When the Sheikh’s assistant opened a black gift box at a banquet at the Emirates Palace Hotel, inside was the head of 22-year-old Christina Loganova from Novosibirsk. It was the end of what was supposed to be a dream bachelorette party. Christina Loganova worked as a makeup artist at a beauty salon on Krasny Prospect in Novosibirsk and ran a small blog about cosmetics on Instagram. She had 3,000 followers and dreamed of a larger audience.
In early October 2022, she was contacted by a representative of the Pearl Elite Events Agency with an offer to participate in an advertising campaign for an Arab cosmetics brand in Dubai. The conditions looked tempting: paid flights, accommodation in a five-star hotel, and a fee for participating in a photo shoot and filming a promotional video.
Christina was told that she would not be alone. Five other girls from Russia and the former Soviet Union, all bloggers and models, would be traveling with her. The agency manager introduced himself as Farid and communicated only through messengers. He sent official documents with seals, a contract in English, and tickets for a flight from Moscow to Dubai. Christina showed the documents to her friend Anna, who worked as a lawyer. Anna said that the papers looked genuine. Although some of the wording seemed strange to her, she was particularly confused by the clause stating that the participants undertook not to disclose details of the event until it was over and to hand over their phones to the organizers for the duration of the shoot to ensure confidentiality.
On October 10th, Christina flew to Moscow where she met the other participants at Domodedovo airport. Besides her, the group included Alina from Kiev, Ukraine; Katya from Minsk, Belarus; two Russians, Lena from Yekaterinburg and Sveta from Kazan; and Ina from Moldova. All the girls were about the same age between 20 and 25, and all had blogs about beauty or fashion. At the airport, they were met by a middle-aged man who introduced himself as a representative of the agency and accompanied them to check in for their flight.
The flight went smoothly. In Dubai, the girls were met by two men in business suits who spoke English with an Arabic accent. They were taken to the Atlantis The Palm Hotel where each was given a separate room. The first day was exactly as the organizers had promised. A photo shoot by the pool, lunch at the hotel restaurant, and a trip on a yacht for sunset photos. Christina posted photos on her stories and wrote to her friend in Novosibirsk that everything was going great.
On the second day, the program changed. The girls were told that most of the filming would take place at a private villa where there were better conditions for work. They were taken to different addresses, explaining that this was due to technical requirements. Each would be filmed in an individual look. Christina was taken to a villa in the Jumeirah area where she was met by three men and a middle-aged woman. The woman spoke Russian and introduced herself as the project coordinator.
The villa was large and expensive, but the atmosphere quickly became tense. Christina’s phone was taken away, explaining that it was a security requirement. All filming must be done on professional equipment without any material leaks. She was given a room on the second floor and told that the main filming would begin tomorrow. Dinner was brought to her room and the door was locked from the outside. When she asked when she would be able to contact home, she was given an evasive answer: “After all the filming is completed.”
The third day began with Christina being brought new clothes and cosmetics as well as several wigs of different colors. The coordinator explained that different looks would be needed for the shoot. The first photo shoot took place in the villa’s living room where Christina was photographed in evening dresses. Then she was asked to change into more revealing clothes. When she refused, she was told that this was a requirement of the client and that if she did not comply with all the terms of the contract, it would be terminated and she would be forced to reimburse the costs of her flight and accommodation.
By the evening of the third day, the atmosphere had completely changed. Several men in expensive suits arrived at the house and spoke to each other in Arabic. The coordinator told Christina that today there would be a special shoot for the brand’s VIP clients. The girl became frightened and demanded her phone back so she could contact her family. In response, she was told that her phone would only be returned after all the terms of the contract had been fulfilled.
It was then that Christina managed to secretly use an old phone that she had brought as a spare and which had gone unnoticed during the search. She recorded a voice message to her friend Anna: “They took our phones. We were told that only official photos would be taken. It’s not as fun here as it is in the photos. Honestly, it’s scary and the guys are weird.” The message was sent via messenger at 11:00 p.m. on October 13th, 2022.
On the fourth day, Christina was awakened early in the morning and told that she had a meeting with the project’s main investor. They made her put on professional makeup, did her hair, and dressed her in an expensive dress. When she tried to refuse again, one of the guards grabbed her arm so hard that it left bruises. The coordinator coldly explained that she had no choice. The contract had been signed, and now she had to fulfill all the customer’s requirements.
