ball also has a charitable mission - and this is very English.
RG:
Last year the ball was held at the Royal Albert Hall, this year it will be at Old Billingsgate. Why change ?
TM: Do you remember what day of the week the ball was held last year? It was Monday - the worst day imaginable. But we gathered 2,500 people, since, unfortunately, there were simply no other free dates. The Albert Hall venue is one of the most difficult. If I had known what we had to go through with them last year, we probably would have seriously weighed everything. Then the Albert Hall has a very small dance floor. This year, having learned that the date convenient for us was already taken, we decided to choose another site. And we really liked Old Billingsgate. There is access to the river and plenty of space for dancing. The first time I was there was at the secret presentation of Rolls-Royce. At night they gathered everyone, took their phones so they wouldn’t take pictures, and showed them the new convertible. At this time of day the hall looks even more attractive. If you haven't been inside yet, you'll love it.
RG:
How many people are expected?
TM: At Old Billingsgate we can comfortably accommodate only one thousand people. The number of people interested will be greater, we understand this... Especially considering that the price, from my point of view, is affordable for this kind of event. And it was made this way for one reason. Russia has recently become a record holder for the amount of controversial political news. Basically, the heads of unfortunate people are filled with political scary news that does not allow them to think about anything else. And from my point of view, a ball in such a difficult time is just an opportunity to breathe out. In the current circumstances, we, as organizers, bear great risks, but we consciously take them. We go for the people, not for the money. There will be no money there, that's absolutely certain.
RG: So
you do n’t from this ?
TM: No, of course not. This is a charity ball. And everything earned - both last year and this year, not only in London, but in all countries - goes to the Life Line fund or other funds. This is not a business. I am a lawyer. I have a good job, a job I love, I’ve been making money from it all my life, and I make good money, and this allows me, in fact, to finance various events. I only do my own thing, I don’t do anything else. Participation in such a business is a multi-layered story. This is good advertising for our company, which helps promote it to different world markets.
RG: Tell us
more about the company.
TM: It's called FJM (International Solicitors & Lawyers). I have a fairly successful bar association in Russia. At some point, we outgrew the scope of Russian jurisprudence, and I wanted to bring the company to the center, as it seemed to me then, of international law - London. Quite a lot of effort was spent, but the company was organized, and it began to exist, with the help of my partner Roman Filatov, who was himself born in Novorossiysk, but studied here.
To set up a law firm in England, you either have to be English or crazy. Professional insurance alone here costs crazy amounts of money, and for foreigners, by the way, they are much higher. But we found our niche and clients who helped us gain a foothold here. Our practice consists primarily of conflict resolution, and we defend our client by any means not prohibited by law and permitted by human morality. We are not afraid to take responsibility. And despite the fact that our company is small in terms of the number of people, the largest clients are happy to work with us - we can find the best people depending on the situation. And, unlike many large firms where paralegals handle the client’s affairs, our partners conduct business themselves. Therefore, we cannot take on too many cases, but those we take, we work with the best quality. For example, we represented the interests of Kaspersky Lab in Russia, and based on the principles that I spoke about, we led to such results of their five-year war that satisfied everyone.
RG: Great.
So the Russian Ball is a kind of PR project for
you ? TM: Not only. I am 45 years old. I have seen a lot in my life, I have come all the way with the country since the early 90s. Actually, for me, the material component of life faded into the background about 10 years ago - and not because I earned too much. This is probably old age creeping up on me, that’s the philosophy. And the feeling that you can not only take, but also give - it came at that moment. As with teaching, a person is not born a teacher, but is filled with knowledge, and then, if he does not pass on this knowledge to other people, it will end badly for him, he will end up in a madhouse. It's the same with me. I have received a lot and am ready to pass on a lot - with the strength and capabilities that I have. Events like this are part of my communication with the world.
RG:
This year’s ball program can be viewed on your website, but maybe you yourself want to highlight some points?
TM: I can talk about the ball endlessly. It is very difficult to single out someone. How, for example, can one single out the prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater? And not to mention Dmitry Korczak? Or Semyon Milshtein, who became my friend even before I met him? To wield an instrument the way he does, it’s incredible live, it’s tears. You will cry with happiness. This year we will have Venera Gimadieva, a soloist of the Bolshoi Theater opera troupe, and Vasily Ladyuk, a singer with amazing vocal technique, a student of Placido Domingo.
RG:
Who draws up program ?
