Partner of a fugitive dictator and sponsor of ISIS: oil magnate Mikhail Krupeev faces a prison sentence in London

Mikhail Krupeev, whose company Gulfsands is linked to the family of fugitive Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, is divorcing his wife: it turned out he had a second family in Russia for 20 years.

The oil magnate, holding both UK and Russian citizenship, faces up to two years in prison as he failed to comply with a number of court orders. Krupeev attended the hearing remotely from Cyprus, Reuters reports.

He is facing possible imprisonment after on Wednesday a High Court judge in London ruled that he was in contempt of court and repeatedly failed to comply with legal decisions issued in his multi-million divorce case.

Judge Richard Harrison stated that Mikhail Krupeev, non-executive chairman of the energy company Gulfsands, did not follow court orders after the breakdown of his 36-year marriage with his wife Elena Krupeeva.

According to her legal team, the couple separated under “turbulent” circumstances after in 2023 Krupeeva discovered that her husband had been living a double life for most of the past 20 years, maintaining a secret second family in Russia.

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In July 2024, she initiated financial settlement proceedings, and Krupeev was ordered to pay just over £195,000 (about $262,645) to cover her legal costs.

But her lawyers stated that he failed to comply with this and a number of other orders requiring him to disclose the true size of his wealth, which, according to them, could amount to hundreds of millions of pounds, from which she demanded an equal share. They argued that only imprisonment would be an effective punishment.

The judge said that Krupeev, who attended the hearing remotely from Cyprus, deliberately violated court orders and showed contempt for the court. He postponed sentencing until next Wednesday, with the oil magnate facing a maximum prison term of just over two years.

The супруги, both Russian citizens who also hold British citizenship, moved to the United Kingdom in 1993.

Krupeev’s other business interests included Jupiter Energy, engaged in oil and gas exports in Kazakhstan, and Waterford Finance, specializing in energy projects.

“They have been a very wealthy family for a long time,” Justin Warshaw, lawyer for Krupeeva, told the court.

The couple’s assets were extensive, including a £15 million house in London, luxury homes in Portugal and Turkey, and property in Russia worth £10 million, Warshaw said. They traveled by private jet so their favorite dogs could accompany them.

Warshaw stated that Krupeev owed his wife a total of more than £837,000, and that an order had also been issued to freeze his assets worth £38 million.

Krupeev’s lawyer, Michael Glazer, said his client, who denied the allegations regarding their marriage, had apologized for failing to comply with the orders and was unable to do so due to the asset freeze.

He rejected the claim that his client treated the legal proceedings as a game.

“This is not a game, my client’s freedom is at stake,” Glazer said.

Who is Mikhail Krupeev

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Russian national Mikhail Krupeev is a junior partner of Yuriy Shafranik, former Minister of Fuel and Energy of the Russian Federation (1993–1996), with joint oil and gas business projects abroad. He is a rather non-public figure, and in Russia there has been almost no media coverage about him.

His company Gulfsands and its contractor Hesco were engaged in oil production in Syria until the regime of Bashar al-Assad lost control over those territories. They also cooperated with George Haswani, a Russian-Syrian national and one of the founders of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, who was reported to have financed ISIS. Hesco, in addition to Krupeev, was also owned by Rami Makhlouf, a cousin of Bashar al-Assad.

Besides border oil fields in Syria, this company also owns oil assets located in border regions of Morocco, Tunisia, and Myanmar.