That same evening, a man in his 50s arrived at the villa wearing a white national costume. He was accompanied by four bodyguards. Christina was brought to the main living room where the man looked her over for a long time saying something in Arabic. The coordinator translated. The client was satisfied with her appearance but wanted to test her submissiveness. When Christina tried to leave, she was held back by force.
Her friend Anna in Novosibirsk became concerned when Christina did not respond to her messages for the second day in a row. She tried to contact the Pearl Elite Events Agency, but the phone number did not answer and the company’s website was unavailable. Anna contacted Christina’s parents and they filed a missing person report with the police. However, Russian law enforcement explained that the girl was abroad of her own free will and that there needed to be compelling reasons to believe that something had happened to her before a search could be launched.
Meanwhile, in Dubai, events were unfolding according to the worst-case scenario. Christina continued to resist the demands of her captors, refusing to participate in what the coordinator called “exclusive services” for VIP clients. She was beaten several times in an attempt to break her will. On the fifth day, a doctor appeared at the villa and gave her several injections, after which Christina became sluggish and weak.
On the sixth day, she was no longer at the villa. It was then that Christina realized she had fallen into a trap from which there was no escape. The doctor who had come the day before turned out to be not a medical professional, but a person who specialized in preparing victims of human trafficking. The injections contained strong sedatives that were supposed to make the girl more manageable. However, Christina continued to refuse to participate in what the organizers called special events.
The coordinator explained the real situation to her without embellishment. There was no advertising contract. The Pearl Elite Events Agency existed only on paper, registered through frontmen in Yemen, where it is virtually impossible to verify documents. The girls were brought to Dubai to serve wealthy clients from the Persian Gulf countries. Those who agreed to cooperate received money and were able to return home after a while. Those who refused disappeared forever.
Christina learned that the other girls from their group were in different villas throughout Dubai. Some of them had already broken down and agreed to the kidnappers’ demands. Alina and Katya, according to the coordinator, adapted to the new conditions and now work in an elite brothel for wealthy Arabs. Sveta from Kazan tried to escape and was seriously injured after which she was sent to a hospital under guard.
On the seventh day, a man whom the guards called “doctor” came to see Christina. He examined her and said that she was too exhausted from stress and resistance to be useful to regular clients. The coordinator translated his words. There is a special category of customers who prefer fresh goods and are willing to pay significantly more for exclusivity. Christina realized that they were talking about her murder.
Meanwhile, Christina’s family in Russia was making desperate attempts to find their daughter. The girl’s father, Sergey Loganov, who worked as a mechanic at a factory, spent all the family’s savings on a trip to Moscow, where he appealed to various authorities. Her mother, Tatiana, a nurse at a local hospital, wrote requests to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the consulate in Dubai, and international human rights organizations. The responses were formal. Without concrete evidence of a crime, Russian diplomats cannot intervene in the affairs of citizens who are abroad of their own free will.
Anna continued to analyze Christina’s latest messages and discovered an important detail. The metadata of the voice message contained location information. The coordinates pointed to the Jumeirah area in Dubai. She passed this information on to the police, but Russian law enforcement officials said they did not have the authority to conduct operations in the UAE.
The eighth day was decisive. In the morning, a man arrived at the villa in an expensive car whom the coordinator greeted with special respect. It was Sheikh Khaled al-Rashid, an influential businessman from Saudi Arabia with ties to the oil industry and elite real estate. He was about 45 years old, spoke English fluently, and gave the impression of being an educated and well-mannered man. The Sheikh examined Christina as if she were a commodity, discussing her parameters and condition with the coordinator.
The girl was so weakened by drugs and stress that she could barely stand on her feet. Al-Rashid said she was suitable for a special order he had received from one of his business partners, a Saudi prince who collected exotic trophies. According to the coordinator, the prince ordered the heads of young European women, which were then embalmed in a special way and became part of his private collection. He paid between $500,000 and 1 million dollars for such goods, depending on the age and appearance of the victim. Christina was a perfect fit for the customer’s requirements. Young, beautiful, with Slavic features.
