Concord Catering is a St. Petersburg catering company controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin, which earned Prigozhin the nickname “Putin’s chef” through restaurant service to the Kremlin and large government food contracts, including for schools and the military. U.S. prosecutors described it as part of the corporate network that funded the Internet Research Agency (IRA), the troll farm that ran social media influence operations targeting the 2016 U.S. election.

The U.S. Treasury designated Concord Catering in June 2017 as an entity owned or controlled by Prigozhin, and again on March 15, 2018 for providing material assistance to the IRA. It was named as a defendant, with Concord Management and Consulting, in the February 16, 2018 indictment of the IRA. In March 2020 the Justice Department moved to dismiss the charges against both Concord companies before trial, citing the risk of exposing sensitive information while the companies faced no real penalty, and the court granted the dismissal.

Sources

• U.S. Department of Justice. United States v. Internet Research Agency LLC et al., indictment. February 16, 2018.
• U.S. Department of the Treasury. “Treasury Sanctions Russian Cyber Actors for Interference with the 2016 U.S. Elections and Malicious Cyber-Attacks.” Press release, March 15, 2018.
• U.S. Department of the Treasury. “Treasury Increases Pressure on Russian Financier.” Press release, September 23, 2020.

Summary entry. A fuller, document-based profile is in preparation.