Equity Trading Head Suspended at Russia’s Biggest Brokerage

(Bloomberg) -- Alexei Bachurin, the London-based head of equity trading at Russia’s biggest brokerage, has been suspended after less than five months in the job.

Bachurin has been absent from his desk at BCS Global Markets since the beginning of February, according to three people familiar with the situation, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. He was suspended after a claim from a third party that the brokerage is investigating, according to one of the people.

A spokeswoman for BCS declined to comment.

Sales traders Dmitry Ryzhkov and Shane Sorg have also been absent this year, the three people said. Ryzhkov, who was the only active equity sales trader in Moscow, abruptly pulled out of a client visit to Scandinavia in January and hasn’t answered phone calls since, while Cyprus-based Sorg was placed on garden leave.

Sorg declined to comment and Ryzhkov’s mobile phone was switched off on multiple attempts to reach him.

Bachurin was hired to head the equity trading desk in September following a string of departures from the job. Maksim Ryabov left for Renaissance Capital in September 2017 and was succeeded by Dmitry Pijiolis and Edward Shek, who lasted several months each.

Last year the brokerage slashed bonuses in the stocks division and froze equity derivatives trading after uncovering massive losses. While it’s the only Russia-based company with a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, its U.S. office has also had to contend with a rapid turnover in management.

When Bachurin left his prior job in 2017 as Renaissance Capital’s head of Russian equities trading to retire to Portugal, he said he hoped that he’d never have to work again.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jake Rudnitsky in Moscow at jrudnitsky@bloomberg.net;Anna Baraulina in Moscow at abaraulina@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Torrey Clark at tclark8@bloomberg.net, Natasha Doff

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