The procedure was to take place in a specially equipped basement of the villa where the “master” worked, a man who specialized in preserving biological materials for collectors. Sheikh al-Rashid personally supervised the process as his reputation with the customer depended on the quality of the work. Christina was brought to the basement at 2:00 in the afternoon on October 9th. There, a man in a medical gown was waiting for her, who introduced himself as a preservation specialist. Next to him was a chair resembling a dentist’s chair and tables with instruments.
The Sheikh explained to the girl in broken Russian, which he had learned specifically for such cases, that her death would be quick and relatively painless if she did not resist. Christina’s last words were addressed to her mother. Although Tatiana would never hear them, the girl asked to tell her mother that she loved her and that she did not want to hurt her family. The Sheikh recorded these words on a dictaphone. He usually attached such recordings to his deliveries as proof of the authenticity of the goods.
The murder was carried out by strangulation with a special noose that left no visible damage to the neck. The master worked carefully as the head had to remain presentable. After Christina’s death, her head was separated from her body with professional surgical instruments, treated with preservative solutions, and placed in a special container for transport. The girl’s body was disposed of in a crematorium oven belonging to one of the Sheikh’s companies. The cremation documents were issued under a fictitious name, and the ashes were scattered in the desert near Dubai. No traces of Christina Loganova’s existence remained in the UAE except for her head, which was now on its way to its new owner.
But Sheikh al-Rashid’s plans were disrupted by an accident that no one could have foreseen. The Saudi prince, who had ordered the trophy, suddenly died of a heart attack 3 days before the planned delivery of the goods. His heirs knew nothing about their father’s collection and were not interested in receiving the order. The Sheikh was left with an expensive shipment that he had nowhere to sell.
Al-Rashid decided to use the situation to his advantage. He had a complicated relationship with some of his business partners in Riyadh who suspected him of fraud in the distribution of profits from joint oil projects. He decided to present Christina’s head as a gift to one of these partners, Sheikh Faisal al-Sabi, hinting that he knew about his secret passions and could make them public at any moment. The gift was packed in an expensive black box with gold trim, as is customary for particularly valuable gifts among the Arab elite. The box was accompanied by a note in Arabic: “Dear brother, please accept this modest gift as a sign of our mutual understanding. I hope it will remind you of the importance of honesty in our relationship.”
On November 15th, Sheikh Faisal al-Sabi hosted a banquet to celebrate the conclusion of a major deal to supply oil equipment. The event took place in one of the halls of the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi, where influential businessmen and representatives of the region’s ruling families were invited. Among the guests were the UAE Minister of Energy, several Saudi princes, and the heads of the largest oil corporations.
The box with the gift was delivered to the hotel by courier service at 7:00 p.m., an hour before the banquet began. The hotel’s security service checked the package using standard methods, X-ray and explosive analysis. Nothing suspicious was found. The box was placed on a special table next to other gifts that guests had brought in honor of the host of the event.
The banquet began at 8:00 p.m. with traditional greetings and toasts. At around 9:00 p.m., Sheikh Faisal decided to open the gifts in the presence of the guests in accordance with local traditions of hospitality. He opened the gifts from the most important guests first, leaving the black box for last as the sender was not indicated.
When Sheikh Faisal’s assistant lifted the lid of the box, the room fell silent for a few seconds. Then panic ensued. The head of a young woman lay on black silk, her eyes closed, her face neatly made up with professional cosmetics. Around her neck hung a thin gold heart-shaped pendant, the very one Christina had received from her parents on her 18th birthday, and had never taken off.
The guests’ reaction was instantaneous and chaotic. Several women fainted, men screamed, waiters dropped their trays of food. Sheikh Faisal stood frozen, staring at the contents of the box. His assistant immediately covered the box with a lid, but it was too late. Dozens of people had already seen what was inside.
The hotel security service activated the emergency protocol within 20 seconds. All exits from the hall were blocked and guests were asked to remain in their seats until the police arrived. The hotel manager personally contacted the Abu Dhabi police chief and reported the incident. However, 5 minutes later, he received a call from someone in government circles demanding that the incident be kept as quiet as possible.
