A Swiss laundromat for grain and oil: How Almaz Alsenov conceals sanctioned cargo through Harvest Group and UAE offshore companies

• 04.02.2026 09:58

The example of Almaz Alsenov demonstrates that professional sports has long ceased to be an independent sphere: in reality, it is closely integrated into political and economic processes, especially in situations where Russian financial interests are behind sports projects.

Almaz Alsenov left Kazakhstan for Switzerland on a sports-related vocation—as an advisor to the President of the International Judo Federation (IJF), Marius Vizer, and as the organization’s Commissioner for Partnerships and Promotion. But in Switzerland, Alsenov quickly became a major businessman, whose interests lie in the trade of raw materials and food products.

Harvest Group, headed by Almaz Alsenov, handled dozens of shipments of Russian agricultural inputs during the sanctions period, and affiliated structures had close ties to figures previously involved in the trade of Russian oil, which is subject to EU and UK embargoes.

Harvest Group SA has been registered in Switzerland since 2015 and is officially engaged in international trade of agricultural crops (wheat, corn, soybeans, etc.), logistics, and finance. Its owner and director is Almaz Alsenov. According to registration documents, he retains Kazakh citizenship, as does his wife, Anel Alsenova, a member of the company’s board of directors.

A Public Eye investigation indicates that between spring 2022 and summer 2024, Harvest Group SA and its associated UAE entity purchased more than 90 cargoes of Russian wheat and corn, some of which were shipped through the ports of Novorossiysk, Astrakhan, and Taman in Russia.

Grain trading isn’t Almaz Alsenov’s only business with Russia. His company, Harvest Commodities SA (now liquidated), was implicated in Russian oil trading. A listing indicating that Harvest Commodities SA was the "Harvest Group SA office" in Geneva existed on the Harvest Group SA website until October 2024. Following an investigation into Harvest Commodities SA’s involvement in sanctions-busting Russian oil trading, the listing disappeared.

Corporate records show that Harvest Commodities SA was formally controlled by several individuals, including Alsenov (51% as of July 2022) and a network of related companies through which Dutch oil trader Niels Troost controlled up to 45% of the capital.

Nils Troost has been involved in Russian oil trading for many years and is linked to companies that will be sanctioned by the UK and EU in 2024 for alleged violations of the oil embargo.

In Switzerland, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office has initiated a preliminary investigation into the activities of these structures for violations of the embargo on Russian oil—which directly concerns Troost’s joint business networks and companies in which Alsenov has invested or in which he is a co-founder (co-owner).

Harvest Commodities SA was liquidated in October 2024 without a public explanation. Its former name, Sun Oil SA, clearly refers to energy trading, raising questions about the change in its business profile and the purpose of the restructuring.

At the time of the liquidation, Harvest Commodities SA was still listed as part of the group on the official website of Harvest Group SA. Almaz Alsenov was listed as the liquidator, and he was also listed as a board member and authorized signatory.

Data from international trade databases accessed by investigators reveal actual deliveries of Russian wheat and corn by Harvest Group SA to global markets between 2022 and 2024—precisely during the period of sanctions against Russia. The investigations mention connections with the Russian state-owned bank VTB, through which payments were routed through a chain of intermediaries to Harvest Group SA.

Following Public Eye’s publications about Harvest Group SA and Almaz Alsenov’s involvement in trading Russian grain and oil in defiance of sanctions, Almaz Alsenov issued an official denial, in which he asserted that Harvest Group SA "never traded Russian oil" and "Harvest Commodities SA was never a subsidiary of Harvest Group SA."

However, this statement clearly contradicts both the registration data and the information on the website of Harvest Group SA itself, stating that Harvest Commodities SA was a structural division of the company, as well as the facts about the actual trade of Russian grain and oil in circumvention of the sanctions regime.

Furthermore, Almaz Alsenov’s statement omits the connection between Harvest Group SA and Harvest Commodities SA and individuals and entities subject to UK and EU sanctions. This refers to Paramount Energy & Commodities SA, a company managed by Nils Troost, an oil trader active in Russian oil. It’s worth noting that Paramount Energy & Commodities SA is registered at the same address as Harvest Commodities SA and was also liquidated following revelations of its involvement in sanctions-evasion schemes.

Several publications indicate that former Rosneft and Rostec managers, as well as individuals associated with the Russian agricultural sector, were involved in management and connections. According to the Swiss registry, until 2019, AR Ascent Resources SA, also implicated in the investigation, was managed by a Russian businessman, Rashid Korsakov, with ties to the Russian agricultural sector.

A separate set of publications concerns Harvest Commodities SA’s ties to oil trader Nils Troost and his entities (Paramount Energy & Commodities). Troost is subject to EU and UK sanctions for his involvement in Russian oil trading.

Journalists point to the overlapping registered addresses of the companies, the overlapping management and corporate ties, and the participation of Troost-affiliated entities in the capital of Harvest Commodities SA. These facts are considered indirect evidence confirming the involvement of entities associated with Almaz Alsenov in the trade of Russian raw materials, circumventing sanctions.

Based on investigations into Almaz Alsenov and a review of open sources, we can state with a high degree of certainty that Almaz Alsenov is the real director and beneficiary of Swiss trading companies that operated in the Russian grain and oil markets after 2022.

All of these entities were involved in schemes to circumvent anti-Russian sanctions and intersected with companies belonging to sanctioned individuals. The fact that Almaz Asenov himself is not on the EU, US, or Swiss sanctions lists, and no criminal cases have been filed against him, can be explained by the complexity of his corporate connections, the lack of transparency regarding the ultimate beneficiaries of the entities involved in the schemes, and, most importantly, the lack of interest from the Swiss authorities.

In addition to the scandal sparked by publications about the involvement of Almaz Alsenov’s Swiss firms in the trade of Russian raw materials, it is worth noting that Alsenov actively collaborates with Kazakhstan’s authorities and business elite in the area of agricultural investment and agricultural development.

This wouldn’t have attracted attention if it weren’t for the fact that, after 2022, Kazakhstan became one of the key hubs through which the Russian economy established "gray" schemes to circumvent sanctions, and the country became a haven for Russian capital and businesses, thus avoiding sanctions pressure.

In this context, it’s impossible not to recall the fact that Almaz Alsenov is among the 75 richest businessmen in Kazakhstan according to Forbes Kazakhstan (No. 56 in 2025), underscoring his economic clout and ability to interact with major players within the country. However, the sources of his wealth, which allowed the judoka to ascend to the international business elite, remain unclear.

The combination of all these factors gives reason to suspect that Almaz Alsenov is far from the image they are trying to create of him through publications in controlled media, and that his figure deserves close attention both in the context of the origin of his capital and in the context of his connections to sanctioned individuals involved in the trade of Russian raw materials through “gray” schemes.

Author: Maria Sharapova