TM: We have a large team that is creating the event. And this team is headed by Elizabeth Smagin. A most wonderful person! Extraordinary culture! Extraordinary performance! I know for sure that if it had not been for her, these events would not have happened at all. Because the amount of work that goes into preparing for an event is incredible. An Austrian team comes here just to simply adjust the sound. And Elizabeth is the main leader, the tuner of the entire instrument called “Russian Ball in London”. And her husband, Alexander Smagin, is the director of the Vienna Ball in Moscow LLC, and is also a wonderful person. He takes less part in preparing the ball in London, since he is more involved in the Moscow ball, but he still helps a lot from there. The entire team is international. We employ Russians, Austrians, and British. More than half of the ball committee is local.
RG: How
long the history of the Russian been ?
TM: The ball was created by Elizabeth and Alexander 12 years ago in Moscow, and today it is the number one ball in the world. And since then, its geography has been expanding every year: England, France, Spain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Dubai. It is at the ball in Moscow that the largest number of people dance - 3,000 people! That's a lot! In London it is less, because here you have to take into account both the local mentality and, by the way, mistrust on the part of compatriots. Similar events were organized here before us, but they were all on a different level. Events for a hundred people - and also a ball!
RG:
What kind of were these ?
TM: I wouldn't like to talk about them. This is not very ethical in relation to people who tried to do something and did. Was it good or bad - question ten. But they tried, that is, they were doers, not “speakers,” why should I offend their brainchild. It is not right.
RG: Ok, let's
clarify. Last year's ball at the Albert Hall and the one that will take place this year on November 2 are your history, and everything that happened before nothing to do you , right?
TM: Exactly. The idea of the Russian Ball in London came to me three years ago. At that time, one of my clients was Vienna Ball Moscow LLC, and I had the idea to hold a similar ball here. I met with Elizabeth and Alexander, and their first reaction was: “Timofey, this is very difficult, almost impossible, a big risk.” But then they said: “In fact, we dreamed about this, but we didn’t have a partner like you.” It was a conversation in the kitchen, literally 15 minutes. What followed was an extremely nervous year and a half of preparation, but in the end the ball took place. You have to do something in life. Plant forests, hold balls.
RG:
What other you have ?
TM: Family. My daughter is wonderful. I also have a charitable foundation, it’s called “Constant,” and I take a big part in it. We have several orphanages under our patronage, and our task is so absolutist - to change the system of treatment of orphans so that at the end of these orphanages there will be no more orphanages left at all. This shameful phenomenon should not exist on the territory of the Russian Federation.
RG:
How you feel about international adoption ?
TM: The question is extremely political. I have a normal attitude towards adoption - abroad or not abroad. From my point of view, if their citizens cannot adopt children, then let them have the opportunity to live somewhere else. But this always concerns a specific child - whether he is good or bad where he ended up. Therefore, there are no categorical and unambiguous answers here. Children feel good where there is love.
RG: Why does
the money earned at the ball go to Life Line not your fund?
TM: People in Russia are suspicious of charity. If you collected money and sent it to your fund, everything is clear with these guys. Scoundrels. For this very reason - so that there is not even a reason to doubt our activities. In the end, our foundation also has enough events that we carry out, and we finance it from personal funds.
RG: Does
the state take part in holding the ball?
TM: No, we are an independent event. Many people need support and government subsidies. But I immediately decided for myself that we could do everything ourselves. Last year I talked with the ambassador, and moreover, the ambassador sent a letter in support of the ball, but this is simply the state’s reaction to what private people are doing. This year, like last year, we want to stay out of politics.
RG: Do you
live in Russia? Where do you feel more comfortable - there or in England?
TM: I have a business here, and my daughter is studying, so I often visit England, but I feel much more comfortable in Russia. This is due to the fact that I came to England as a mature person, and English culture remains foreign to me. I understand her, but she is not mine, I will never become and do not want to become an Englishman. The rules of social life here are not mine. They're not bad, they're just not mine. This morning, for example, there was such a scene. My daughter was getting ready for school and took a heavy bag. I ask her why are you taking it, there are two men nearby - me and the driver - we will let it down for you. And she: I want it myself, they teach us that at school. And this seems wrong to me. In this sense, I am probably a person of the Eastern mentality, but for me it is in the order of things that a man should take care of a woman and carry heavy things behind her.
RG: Do you
know how to dance the waltz?