The police arrived 12 minutes after the call. The officers immediately cordoned off the hall and began questioning witnesses. The box containing the head was seized as evidence. However, half an hour later, the situation changed dramatically. A high-ranking official from the UAE Ministry of Interior arrived at the hotel and held a closed meeting with the police leadership. The result of this meeting was a decision to terminate the investigation on the spot. All witnesses were told that there had been an unpleasant prank involving a realistic dummy and were asked not to spread information about what had happened. The banquet guests were offered monetary compensation for moral damage in exchange for signing a non-disclosure agreement.
The hotel’s surveillance camera recordings disappeared that same night. The official version was that the video surveillance system had malfunctioned due to technical problems. The employees who had been working in the hall during the banquet were dismissed the next day with large severance payments and sent on vacation abroad at the hotel’s expense.
Nevertheless, information about the incident leaked out. One of the waiters managed to photograph the contents of the box on his mobile phone before he was forced to delete the pictures. The photo found its way to a local newspaper journalist who published an article about the strange incident at the hotel without naming specific names or circumstances.
The article attracted the attention of the international media. A journalist from a British newspaper contacted Russia Today and reported that the head of a young Slavic woman had been found in Abu Dhabi. This information reached the Russian consulate in the UAE where they began checking lists of missing Russian citizens.
The name Christina Loganova appeared in the missing persons’ database the very next day. Consulate officials contacted the girl’s family and asked them to send photos for comparison. Tatiana Loganova sent recent photos of her daughter, including a close-up of her face, which clearly showed a distinctive scar above her left eyebrow from a childhood injury. The examination showed a complete match. The head from the box belonged to Christina Loganova.
However, it was impossible to obtain official confirmation of this fact from the UAE authorities. The Emirati side stated that no human remains had been found at the Emirates Palace Hotel and that media reports were based on unverified rumors. The Russian consulate sent an official request about the fate of Christina Loganova, but received a reply that this Russian citizen had not registered with the consulate upon arrival in the country as required by law and her whereabouts were unknown. At the same time, the reply did not mention any remains or material evidence found.
The Loganov family tried to get to the truth through the Russian authorities. Sergey Loganov wrote a letter to the Russian president asking for help in investigating his daughter’s murder. The response came from the president’s administration. The case had been transferred to the Foreign Ministry to work with the Emirati side through diplomatic channels. The Russian Foreign Ministry sent a note of protest to the UAE authorities demanding an investigation into the disappearance of the Russian citizen. In response, they received assurances that the Emirati side was ready to cooperate in the search for the missing woman, but that specific evidence that she had indeed been in the UAE was required.
Meanwhile, the fate of the other girls from Christina’s group gradually became clear. Alina from Kiev and Katya from Minsk were found alive 2 weeks after the banquet at the Emirates Palace. They were discovered in a private clinic in Dubai where they were under medical supervision after suffering nervous exhaustion. Both women refused to give detailed testimony about what had happened to them. They told representatives of their country’s consulates that they had come to Dubai of their own free will to work in the entertainment industry and that no one had forced them. All they said about Christina was that they had last seen her at a villa in the Al Barsha area from where she had been taken away by unknown individuals.
Alina and Katya received new documents to replace their allegedly lost ones and flew home accompanied by consular officials. However, upon arrival in Kiev and Minsk, they disappeared from the sight of the authorities and journalists. Attempts to contact them were unsuccessful. Their phones were turned off and they did not show up at their home addresses. Sveta from Kazan was found dead in the morgue of a Dubai city hospital. The official cause of death was a drug overdose. Her body was cremated before her relatives learned of her fate. The ashes were handed over to the Russian consulate without the possibility of an independent examination. Lena from Yekaterinburg and Ina from Moldova have not been found. Their names are on the lists of missing persons, but no traces of their stay in the UAE have been officially found.
The girls’ families continued to search, but to no avail. An investigation by international journalists revealed links between the girls’ disappearance and a human trafficking network operating in the Persian Gulf countries. The Pearl Elite Events Agency turned out to be just one of many front companies used to recruit victims from the former Soviet Union. Journalists have established that the agency was run by a group of people associated with Sheikh Khaled al-Rashid.
This group included citizens of various countries: Igor Kovalenko from Russia, Oksana Petrenko from Ukraine, and Amin Haddad from Lebanon. All of them had experience in the modeling business and the tourism industry which allowed them to easily gain the trust of potential victims. Kovalenko worked in Moscow under the guise of a modeling agency manager and was responsible for finding girls who met the requirements of clients from Arab countries. Petrenko acted as a coordinator and psychologist. She knew how to break down the victims’ resistance and force them to obey the kidnappers’ demands. Haddad provided logistics and liaised with clients in the region.
