I think Ratner was doing badly enough so that they needed somebody to take over the nets before the checks started bouncing. However, Russian billionaires have a way of getting arrested and losing all their money. Probablly good for him to put it in something the Russian govt can't touch.
you are pretty ignorant, the russian government didn't touch anyone's money unless they were a criminal, the only touching they do is by taxes. this Prokhorov guy took advantage of a troubling transition (the transition from communism to capitalism caused an economic crisis at the time) and became super rich, there's nothing illegal about it, unfair maybe. there's a german guy who put in $100,000 into google initially and is now a billionaire today.
It's going to be weird for the nets. Their owner is a bigger pimp than all of them put together. "Lopez, you had good game, come party with me and my 8 russian supermodels." Or maybe the Nets player of the week gets to use his yacht for the next week.
No the rule with Russia is that if you stay out of politics you can keep your money. The richest man in Russia got jailed and his oil company got nationalized because he tried to run for president and create a political party.
mmm-hmmm, ask Mikhail Kodorkovsky this...I assume he must be the only corrupt russian oligarch in recent history...
the man you mentioned just proves my point, he was guilty for fraud, embezzlement, and money laundering. he himself funded the most popular political party in Russia(United Russia), as well as the communist party, so it has nothing to do with running for president. he illegally acquired most of his assets from the aforementioned transition, an example was him creating the first privately owned bank in Russia (1989), and then using it for tax evasion as well as stealing funds from the state treasury, and it's spelled Khodorkovsky. there are however, some that acquired their wealth legally whether honest or not, fair or unfair. the majority of these guys were criminals and that's exactly why they were prosecuted, not because they were "running for president", but because their actions created an economic crisis in the 90s and made many poor, while they took advantage of it all for themselves (usually involving natural resources, but also some financial firms). interestingly, the majority of them are Jewish, not that it has any sort of connection, but it's weird. I actually did a lot of research about these things before so I have a good feel for them, it was mostly for papers I had to do. anyway back to basketball, I think Prokhorov will handle the team similar to how Cuban handles the Mavs in terms of spending, so Nets fans who don't mind the move to Brooklyn should be happy.
Boris Berezovsky says HI! it's an amazing coincidence how it's simply just the billionaires who are enemies of Putin who manage to get convicted of fraud and have their assets seized. Really easy to figure good vs. evil there!
well now you're just basically posting that there is a conspiracy against them, there isn't, they were criminals, and they only became "enemies of Putin" after being convicted. there has been guys who were on good terms with Putin but then once Putin found out they were a criminal he severed ties. and I hope you know that Berezovsky is one the biggest criminal of them all, there's arrest warrants out for him in many countries and not just Russia. He himself hired people to kill so he could take control of certain entities, and he would also bribe. thankfully, this stuff only went on in the 90s and is mostly over now. in fact one of the things Putin mentioned when coming into office was getting rid of all the criminal billionaires who made themselves richer while making everyone else poorer, and by illegal means. I'm done talking about this since now you're posting that you believe there was a conspiracy against them, when a lot of the men you mentioned funded the party that is currently ruling, they are criminals, as simple as that. the rule is if you are not a criminal, you get to keep your money, just like here.
jajajaja, yes I'm sure Putin was hoodwinked by them for years and then was shocked to find out the truth that he was actually dealing with C.c..c...criminals! GULP! He, being an upstanding protector of justice and possessing a Criminal-tron 5000 universal truth detector, found these two miscreants out and divested them, leaving the rest of the non-criminal oligarchs to spread their benevolence upon Russian society. Was this the thesis for your recent paper? I hope not for your sake. I would give you an F. It's a good set-up for an episode of Scooby-Do though. Putin vs. the Pirate Ghosts
Probably gay. As for Jordan not sure if he can still dunk. I remember a while back they were ragging on Chuck for not being too fat to make layups and he said some **** about Jordan not being able to dunk no more. Not sure if serious
There was a thread earlier (in the hangout?). Watch the 3:49 mark. <object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gDFzEupuys4&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gDFzEupuys4&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>
This is a very good article on him from bloomberg http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=alNS5jabvpPs
actually putin had been brought in by yeltsin himself to clean house after billionaires gazinsky and barisnofsky set yeltsin up for the $$$ laundering scandel with B of NY