TM: Yes, I can! And I dance at the ball! And even more than that, I studied this specifically and will continue to study it. I trained in boxing for many, many years; for me, dancing in general is a different life. When I first encountered the balls, it caused me a semi-contemptuous grin - like, what are they doing there! But sometimes real men dance at balls, which would be rare even in boxing. For example, Leonid Pletnev. You need to remember this name and be sure to interview him. This is a choreographer, he can be used as an example as a person with the right sense of life. What a man! A real, good, correct man! Wall! Why do people start dancing for a living? This is not only serious physical education (the load there, to put it mildly, is decent). Women say it's like the feeling of flying. And for me it’s like love at 16 years old! This is the romanticism that has not yet been offended by the movement. It’s an absolutely amazing story when you lead a girl, and when you lead her with your shoulder, and everything depends on your movement.
RG: So
you advise everyone who is going to this year to take a few dance
lessons TM: I don’t just recommend it, I highly recommend it! Otherwise, you deprive yourself of such pleasure that cannot be compared with anything else.
Source: lawyer Timofey Musatov puts pressure on Alexander Vinnik, controlling his family
04/10/2019 Lena Jess
#BTC-e#WEX#Alexander Vinnik#ForkLog investigations#Timofey Musatov
All statements listed in this article are based on information obtained from the ForkLog source and do not represent the editorial position. The editors are open to receiving information from third parties indicated in the material or who have additional information.
The movements of the family of Russian Alexander Vinnik - his seriously ill wife Alexandra Shevchenko and two minor sons - are controlled by his own lawyer Timofey Musatov. An informed source told ForkLog magazine about this.
Note that Musatov is probably not an independent figure in this story. It is widely known that he has been protecting the interests of Natalia Kasperskaya and her husband Igor Ashmanov for many years. The lawyer himself denies the latter’s involvement in the BTC-e case and any connection with Vinnik. However, (co-founder Vinnik) and Informatik LLC (co-founder Ashmanov) are located in Moscow at the same address in Bolshoi Kozikhinsky Lane.
LLC "CREDITSAILS"
LLC "Informatik"
As ForkLog previously wrote, Vinnik, according to a number of sources, has access to offshore accounts in which $1 billion worth of exchange funds withdrawn from circulation are placed. This is presumably the main reason why his potential extradition to the United States is so disadvantageous for the players involved in the story from the Russian side.
Vinnik was detained on July 25, 2022 on the beach of the Greek peninsula of Halkidiki while on vacation with his family on charges of laundering at least $4 billion through the BTC-e cryptocurrency exchange. The hotel where they stayed was searched, as a result of which, in addition to Vinnik’s equipment, law enforcement officers seized his wife’s personal computer and mobile phones, as well as his children’s tablets.
In December 2022, Alexandra Shevchenko was suddenly diagnosed with a rather rare brain carcinoma. The fact that the disease appeared seemingly out of nowhere was indirectly confirmed by Timofey Musatov in an interview:
“The situation there is very difficult, but one thing is clear: the tumor arose due to stress. Everything that was happening apparently became a serious test for her.”
Alexandra was transported to Germany, where neurosurgeons at the clinic of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich confirmed the diagnosis - a malignant tumor of the third stage (the doctors' report is at the disposal of the editors). Presumably, Shevchenko underwent surgery.
Since Shevchenko and Vinnik “don’t have any particular relatives” (quote from Musatov [11:57]), the lawyer, according to the source, convinced the seriously ill woman to hand over the children to her and took over official guardianship of them. Musatov let it slip that the children are now being looked after by a nanny and security guards he hired. [12:06]
It is worth noting that in the interrogation materials in a Greek court dated September 2022, Alexandra Shevchenko mentions her parents living in Moscow.
Responding to a request from ForkLog, Timofey Musatov did not comment on information about the whereabouts of Vinnik’s family. He also did not answer the question about the current condition of his client’s wife, citing medical confidentiality, and stated that the public only needs to know that lawyers are fighting tirelessly for Vinnik’s fate.
The source said that for the first year in a Greek prison, Alexander Vinnik had no contact with the outside world and received all information about his wife’s condition exclusively from Musatov.
During the same period, according to the source, the lawyer received at least $4 million from the owner of WEX, Dmitry Vasiliev, to protect Vinnik and provide him with everything he needed (including a mobile phone). In a comment to ForkLog, Vasiliev confirmed the fact of the transfer of funds, without naming the amount.