Sheikh Rashid was a key figure in this scheme. His business included oil companies, construction firms, and a chain of hotels throughout the Middle East. He used his connections and government circles in various countries in the region to ensure relationships. He paid between $200,000 and $1 million for young European women depending on their age and appearance. The scheme was simple and effective. Recruiters found girls in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and other countries in the region, offering them lucrative contracts to work in the modeling or tourism industries.
The victims were brought to the UAE under the guise of tourists or business partners after which their documents were confiscated and the girls themselves were forced to provide intimate services to wealthy clients. Those who agreed to the kidnappers’ terms worked in elite brothels in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and other cities in the region. After several months or years, they were either released home with substantial financial compensation and non-disclosure agreements or sold to other countries. Those who refused to comply disappeared forever.
Christina Loganova fell into the category of those who were to be eliminated. Her stubborn resistance and attempts to contact her family made her dangerous to the organization. In addition, her appearance was a perfect match for Prince Turki, who was looking for a new exhibit for his collection. Christina’s murder was supposed to remain a secret, known only to a small circle of clients and executives.
However, chance ruined the criminals’ plans. Prince Turki al-Faisal died of a heart attack the day before the planned delivery of the goods and Sheikh al-Rashid was left with a cargo that he could not simply throw away. Too much money had been spent on its preparation. The decision to use Christina’s head as a tool to blackmail Sheikh Faisal turned out to be a fatal mistake. Al-Rashid underestimated the public’s reaction to such a shocking incident. The photo from the Emirates Palace Hotel ended up on the internet and despite all the efforts of the UAE authorities, it was impossible to stop the spread of information.
International human rights organizations joined the investigation after Christina Loganova’s story received widespread publicity. Amnesty International sent an official request to the UAE authorities demanding an independent investigation into human trafficking in the country. The European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning the inaction of the Emirati authorities in the fight against crime.
Under pressure from the international community, the UAE authorities were forced to take visible measures. A special commission to combat human trafficking was set up which carried out several high-profile arrests of minor accomplices of the criminal network. However, the main figures remained untouchable. Sheikh Khaled al-Rashid left the UAE a week after the incident at the Emirates Palace Hotel. Officially, he left for Saudi Arabia where he had extensive business interests due to family circumstances. In fact, it was an escape from a possible investigation as journalists were getting closer and closer to exposing his role in the criminal scheme.
Attempts to extradite al-Rashid for questioning were unsuccessful. The Saudi authorities stated that there were no official charges against him, meaning there were no grounds for extradition. The Russian prosecutor’s office opened a criminal case into the murder of Christina Loganova, but the suspect remained out of reach of the investigation. Igor Kovalenko, a Russian member of the criminal group, was arrested in Moscow at the request of Interpol. However, he was released on bail 3 days later and disappeared a week later. According to unconfirmed reports, he is in one of the Latin American countries under a new name. Ukrainian Oksana Petrenko and Lebanese Amin Haddad also escaped justice.
Christina Loganova’s family continues to fight for justice despite obstacles from officials in various countries. Tatiana Loganova has set up a charitable foundation to help the families of human trafficking victims, which assists in the search for missing girls and provides legal support to their relatives. The fund has gathered evidence of the activities of several other criminal groups using similar schemes to lure victims from the former Soviet Union. In two years of operation, the fund has managed to rescue 23 girls who fell victim to human traffickers in various countries in the Middle East.
Journalistic investigations have revealed the scale of the human trafficking problem in the Persian Gulf region. Experts estimate that between 3,000 and 5,000 young women from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe fall victim to such schemes every year. Most governments in the region prefer to keep quiet about the problem as publicizing it could damage the country’s image as tourist destinations. Corruption in law enforcement agencies and close ties between criminals and the ruling elites make combating human trafficking an extremely difficult task.
