Draft:Interlink Metals & Chemicals
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Metals |
| Founded | 1992 |
| Founder | Igor Raykhelson |
| Headquarters | , Switzerland |
| Key people | Igor Raykhelson (chairman) |
| Products | Titanium products |
| Subsidiaries | Bahrain Titanium |
| Website | interlinkmetals |
Interlink Metals & Chemicals (also styled Interlink Metals and Chemicals AG) is a Swiss titanium trading company headquartered in Fribourg, Switzerland. Founded in 1992, it trades and supplies titanium products internationally and has, since the 1990s, been one of the Western trading channels for Russian titanium.[1] Its founder and chairman is the businessman and pianist Igor Raykhelson.[2] The company has been a party to commercial litigation in Switzerland with the Russian producer VSMPO-AVISMA and is connected to related Russian criminal proceedings against Raykhelson.
History
[edit]The United States company Interlink Metals and Chemicals Inc. was established in 1990, and the Swiss company in the early 1990s. In 1992, Interlink and the titanium–magnesium plant at Berezniki in the Urals—then the largest Russian producer of titanium (100%) and magnesium (50%)—formed a joint trading company, Berezlink, to handle exports; the plant was considering granting Interlink exclusive rights to export its titanium and magnesium. Interlink maintained a representative office in Moscow, and its annual turnover in the CIS was reported at the time to be around US$60 million.[1] Through the 1990s, titanium from the Avisma plant, which later became part of VSMPO-AVISMA, was marketed internationally through Interlink.[3]
Operations
[edit]Interlink trades titanium and titanium products for industries including aerospace, medical, automotive and energy, and describes itself as one of the world's largest traders of titanium products.[4]
Bahrain project
[edit]In March 2024, Interlink announced that its subsidiary Bahrain Titanium would build a titanium production facility at Askar on the south-eastern coast of Bahrain, in a project valued at about US$200 million. The company signed a 25-year lease for a 50,000 m² plot with Edamah, the real-estate arm of the Bahraini sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat, with support from the Bahrain Economic Development Board. The first phase was planned around an electron-beam furnace and a vacuum-arc remelting furnace, with an initial capacity of about 4,000 tonnes per year.[2][5]
Legal disputes
[edit]Russian criminal proceedings
[edit]In June 2025, Russian investigators arrested Mikhail Voevodin, a former chief executive of VSMPO-AVISMA, on large-scale fraud charges. According to Kommersant, Forbes and RTVI, investigators alleged that between 2016 and 2020 Voevodin had colluded with Raykhelson to purchase charge (billet) material for VSMPO-AVISMA through companies said to be linked to Raykhelson at prices inflated by about 25–30% over those of the previous supplier, with estimated losses of 4–5.1 billion rubles.[6][7] Raykhelson, who lives abroad, was charged in absentia; in March 2026 a court in Yekaterinburg ordered his arrest in absentia and he was placed on an international wanted list.[8] Raykhelson has denied wrongdoing, describing the case as politically motivated retaliation connected to the Swiss litigation.[9][10]
Swiss proceedings
[edit]In December 2024, Interlink obtained an ex parte asset attachment (séquestre) of about CHF 20.3 million against assets it linked to VSMPO-AVISMA. A first-instance court invalidated the attachment, and in March 2026 the Cantonal Court of Vaud dismissed Interlink's appeal and ordered it to pay costs.[11]
United States proceedings
[edit]In September 2025, Raykhelson filed an application in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York under 28 U.S.C. § 1782, seeking evidence from financial institutions for use in his defence in the foreign proceedings.[10]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- 1 2 Sergei Klyuchenkov, Ivan Zotov (22 June 1992). "Российский титан получил нового хозяина" [Russian titanium gets a new owner]. Kommersant Vlast (in Russian). Retrieved 13 June 2026.
- 1 2 Saxena, Avinash (19 March 2024). "Interlink to set up $200 million titanium facility in Askar". Gulf Daily News. Retrieved 13 June 2026.
- ↑ "Dublin-based firm is named in fraud conspiracy claims". The Irish Times. 10 September 1999. Retrieved 13 June 2026.
- ↑ "Interlink Metals & Chemicals". Interlink Metals & Chemicals. Retrieved 13 June 2026.
- ↑ "Swiss group Interlink to set up $200mln titanium plant in Bahrain". Zawya. TradeArabia. 19 March 2024. Retrieved 13 June 2026.
- ↑ "Экс-глава «ВСМПО-Ависма» арестован по обвинению в крупном мошенничестве" [Former VSMPO-Avisma head arrested on major fraud charge]. Kommersant (in Russian). 27 June 2025. Retrieved 13 June 2026.
- ↑ "Титаны схемы: экс-глава ВСМПО — АВИСМА арестован за махинации" [Titans of the scheme: ex-head of VSMPO-AVISMA arrested]. RTVI (in Russian). 28 June 2025. Retrieved 13 June 2026.
- ↑ "СК заочно предъявил обвинение в махинациях поставщику «ВСМПО-Ависма»" [Investigators charge VSMPO-Avisma supplier in absentia]. Forbes (in Russian). 26 August 2025. Retrieved 13 June 2026.
- ↑ "«ВСМПО-Ависма» опровергла арест счетов в Швейцарии" [VSMPO-Avisma denies account freeze in Switzerland]. RBC (in Russian). 25 August 2025. Retrieved 13 June 2026.
- 1 2 Marchant, David (28 September 2025). "Pianist Igor Raykhelson seeks evidence from U.S. banks to defend 'retaliatory Russian fraud charges'". OffshoreAlert. Retrieved 13 June 2026.
- ↑ Carter, Emily (26 May 2026). "Swiss Cantonal Court Upholds Dismissal of Multi-Million Franc Sequestration Against PJSC VSMPO-AVISMA". The National Law Review. Retrieved 13 June 2026.
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