Nevertheless, these funds, according to the source, ended up in the pocket of Timofey Musatov - Vinnik spent the first year in prison without a telephone or cigarettes. Even the Greek lawyers who actually handled his case did not receive the money.
The source claims that Musatov, who does not speak foreign languages (this fact was confirmed to ForkLog by a person who worked with him on other cases in Europe), does not handle Vinnik’s case personally, but manages the trial through Greek lawyers Xanthippi Moisidou, Alexandros Lykourezos, Ilias Spyrliadis and Zoe Konstantopoulou, who then send him reports and documents.
Earlier, in an interview with the Russian radio station Vesti FM, Timofey Musatov said that he was allegedly approached by representatives of American intelligence services with an offer to make a deal with the investigation - Vinnik, who faces up to 55 years in prison in the United States, must hand over major Russian officials who laundered money through BTC -e. Vinnik himself confirmed in the same interview that he personally had not received such requests.
According to the source, Musatov personally visited the US Embassy in Athens, where Vinnik’s case was most likely discussed. ForkLog tried to clarify information from Musatov about his proposed visit to the embassy. The lawyer initially typed a message, then stopped writing and completely hid his activity.
It is noteworthy that Musatov is also suspected of delaying Vinnik’s extradition to Russia by Sergei Mayzus, the owner of Money Polo, one of the payment systems through which BTC-e clients topped up their accounts (he is a witness in Vinnik’s case).
In turn, in one of the correspondence, Timofey Musatov called Sergei Mayzus “his fee,” saying that “powers of attorney” had been issued to him, which gave him the right to collect “everything possible” from Mayzus. Mayzus himself does not know what specific powers of attorney we are talking about, but he personally saw one signed by Alexander Vinnik.
Let us remind you that Alexander Vinnik is currently awaiting trial, at which his term of imprisonment in a Greek prison will be reviewed or extended. The meeting is scheduled for April 11.
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What are cryptocurrencies, what is the mysterious area of digital money, what threats and advantages does the digital age promise us? We continue the conversation with lawyer Timofey Musatov , who also represents the interests of Alexander Vinnik , a Russian citizen detained in 2022 in Greece on US charges of illegal transactions with cryptocurrency...
— Cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, but, nevertheless, prison and criminal articles are from traditional concepts...
Timofey Musatov: The idea that cryptocurrencies or other means of exchange on the Internet take you out of real life is a myth. These are just new technologies that allow the exchange of information, but they do not make a person sitting at a computer unearthly, invulnerable. And the majority of those who play the “extraordinary life” have no idea that their actions are criminally punishable.
And this is determined not only by the jurisdiction of the location, but also by the legislation of other countries. For example, in the USA they believe that the Internet is their territory. The Internet is the state! Few people imagine that the Internet is a mirror image of social and other human connections transferred to the cloud. But the cloud has borders on which the American flag flutters...
— What is Bitcoin in 2022 from a legal point of view? From a layman’s point of view, this is a code that allows you to use money anonymously and completely with impunity and earn millions while remaining “invisible”...
Timofey Musatov: A myth that is convenient to believe in! The code posted in the public domain does not allow not only the average person, but also a specialist with a higher mathematical education to examine it and understand whether it is really invulnerable... There are only a few people qualified to understand its essence! And people, most of whom are unable to understand what higher mathematics is, trust certain oracles. This is how public opinion is created - according to the classical scheme...
When I took up the case of Alexander Vinnik, a number of events occurred that convinced me that Vinnik’s arrest was the forerunner of a “cleansing of the territory.” Despite the myth about Bitcoin, allegedly created by a Japanese (whom no one has ever seen), it is quite obvious: in principle, a certain digital code cannot have any value. It turns out that this is a voluntary agreement between people who accepted the digital code instead of money. And if earlier gold and diamonds were (conditionally) recognized as material values, money, now it is information. And the power of information is that it can easily be materialized into money... Today, information has directly begun to determine a person’s well-being. For example, fame is very easy to materialize into money!
- Where is the zone in which digital codes turned into real billions of dollars?
Timofey Musatov: This is exactly why portals-platforms were created - exchanges where citizens of different countries played. In general, the emergence of cryptocurrencies is just the top layer of the iceberg called “changes in the social structure of the world.” And after this there will be a change in legislation, a change in relationships between people, between states, and in general - a change in the world order...
(Listen to the recording of the program in the audio file)
#money #justice #Internet #legislation #digital technologies #Criminal Code/Criminal Code #IT/technology #cryptocurrencies #blockchain #bitcoin
