Fraud Warning

Rusneftegaz completes all of its activities not only in full compliance with the law, but also to the highest ethical standards, to minimize the risk of corruption, fraud, waste, and abuse. All said transgressions are tantamount to serious misconduct, and if not prevented have the potential to cost our company millions of dollars, or be subject to criminal sanctions. Therefore, our organization maintains rigorous procedures and protocols to not only mitigate illegality and transgressions within Rusneftegaz, but also to stop the possibility of malpractice arising in the first place. The primary conduit for this is through extensive and rigorous internal audit of all aspects of corporate life to prevent criminality and negligence, in addition to perpetuating transparency in all areas of our operations.

For instance, to prevent opportunities for fraud to occur, Rusneftegaz sells almost all our petroleum-based goods via recognized, regulated brokers operating on both domestic and international commodity exchanges, and does not offer any of our products for sale publicly. These markets, which have due processes that make it impossible for monetary loss to occur, are used by Rusneftegaz for trading purposes. This includes the Saint-Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange and also the St. Petersburg Exchange, both of which have long-standing reputations and history. Our remaining business is conducted via bidding in tenders to supply major infrastructure and heavy industry, although this only accounts for a minority of our revenues.

​However, Rusneftegaz frequently receives solicitations for the supply of both crude oil and refined products via email and telephone. The offers, which are usually derived from free email accounts, almost exclusively originate from both fraudsters and those who are ignorant of the correct way to purchase petroleum. Despite the frequency of these solicitations, our organization has never concluded a deal that has originated via electronic means, and does not believe it shall do so in the immediate future. As a result, Rusneftegaz rejects all prospective contracts that originate via email or telephone without conducting due diligence, with our organization recommending that any prospective buyer find their own regulated commodities broker to meet their requirements.

​We can therefore confirm that we have never appointed any entity or individual to act as an agent, mandate, or any other similar title, to sell products on our behalf. We can also verify that anyone who claims to have such authority is a fraudster and should be reported to both law enforcement and our fraud prevention officer immediately. Similarly, we can also confirm that we do not, and never will, sell any of our products via any social media channel or any business-to-business website, with any listing or offer with our name or branding being entirely fraudulent. To reassert aforementioned statements, our organization maintains the highest ethical standards when trading commodities, both domestically and internationally, to uphold good corporate governance and to mitigate corruption, fraud, waste, and abuse. This includes never endorsing or recommending brokers, shipping, and transportation companies or oil storage terminals under any circumstances.

​Notwithstanding this, we can attest that in recent times our company has been subject to the fraudulent use of the name, branding and corporate identity of Rusneftegaz and our subsidiaries by criminals. In such instances, scammers send their victims bogus offers for the purchase of either crude or refined petroleum produced by our company, including forged contracts, price lists, letterheads, and bank instructions. Rusneftegaz can also confirm that in majority of cases, the identities of genuine employees are used to deceive their intended target, although upon occasion the names used by these criminals have no affiliation with us. We have also observed situations where web addresses similar to the rusneftegaz.com domain were registered to perpetuate scams, including sending deceptive emails. Further to this, emails allegedly originating from our organization may include hyperlinks to our genuine website in an attempt to appear authentic.​

​Such communications could also contain malicious links to hoax websites that may contain material stolen from our own official website to seem genuine, and make attempts to phish for personal data. Similarly, fraudsters have been noted for requesting payments to companies with names that are identical or similar to Rusneftegaz, or the names of our subsidiaries, but are not affiliated with our organization. It is also noteworthy that none of our executives, including our Chief Executive Officer, will ever act as a signatory on a transaction or contract arranged by Rusneftegaz. Thus, any agreement that appears to been signed by any such figure can immediately be disregarded as fraudulent, as Rusneftegaz delegates power of attorney to the relevant member of our staff to endorse any arrangement our company enters into.

The most common scheme used by criminals involves the use of supposed over-the-counter, or off-exchange, contracts that allegedly require a payment to a third-party acting as an intermediary or broker. However, Rusneftegaz will never do any business with anyone looking to act as an unregulated intermediary on behalf of another entity. A proposal where our organization is asked to pay commission for the facilitation of a contract is immediately and unilaterally rejected with prejudice. Likewise, our organization does not enter into multilateral arrangements whereby Rusneftegaz would transfer or delegate our rights to anyone to sell our products on our behalf, and a purported buyer would be obliged to make payments to a third party. As aforementioned, our organization does not conduct our business in this manner, and under no circumstances will we ever employ a third party to send commercial offers on our behalf. Rusneftegaz can also clarify that we will never finalize any contract or delivery via email, and if any individual or company is requested to make payments to a supposed intermediary or broker to purchase our products, it is a scam.

​We request that all potential commodity buyers remain perennially vigilant to fraud, and that all actors conduct extensive due diligence on their potential counterparties. Do not under any circumstances make payments to Rusneftegaz without clarifying settlement information and procedures first. It is vital to note that we do not use any third parties, such as PayPal, to settle payments, as we require that all monies are sent directly to our bank accounts via wire or bank transfer. If doubts arise regarding the authority or the authenticity of someone who claims to work for or on behalf of Rusneftegaz, we request that you contact us without delay via any of the means on our official website, rusneftegaz.com, to verify their legitimacy. Crucially, we would advise anyone suspicious of someone claiming to represent Rusneftegaz to check the telephone numbers and the domain of the email address used to facilitate communication, either by cross-referencing with information or resources on rusneftegaz.com or by contacting us directly through our official site.

​Please avoid using any contact information that has been acquired through unverified sources before making any arrangements or transferring funds to anyone purporting to represent our company. Our team will gladly clarify the credibility of anyone affiliated with Rusneftegaz, or the authenticity of a document, if necessary. Also note that all information regarding our company can be obtained through rusneftegaz.com, and that any details on other sites may be incorrect or illegitimate. Rusneftegaz reports all fraudulent websites, entities, and schemes it uncovers to the appropriate legal authorities, and always urges governmental authorities to enforce harsh custodial sanctions on those whom attempt to perpetuate these offenses. If you believe that you are a victim of an economic crime committed in the name of our company, we advise you to contact your local law enforcement authorities immediately, and also report the incident to us via the details listed below.

Report

Rusneftegaz
Building 1
ul. 3rd Tverskaya-Yamskaya 39
Moscow
​125047

​+7 (499) 370-65-58
report@rusneftegaz.com