deripaska

The case, in which Mr Deripaska disputes Mr Cherney's claims to a Rusal stake, is due to be heard in London soon.

Other witnesses have testified that Mr. Deripaska continued to have friendly relationships with people he said had forced him to pay.

Mr. Deripaska bought out his partners in Rusal, which had ample cash flow thanks to rising metals prices and low taxes.

Mr Deripaska insisted in an interview with the Financial Times last week that it did not matter if the IPO was delayed until next year.

Mr. Deripaska later said the situation in Pikalyovo had been just a misunderstanding.

LDV, which had been owned by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, went into administration in June with the loss of 850 jobs.

Mr. Deripaska has said he doesn't derive political or business benefit from his marriage.

Mr Deripaska's Norilsk Nickel bid now looks to have been a takeover bid too far.

Within 10 years of leaving university Mr Deripaska had become a billionaire, risingto the top of the metals industry.

Swamped with debt, Oleg Deripaska seemed the most likely of Russia's tycoons to fall victim to the financial crisis a year ago.

As metals prices continued to fall, Mr. Deripaska's empire seemed the most vulnerable to seizure by creditors.

But a Kremlin official said Mr Putin had actively supported the deal when he met Mr Deripaska early this month.

Mr Deripaska is far from alone in seeing much of his wealth evaporate.

Oleg Deripaska, who has been rated Russia's richest man in each of the past two years, suffered the biggest fall from grace.

Mr. Deripaska obtained special entry permits through the FBI that let him visit the U. S. in August and October.

Notoriety: Deripaska's rise is one of the emblematic stories of the mad scramble for wealth in early 1990s Russia.

For years, Russian officials from Mr. Putin on down have lobbied the U. S. to lift a ban on granting Mr. Deripaska a visa.

The private Russian company, 66 per cent controlled by billionaire Oleg Deripaska, had been planning to sell 25 per cent of its equity.

Saif Gadhafi also developed a relationship with Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, head of the aluminium giant UC Rusal.

Mr Deripaska has always been more ambitious than most.

The way Mr Potanin tells it, his difference with Mr Deripaska is ultimately one of "mentality" .

Fiat's main rival is a group consisting of Magna, a Canadian car-parts and engineering business, and Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch.

The court heard yesterday that Mr Deripaska will argue Mr Cherney had links with organised criminal gangs.

Mr. Deripaska hastily made peace with another tycoon with whom he had skirmished over control of Norilsk.

Mr. Deripaska, Mr. Sechin added with a smile, 'is very able, smart and educated, well-known in the world. Let him work. '

Putin visited the town and forced its owner, the billionaire tycoon Oleg Deripaska, to reopen it.

The US State department has refused to grant Mr Deripaska an entry visa; it declines to explain why.

But Mr Deripaska's previous attempts to list parts of his Basic Element business empire in Hong Kong have had mixed success.

But Deripaska had had little choice but to shut his factory, since Russia's construction industry has now virtually collapsed.

However, Mr Deripaska, Russia's second-richest man, denies any previous business relations with Mr Cherney.

By September, Mr Deripaska was scrambling for funds to cover margin calls.

Oleg Deripaska, the metals tycoon, has a link to two London agencies.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 , Deripaska was a 23 -year-old university student .

A month ago, Mr. Deripaska closed a deal to delay repayment of $7. 4 billion in foreign loans.

In a letter to Mr. Putin, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Deripaska had sought a four-year term and reduced interest rate.

She has worked at the GAZ car plant controlled by oligarch Oleg Deripaska for 20 years and now earns 8, 000 roubles (about $250) a month.

But as Mr Deripaska expanded beyond aluminium, he borrowed more and more.