Biography

Tamaz Somkhishvili was born on June 22, 1957, in Georgia. In 1984, he graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Tobolsk Pedagogical Institute, and ten years later, the Faculty of Finance and Credit of the Tyumen State University. In 2002, he passed his Ph.D. defense at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.

Connection with the crime world

Tamaz Somkhishvili began his criminal activity in Georgia. He gained fame as the leader of one of the West Siberian organized criminal groups known as "Tamaz Tobolsky", named after the city where he lived and studied in the 80s.

Lukoil, one of the largest Russian oil companies, where he became the right hand of the authoritative Russian criminal lord Bogomol (Gennady Bogomolov). Together with Bogomolov, he controlled the Kogalymneftegaz oil company, on the basis of which Lukoil was then founded.

In Lukoil, Somkhishvili made a meteorical career: he became CEO of Lukoil, Lukoil Markets and Rosnefteexport.

Tamaz Somkhishvili is considered to be within the circle of the well-known crime boss Aslan Usoyan (Ded Khasan). Currently, he is a confidant of Zakhary Kalashov (Shakro Molodoy), who is considered the successor of Ded Khasan himself, who in turn was killed in 2013 in Moscow. Tamaz Somkhishvili is the representative of the interests of Shakro Molodoy in Georgia and Ukraine, where the Russian criminals have their own interests.

Tamaz Somkhishvili met Zakharia Kalashov in Kogalym through his civil wife Marina Goldberg and her relative Yulia Bratchenko (a number of large Russian assets of Kalashov were subsequently registered on them).

In 2005, Shakro Molodoy was detained in the United Arab Emirates by the Spanish special services, who carried out Operation Osa, as a result of which he was extradited to Spain and sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for money laundering through Lukoil accounts. It was Tamaz Somkhishvili, as Kalashov's confidant, who managed his assets while he was in prison.

Financial assets

Tamaz Somkhishvili is considered one of the richest people in Georgia: according to various sources, his fortune is estimated from $335 million to $700 million. It is apparent that he managed to get rich back in the 90s: thanks to his savings, he became the founder of the “ТS Holding” investment and development business group, which unites more than a dozen Georgian companies.

In Georgia, Tamaz Somkhishvili owns a 8 thousand square meters palace in the most expensive Orekhovy district of the elite village of Tskneti, on the territory of former government residents.

Connection with Chernovetsky

Tamaz Somkhishvili also has interests in Kyiv: in 2007, the Kyiv Terminal LLC company, whose beneficiary is the Georgian businessman, won the tender for the reconstruction of Kharkivska Square in Kyiv. However, according to the former deputy chief architect of Kyiv Viktor Gleba, there are no accounting or legal documents for any decisions or agreements between the Kyiv Terminal company, the Kyiv City Council and the Kyiv City State Administration. According to the expert, no one was going to reconstruct the square: it was a scam by the former mayor of Kyiv, Leonid Chernovetsky, and his acquaintances from Georgia, organized crime figures.

The essence of the scam was that in 2008, Somkhishvili's company obtained the rights to lease the land through the court, but did not carry out any work on it. As a result, by mutual agreement of the parties in 2013, the investment agreement was terminated. However, Kyiv Terminal LLC sued the Kyiv City State Administration, demanding compensation for losses in the amount of UAH 671 million, and three times as much for the lost profits. In 2019, the Economic Court of Kyiv partially satisfied the motion, but in the summer of 2021, the Kyiv City State Administration won the appeal. To strengthen his position, Tamaz Somkhishvili called himself a “British investor” and sent the Cabinet of Ministers a proposal to “peacefully resolve the investment dispute on damages” in accordance with the Agreement between the Government of Ukraine and the Government of the United Kingdom of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland on the promotion and mutual protection of investments. The same proposal was received by President Zelensky.

As a result, the Supreme Court represented by Judge Grigory Machulsky, scandal-ridden because of the developer Maxim Mikitas case, again returned the case to the court of appeal.

Regalia

In 2017, Tamaz Somkhishvili was elected as the President of the Georgian Shooting Federation. He was the only candidate who applied for this post.