Georgy Trefilov

Early life

Georgy Trefilov was born on 1 June 1971 in a family of civil servants. In 1988 he graduated from the comprehensive school No. 689 and entered the BMSTU (Moscow State Technical University named after Bauman), "Special machine engineering" faculty. In 1992 Trefilov interrupts his training and decides to start a business.

Trefilov has been married with his second wife Yuliya Trefilova since 2005. He has four daughters from both marriages.

Criminal prosecution

A criminal case was opened against Trefilov in 2009–2010 (Russian Federation Criminal Rule 176, part 1 and 159, part 4). 15 November 2010 the Investigative Committee of the MVD of Russia made the official statement concerning Georgy Trefilov, who was charged with fraud in absentia. According to that statement and the demands, Trefilov stole funds of several companies. Moreover, it was alleged that Trefilov provided some property to the banks as a security for loans, however this property was already encumbered previously several times or even wasn't his property at all. For example, the “Business group” JSC, which is controlled by Trefilov and is a part of the "MARTA" Holding, received a loan in excess of 1,3 billion rubles from six banks including Sberbank on the security of the same retail equipment of the supermarkets working under BILLA trade name. Several months before he was charged with fraud, Trefilov left Russia for Great Britain.

The Russian Federation Investigative Committee demanded Trefilov's extradition from Great Britain.

16 November 2012 in London Trefilov won the case concerning his extradition to Russia, in Westminster Magistrate's Court. One item of evidence involved a recording, in which senior public prosecutor Victor Gvozdev attempted to extort the sum of $1 million from Trefilov, to be shared between a number of prosecution officials, purportedly to help closing the case. District Judge Nicholas Evans in his decision stated: “The level of corruption revealed by transcripts (of recorded conversations between Trevfilov’s’s contact in Russia and a senior investigator Mr Gvozdev) is just appalling.͟” Moreover, the Judge found that Trefilov established a good prima facie case of corporate raiding perpetrated against his business in Russia, which the Russian government failed to rebut.

In March 2013 at the Gatwick Airport he was arrested for crossing the British border with a fake passport and a false ID card. In May 2013 at the Lewes city court Georgy Trefilov received a 1,5-year suspended prison sentence for using false documents. Trefilov says that, at the time, his wife was suffering from a "serious cancer illness" and part of her treatment was outside the UK. He used false documents because he was subject to an Interpol red notice and could have been deported to Russia if he had travelled under his own name. A "major mistake on my part" he says.

Since 2010 Trefilov has been on the international wanted list. In March 2019, the Commission of Interpol issued a decision to remove Trefilov from its internationally wanted list on the basis that “the likelihood that his right to a due process of law, as established by Russian law and other applicable rules of law, may not have been respected,”

Trefilov lives with his family in London.

He is a senior operating manager of an Italian-themed restaurants group in London with five outlets. “We don’t own any property or have money in bank accounts, not here, not anywhere,” he told Forbes. “People seem to think I am very rich but I lost everything in Russia. I was the owner and creator of a big business worth more than £1bn. It was stolen from me and I came to the UK with my family with no money and started to created businesses again.”