Leonid Dodojonovich Reiman (Russian: Леонид Дододжонович Рейман; born 12 July 1957) is a Russian businessman and government official, former Minister of Communications and Information Technologies of the Russian Federation. He has the federal state civilian service rank of 1st class Active State Councillor of the Russian Federation. Leonid Reiman has been numerously rated most influential person in Russian telecom business with personal wealth over $1 bln., according to Finance magazine.

Biography

Leonid Reiman was born on 12 July 1957 in Leningrad, his father, Dodojon Tadjiyev, is a Tajik and his mother, Ekaterina Reiman, is an Estonian German and teaches English.

Career

Founder of RIO-Center, now Institute of Contemporary Development (INSOR), Russian liberal think tank chaired by President Dmitry Medvedev.

Controversies

On 25 July 2000, Leonid Reiman issued the order No 130 "Concerning the introduction of technical means ensuring investigative activity (SORM) in phone, mobile, wireless communication and radio paging networks" stating that the FSB was no longer required to provide telecommunications and Internet companies documentation on targets of interest prior to accessing information. During the early 2004 tax dispute in Russia by Gossvyaznadzor about VimpelCom OJSC and its wholly owned subsidiary Impulse Design Bureau OJSC, Leonid Reiman, as the Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications, stated that it is unclear how taxes are paid by the companies but requested that the two should merge. Megafon increased its market share in the key Moscow region while VimpelCom was held back from expanding into that region awaiting the courts to decide the tax issue. Alfa Group, which has a significant share in Vimpel, was involved in a dispute over ownership of Leonid Rozhetskin's LV Finance former 25% stake in MegaFon with IPOC International Growth Fund during VimpelCom's tax issue with the Russian government. In 2004 the British businessman Anthony Georgiou claimed in a court affidavit lodged in a British Virgin Islands court that in 1992 Reiman had received a bribe of about a million US dollars from him. During a Bermuda government supported audit of IPOC International Growth Fund Ltd's KPMG investigation in 2005, the top official has been named in a number of legal actions as Leonid Reiman, Russia's telecommunications minister. Mr Reiman has denied the claims. In 2006, the beneficial owner of the IPOC International Growth Fund is Leonid Reiman according to a Zurich ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce. On 15 December 2011, the Frankfurt am Main prosecutor's office and German criminal authorities named Reiman as a suspect in a 1990s money laundering scheme involving Commerzbank, his longtime attorney Jeffrey Galmond, and four employees of Commerzbank. The case had begun as an investigation into the looting of Russia during the 1990s. In late 2013, Finnish officials with the National Bureau of Investigation or Keskusrikospoliisi (KRP) implicated Reiman in a money laundering scheme with Sekom's founder, Andrei Titov, where $11 million were transferred through Sekom to Cyprus Albany Investment and then to the Bermuda IPOC International Growth Fund.

Honours and awards