The story of Christina Loganova has become a symbol of this problem. Her photo is posted on the websites of dozens of human rights organizations as a reminder that behind the beautiful facades of Dubai’s luxury hotels and shopping malls lies the cruel reality of modern slavery. The Emirates Palace Hotel, where the incident with Christina’s head took place, continues to operate as usual. Official representatives of the hotel claim that no incident took place within its walls and that all media reports are based on unreliable information. The hall where Sheikh Faisal’s banquet was held has been completely renovated and refurbished.
Sheikh Faisal al-Sabi who received the gruesome gift left the business and moved to London where he leads a reclusive lifestyle. According to acquaintances, the incident seriously undermined his mental health. He refuses to discuss what happened and threatens legal action against any journalist who tries to contact him. The Pearl Elite Events Agency was officially liquidated, but dozens of new front companies with similar operating schemes have appeared in its place. The criminals simply changed their name and continued their activities, using new channels to recruit victims through social networks and messengers.
The Russian authorities have tightened controls on young women traveling to the Persian Gulf countries, but these measures are only formal. Girls still easily obtain tourist visas and fly to the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, and other countries in the region, unaware of the dangers that await them. Interpol has included Sheikh Khaled al-Rashid on its list of most wanted criminals, but his whereabouts remain unknown. According to unconfirmed reports, he lives in Yemen under the protection of a local tribal leader with whom he has longstanding business ties.
Prince Turki al-Faisal, for whom Christina’s head was intended, was buried with honors befitting a member of the royal family. The Saudi authorities prefer not to discuss his perverted hobbies, but journalists have managed to find out that a room with human remains of various origins was discovered in his palace. The prince’s collection was secretly destroyed by order of the king of Saudi Arabia, who did not want an international scandal. Palace servants who knew about the existence of the collection received large monetary compensation in exchange for their silence and were transferred to work in other residences of the royal family.
Christina Loganova’s body was never found. According to the testimony of the surviving victims of the criminal group, the remains of the girls were usually cremated in special ovens and the ashes scattered in the desert. Christina’s family erected a monument in a Novosibirsk cemetery. Although the grave remains symbolic, the case of Christina Loganova formally remains open in Russia, but there are no real prospects for its resolution. The main suspects are hiding in countries that do not extradite their citizens or persons under their protection. Witnesses are either dead or intimidated and refuse to testify.
The story took a new turn in 2024 when a woman identifying herself as Oksana Petrenko was arrested in Istanbul. However, forensic examination showed that the detainee had different fingerprints and was not the wanted criminal. The real Petrenko remains at large. Christina’s mother, Tatiana Loganova, continues to receive anonymous threats demanding that she stop the foundation’s activities and the search for her daughter’s killers. Several times unknown individuals tried to break into her apartment, but thanks to the security system installed, the attempts were thwarted. The police are investigating these incidents, but the perpetrators have not been found.
Christina’s father, Sergey Loganov, could not withstand the psychological pressure and began to abuse alcohol. A year after his daughter’s death, he was fired from the factory for violating labor discipline. He is currently undergoing treatment for alcohol addiction at a specialized clinic. Christina’s friend Anna, who was the first to raise the alarm about her disappearance, immigrated to Canada and works there as a legal adviser for an organization that helps victims of human trafficking. She regularly speaks at international conferences telling Christina’s story as an example of what carelessness can lead to for young girls.
The social networks where Christina ran her beauty blog deleted her accounts at the request of the UAE authorities. The official reason was a violation of community rules. In fact, it was an attempt to erase all traces of the girl from the internet so that her story would not draw attention to the problem of human trafficking in the region.
Nevertheless, Christina Loganova’s name became known far beyond Russia. Her story formed the basis of a documentary film that was shown at European film festivals and won several awards. The film is banned from screening in the Persian Gulf countries, but is widely distributed via the internet. International organizations are using Christina’s case as a precedent to pressure governments in the region to step up the fight against human trafficking. However, real change is slow because too many influential people have a stake in maintaining the status quo.
Christina Loganova’s story remains unfinished. Her killers are still at large. The criminal network continues to operate under different names and new victims fall into the same traps. The black gift box with the head of a 22-year-old girl has become a symbol of impunity and the authorities’ indifference to the fate of ordinary people. In the Persian Gulf countries, where oil dollars buy silence and create the illusion of prosperity, such parcels do not really become a reason for serious investigation. Behind the glittering facades of skyscrapers and luxury hotels lies a world where human life has a price. And justice is sold to the highest bidder
