[2] As of July 2018, Konstantin Nikolaev, Mikhail Yuriev, and Andrey Kunatbaev have a combined 88% stake in American Ethane and Alexander Voloshin has a secret 2.5% share worth $1.25 million in 2014 under an AV SPV in the remaining 12%.
[8] In January 2014, Roman Abramovich through his Millhouse LLC, which is a Moscow-based asset management company, signed an agreement at the John Houghtaling II house in New Orleans and made a $50 million investment in the American Ethane Company but backed out in late 2015 after the Russian intervention in Ukraine and the Russian annexation of Crimea because of sanctions against Russia.
[5][7][9] The Energy & Minerals Group (EMG), established in Houston by John T. Raymond in 2006,[13][14] is co-developing the 10 million ton per year ethane port.
[2] From April 2014 to January 2015 Haley Barbour's BGR Group received $220,000 and lobbied through Ed Rogers, Walker Roberts, Lauren Monroe and Erskine Wells for American Ethane, but were replaced in October 2017 with Lindsay Sander from Austin Texas-based Sander Resources and Kyle Ruckert from Louisiana-based Bold Strategies.
[15][16][17] From January 1, 2017, to July 28, 2018, American Ethane made numerous political contributions to Conservative Louisiana, Bill Cassidy, Mike Johnson, John Kennedy, Garret Graves, Scalise Leadership Fund, and Pelican PAC.
[16] Finally, Konstantin Nikolaev is a partner and close associate of Vladimir Putin's inner circle through Igor Levitin, Alexey Mordashov, Arkady Rotenberg, and Gennady Timchenko.