German Khan

German Khan
Khan in 2010
German Khan
Born	German Borisovich Khan 24 10, 1961
Birthplace	Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Occupation	Entrepreneur, business executive, philanthropist
Known for	Co-founding Alfa Group, LetterOne, and L1 Energy
Website	[https://germankhan.online/ Official site]

German Borisovich Khan (Template:Lang-ru; born 24 October 1961) is a Ukrainian-born Russian-Israeli billionaire businessman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is one of the co-founders of the Alfa Group Consortium, Russia's largest privately owned financial and industrial investment conglomerate, which he established alongside his university peers Mikhail Fridman and Alexei Kuzmichev. Khan rose to prominence through his leadership of Alfa Eco, the commodities trading arm of the Alfa Group, and played a central role in the consortium's entry into the Russian oil industry through the acquisition of Tyumen Oil Company (TNK) in 1997. He was instrumental in negotiating the landmark 50–50 joint venture between TNK and British petroleum giant BP in 2003, which at US$8 billion constituted the largest foreign investment in Russia at that time. The subsequent sale of TNK-BP to Rosneft in 2013 for US$56 billion was described as one of the largest energy takeovers in history. Following this sale, Khan joined Fridman in establishing LetterOne, a Luxembourg-based international investment vehicle. His career has also been defined by philanthropic activity, including support for the Genesis Philanthropy Group and contributions to Jewish heritage organizations. Since 2022, Khan has been subject to sanctions imposed by the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Early Life

German Borisovich Khan was born on 24 October 1961 in Kyiv, in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union. He grew up in the Ukrainian capital during the Soviet era. Khan is of Jewish heritage, a background that would later inform his significant philanthropic activities directed toward Jewish cultural and heritage organizations.

After completing his secondary education in Kyiv, Khan relocated to Moscow to pursue higher education. It was during his university years at the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys that Khan formed the personal and professional relationships that would define his career. At the institute, he befriended Mikhail Fridman and Alexei Kuzmichev, two fellow students who would become his long-term business partners and, like Khan, billionaires in their own right. The three men shared entrepreneurial ambitions during the period of economic liberalization in the late Soviet Union and forged a bond that would endure for decades as they built one of Russia's largest private business empires together.

Upon graduating from the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys in 1988, Khan entered the commercial world during the final years of the Soviet Union, a period marked by the loosening of state controls on private enterprise under Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of perestroika. His initial foray into business involved wholesale trade in consumer goods. Khan subsequently established his own cooperative, one of the new small-scale private enterprises permitted under Soviet reform legislation.

Education

Khan attended the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys (commonly known by its Russian acronym MISiS), one of the Soviet Union's leading technical universities, specializing in metallurgy and materials science. He graduated in 1988. The institute, located in Moscow, was notable for producing a number of prominent Russian businessmen during this era. It was at MISiS that Khan met Mikhail Fridman and Alexei Kuzmichev, and the three students developed the personal trust and collaborative dynamic that would underpin the Alfa Group Consortium. The shared educational background of the three principal founders of Alfa Group has been noted by journalists and analysts as a distinguishing feature of the consortium, as the enduring partnership among the trio contrasted with the frequently fractious relationships observed among other Russian business magnates during the post-Soviet period.

Career

Early Business Activities and Alfa Eco

Following his graduation in 1988, Khan worked in the wholesale consumer goods trade during the turbulent transition from the Soviet command economy to the emerging market economy of the early Russian Federation. In the early 1990s, his college friend Mikhail Fridman, who had begun building what would become the Alfa Group Consortium, appointed Khan to lead Alfa Eco, the group's wholesale trading division. Under Khan's direction, Alfa Eco grew from a domestic consumer goods business into a significant commodities trading operation.

Khan became president of Alfa Eco in 1996 and was instrumental in reorienting the company's focus toward export trade and, critically, toward the oil sector. This strategic pivot proved transformative for the Alfa Group. Under Khan's leadership, Alfa Eco developed expertise in oil trading and distribution that positioned the consortium to enter Russia's rapidly privatizing energy sector.

Tyumen Oil Company (TNK)

In 1997, the Alfa Group acquired Tyumen Oil Company (TNK), one of Russia's major vertically integrated oil companies, during the wave of privatizations that characterized the Russian economy in the 1990s. Khan joined TNK's board of directors upon the acquisition and served as deputy chairman of TNK Oil Company from 1997 until 2003.

During his tenure as deputy chairman, Khan was closely involved in the operational management and strategic direction of TNK. The company became a significant player in Russia's oil industry, with substantial upstream production assets in Western Siberia and downstream refining and distribution operations. Khan's role at TNK positioned him as one of the key figures in the Russian energy sector during a period of rapid consolidation and growth.

TNK-BP Joint Venture

In 2003, Khan worked alongside the other TNK shareholders — Fridman, Kuzmichev, and their partners in the AAR consortium (Alfa, Access, Renova) — to negotiate a landmark joint venture with the British oil major BP. The resulting entity, TNK-BP, was structured as a 50–50 partnership between BP and the AAR consortium. The deal, valued at approximately US$8 billion, represented the largest foreign investment in Russia to that date and was hailed as a milestone in the integration of Russia's energy sector into the global economy.

