Because his most important business partner, Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, would not be included in the deal.
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Vekselberg claims it amounted to improperly directing investment opportunities to businesses in which Renova Resources had no ownership interest.
FORBES: The Fight For Faberge That Is Raging Between A Russian Billionaire And A Mining Mogul
Vekselberg contends in his suit that this maneuver violated Gilbertson's fiduciary obligations to Vekselberg's investment vehicle, Renova Resources Private Equity.
"I was concerned that Mr. Vekselberg would ruthlessly seek to drive his own agenda, " he said in a court-filed affidavit.
But his request was contradicted by Viktor Vekselberg, a TNK-BP director and one of the three tycoons who own AAR.
Vekselberg built a fortune buying aluminum smelters and later acquired a 12.5% stake in Russian oil and gas giant TNK- BP.
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Vekselberg established the Renova Fort Ross Foundation in the U.S. in 2010 to support Fort Ross, which is a state historic park.
FORBES: Russian Billionaire Vekselberg's Non-Oil Endeavor: Raising Funds For A California State Park
Vekselberg singled out support from Donald Kendall, the former CEO of Pepsico, who first brought Pepsi to Russia and attended the event.
FORBES: Russian Billionaire Vekselberg's Non-Oil Endeavor: Raising Funds For A California State Park
Mr Vekselberg prevailed, forcing some of TNK-BP's employees to leave Russia almost immediately, and dramatically escalating the row between BP and its partners.
Oil and metals magnate Viktor Vekselberg set aside business Thursday night to raise funds for, of all things, a California state park.
FORBES: Russian Billionaire Vekselberg's Non-Oil Endeavor: Raising Funds For A California State Park
Vekselberg was about to install Gilbertson as chairman of the world's biggest aluminum corporation when Vekselberg finished merging his aluminum company, Sual, with Rusal.
The paper traced the ownership to Leonard Blavatnik, a Russian-born American who formed investment shop Renova with school friend, oligarch and billionaire Viktor Vekselberg.
The guest list included Prince Andrew, the Queen's second son, as well as Gazprom founder and former prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and TNK-BP board member Viktor Vekselberg.
Vekselberg, 53, and Gilbertson, 67, have known each other since 2004, when Vekselberg convinced Gilbertson to run Sual, the aluminum producer Vekselberg cobbled together in the 1990s.
The AAR consortium, which includes billionaires Mikhail Fridman, Leonard Blavatnik and Victor Vekselberg, actually has good reason to downplay sensational theories about Russian oil.
Energy billionaire Victor Vekselberg bought the largest-ever private collection of Faberg?? imperial Easter Eggs from the Forbes family, the publishers of this Web site, in 2004.
Feeling cheated and secretly cut out of the deal, Vekselberg later sued Gilbertson in the Cayman Islands, a suit that he has doggedly pursued and is slated for trial next year.
Norbest, an affiliate of Alpha Access Renova, which is controlled by Russian oligarchs Victor Vekselberg, Mikhail Fridman and Leonard Blavatnik, had acquired stakes in the Hawler and Sindi Amedi blocks in 2007.
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In April, the Skolkovo Foundation, chaired by Vekselberg, announced that it was collaborating with MIT on the creation of a new science and technology graduate university outside Moscow called SK Tech.
FORBES: Russian Billionaire Vekselberg's Non-Oil Endeavor: Raising Funds For A California State Park
Feeling cheated and secretly cut out of the deal, Vekselberg later sued Gilbertson in the Cayman Islands, a suit that he has doggedly pursued with no publicity and is slated for trial next year.
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According to the Associated Press, just last month Ukraine's Premier, Yulia Tymoshenko, counseled Russian metals and oil billionaire Viktor Vekselberg not to buy Pinchuk's shares in the Nikopol factory--which now sounds like a canny tip-off.
But Gilbertson claims that days before the deal with Unilever Vekselberg demanded that in return for his funding he wanted to own the intellectual property himself and most of a company that would build a business around it.
Well BP believes that at least two of the oligarchs, Victor Vekselberg and Leonard Blavatnik, would like out - or at least they would like to convert their holding in the joint venture into cash and BP shares.
Earlier Thursday in a ceremony at Fort Ross, which is on the coastline about 90 miles north of San Francisco, Vekselberg unveiled a windmill that was built by one of his companies in Russia and re-assembled on site.
FORBES: Russian Billionaire Vekselberg's Non-Oil Endeavor: Raising Funds For A California State Park
But Gilbertson claims that days before the deal with Unilever was set to go, Vekselberg demanded that in return for his funding he wanted to own the intellectual property himself and most of a company that would build a business around it.
FORBES: The Fight For Faberge That Is Raging Between A Russian Billionaire And A Mining Mogul
In addition to those cited in this report, the author is particularly grateful for the insights, many of them off the record, of Hal Sirkin, Nandan Nilekani, Alvaro Rodriguez Arragui, Bernard Charles, Joshua Ramo, Michelle Guthrie, Arjun Divecha, Len Blavatnik, Viktor Vekselberg, Malvinder Singh, Bill Ford, Michael Green, Lord John Browne, John Studzinski, Bill Rhodes, Diana Farrell, Mikhail Fridman, Graham Mackey, Thor Bjorgolfsson, Ram Charan, Nabil Habayeb, Diana Glassman, David Rubenstein, Eli Jacobs, Dambisa Moyo, Alastair Newton and Michael Patsalos Fox.
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