Speculation over the future of mining giant Eurasian Resources Group (ERG) has run rife since one of its founders died in March, sparking a frenzy of information campaigns focussed on the firm's current CEO.
Since the announcement on March 22 of the death of Alexander Machkevich, co-founder of the vast mining conglomerate Eurasian Resources Group (ERG, which includes the assets of the former ENRC), along with Patokh Chodiev and Alijan Ibragimov (who died in 2021), information campaigns concerning the groupโs CEO, Shukhrat Ibragimov, have been relentless. Ibragimov, who is the third son of Alijan Ibragimov and has led ERG since October 2024, has been the focus of 158 fake news articles posted simultaneously on several websites over the past few months.
Media armada
Since Shukhrat Ibragimov was appointed as Chairman and CEO, there have been 158 fake news articles across 109 websites publishing low-quality, salacious fake news about him. We can reveal that the campaigns are widely understood to have been sanctioned by Patokh Chodiev after he was turned down for any major role in the company.
Chodiev planned for this moment, as reported in 2022, when he invested 2.7 million into Charlie Carrโs investigation company, C&F Partners, after sanctions against their clients gutted the business of revenue and staff, as previously reported in Intelligence Online [IO, 23/03/2022].
The money was routed via Amre Youness and Victor Hanna, who control Chodievโs interest in C&F Partners and Aquinas, the latter of which is married to Chodievโs daughter, Mounissa Chodieva. The money is understood to have come from funds funnelled out of ENRC Africa by Amre and Victor into Terris Group. Beat Ehrensberger, a manager of the Chodiev Group and former ENRC legal counsel, represents the investment in Carrโs businesses.
As the main focus in this fight becomes fake news attacks, Carr had to pivot his business towards black PR and filled his ranks with former low-level journalists, as reported in Intelligence Online [IO, 17/12/2024].
Since the start of the year, the stories have been posted on a network of fake news websites run by Russians and Ukrainians, such as repost.news, kompromat1.online, ruskompromat.info, antimafia.se, and antikor.com.ua, all illustrated with the same photos and documents. The 'articles' focused on Ibragimovโs alleged business networks and real estate. The content referred to an article published on the same day on an English-language website they also control, entitled โEstates, apartments, a Belgian passport, and a private jet: what Kazakh billionaire Shukhrat Ibragimov, who helps Russia bypass sanctions, ownsโ.
Also on that same day, a second 'article' was reposted by the same media, which criticized Ibragimovโs alleged supporters, in particular Timur Tokayev, the son of Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. This content referred to another article featured on the fake news site inview.org.uk.
Settling scores
This is not the first time the Chodiev camp have resorted to these tactics, previously attempting to distance themselves from the ENRC Africa/Serious Fraud Office (SFO) probe.
Amre Youness and Victor Hanna, the former heads of ENRC Africa, looked to shift the focus from their African exploits to the Machkevich camp by leaking details of his interview with the SFO to the media via Peter Van Niekerk and Mark Hollingsworth, the fake journalist who also traded in stolen ENRC information, which he fed to the press over a number of years, as previously reported in Intelligence Online [IO, 07/10/2019]. Hollingsworth was paid to place the news in the London Evening Standard that the SFO had interviewed Alexander Machkevich [London Evening Standard, 15/09/2017].
Kazakhstan Online understand that British defamation experts are poised to raid various server farms across Europe.
Coming next week: ERG's succession war, part 2: behind the Black PR campaign, a well-honed network