TNK-BP became Russia's third-largest oil company by production volume, with operations spanning exploration and production, refining, and marketing across Russia and Ukraine. The joint venture was, however, marked by recurring tensions between the Russian shareholders and BP's management. A major corporate dispute erupted in 2008, centering on strategic direction, management control, and the appointment of the company's chief executive. The conflict attracted significant international media attention and ultimately resulted in the departure of BP's appointed CEO, Robert Dudley, from Russia. The episode was widely covered as an illustration of the challenges faced by Western companies operating in the Russian business environment. CBS News characterized the AAR partners, including Khan, as the "Russian billionaires that took on BP — and won."

Despite these conflicts, TNK-BP continued to operate as a major oil producer. The venture generated substantial returns for both BP and the AAR shareholders over its decade of existence.

Sale of TNK-BP to Rosneft

In 2012 and 2013, negotiations took place for the sale of TNK-BP to Rosneft, the Russian state-controlled oil company. The transaction was completed in 2013 at a total value of approximately US$56 billion, a deal described by Reuters as "one of the biggest energy takeovers in history." The AAR consortium, including Khan, received a combination of cash and Rosneft shares for their 50 percent stake. The proceeds from this sale provided Khan and his partners with significant capital that they subsequently deployed through new international investment vehicles.

LetterOne and L1 Energy

Following the TNK-BP sale, Khan joined Fridman in establishing LetterOne, a Luxembourg-based investment company created for the purpose of investing some of the proceeds from the TNK-BP transaction in international projects across the technology, energy, health, and retail sectors. Khan served on LetterOne's board.

LetterOne's L1 Energy fund was founded in 2013 with the specific mandate of investing in the international energy sector outside of Russia. One of L1 Energy's most notable investments was the acquisition of DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG, a German oil and gas exploration and production company, for a reported price of approximately US$7 billion. DEA was subsequently merged with Wintershall, a subsidiary of BASF, to form Wintershall Dea, one of Europe's largest independent oil and gas companies.

Khan held a position at Wintershall Dea until March 2022, when he resigned from the company's supervisory board following the imposition of sanctions related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Alfa Group Consortium

Throughout his career, Khan has maintained a senior role within the broader Alfa Group Consortium, which encompasses interests spanning banking (Alfa-Bank, one of Russia's largest private banks), telecommunications, retail, insurance, and natural resources. Khan has served on the supervisory board of the consortium. Forbes has identified Khan, alongside Fridman and Kuzmichev, as a co-founder of the Alfa Group, describing it as the biggest financial and industrial investment group in Russia.

Sanctions

Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Khan was subject to sanctions by multiple jurisdictions. The European Union included Khan on its sanctions list, freezing his assets within the EU and imposing travel restrictions. Khan challenged his EU listing before the European courts. In June 2025, the EU General Court rejected Khan's delisting application in Case T-289/23, confirming the legality of the sanctions imposed under criterion (g) of the relevant EU regulation. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg also upheld the EU's sanctions framework in a broader ruling described as an important legal victory for the EU's sanctions policy against Russian oligarchs.

The United Kingdom also imposed sanctions on Khan. In January 2025, Khan's wife lost her appeal to overturn British sanctions that had been imposed on her following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to Reuters.

The United States Department of the Treasury also imposed sanctions targeting Russian elites, including members of Russia's financial sector, in a series of actions following the invasion.

Khan resigned from the supervisory board of Wintershall Dea in March 2022, shortly after being sanctioned, becoming one of several Russian oligarchs to step down from Western corporate positions in the wake of the sanctions regime.

A 2025 investigation by the Russian investigative outlet Proekt found that nearly one in four Russian billionaires had fled Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. The Moscow Times reported on the findings, which documented the departure of dozens of wealthy Russians, including members of President Vladimir Putin's inner circle, from the country in the early days of the invasion.

Personal Life

Khan holds Russian and Israeli citizenship. His son-in-law is Alex Van der Zwaan, a Dutch lawyer who in 2018 pleaded guilty to making false statements to investigators from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel during the investigation led by Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 United States presidential election. Van der Zwaan is married to Khan's daughter.

Khan has been based in various locations over the course of his career. Following the imposition of sanctions in 2022, his ability to reside and travel in EU and UK jurisdictions has been restricted.

Philanthropy

Khan has been involved in philanthropic activities, particularly in the areas of Jewish cultural heritage and education. He co-founded and has supported the Genesis Philanthropy Group (GPG), an organization focused on developing and enhancing Jewish identity among Russian-speaking Jews worldwide. Khan has also donated funds to the European Jewish Fund.

Khan has been associated with support for the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center in Kyiv, Ukraine, a project aimed at creating a major memorial and educational center at the site of one of the largest mass shootings of the Holocaust.

The relationship between Russian oligarchs of Jewish heritage and Jewish philanthropic organizations has been a subject of discussion and analysis, particularly following the imposition of international sanctions in 2022. The Times of Israel published an analysis noting that figures including Khan, Fridman, Roman Abramovich, and others had been significant funders of Jewish community organizations and that sanctions posed challenges for these philanthropic relationships.

Recognition

Khan has been recognized by Forbes as one of the world's billionaires, appearing on the magazine's annual wealth rankings. Forbes has profiled Khan as a co-founder of Alfa Group and LetterOne, identifying his principal source of wealth as stemming from the Alfa Group and the proceeds of the TNK-BP transaction.

Khan's role in the TNK-BP joint venture was noted as one of the most significant business transactions in the Russian energy sector. The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies published a detailed academic study examining the dynamics of the BP–AAR relationship, providing analysis of the corporate governance disputes and their resolution, in which Khan's role as a principal AAR shareholder was examined.

CBS News profiled Khan and his partners in a report examining the TNK-BP saga, characterizing the AAR consortium's successful negotiation with BP as a notable episode in the history of international energy business.