More than 300 projects, 4.5 billion rubles of equity capital and transactions worth more than 50 billion rubles – such impressive figures are full of the front page of the website of the Agaston Investment and Financial Group. According to the website, the main values of the company are expertise, reliability and high profitability. But what is it really? Dubious schemes and promises. Who is Maxim Dolgopolov really?
Shareholder of IFG “Agaston”, a well-known St. Petersburg businessman Maxim Dolgopolov, who has been doing business in Moscow since 2017, together with his associates, have been promising mountains of gold to gullible entrepreneurs for five years now, turning dubious schemes for renting, buying and selling commercial real estate. The company does not disdain similar raider methods of “working” with private property.
The entire top of the company, including Dolgopolov, are people with a dubious past. We do not undertake to assert anything, but an entrepreneur with the same surname in 1996 was convicted under Article 146 (part 2, paragraphs “a” and “b”) of the old Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“robbery by prior agreement by a group of persons using weapons or other objects used as weapons”). It is possible that after the publication of this article, the FSB and the prosecutor’s office will have many questions about the correctional system of the Russian Federation and the Central Internal Affairs Directorate for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.
If all of the above is true, then how could it happen that a person with such a past and such a present is admitted to the election campaign for the State Duma? General Director of IFG “Agaston” Dmitry Golubyatnikov, who received his “lucky ticket” on the hh.ru website, also did not go far. In an ambiguous context, it is mentioned on the network and Daria Solodkovawho runs all the affairs in the “company”. By the way, on the website of the Moscow City Court you can find a resolution in which “Daria Andreevna Solodkova” was convicted in May 2021 of real estate fraud under article 159 part 4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Draw your own conclusions.
Of all this team, it is Daria Solodkova who has the most experience in circuits. It seems that it was she who, from 2014 to 2018, acted on behalf of the investment and project company Strategy, which already has more than a dozen deceived clients on its account. On the Internet, using the appropriate search query, you can easily find a huge amount of negative feedback about the activities of the Strategy IPK and how investors invested in real estate or bought land, after which they found themselves without money and without property. Of course, all these are reviews of unknown people, and for some this information may raise doubts. But all this made us think very seriously.
According to the same reviews, it is clear that, most likely, in order to splurge and divert attention from a dubious reputation, the “business woman” began to act under different names. From Darya Solodkova, according to her passport, she could turn into Darina Wagner, Daria Wagner and Darin Solodkov. But first things first.
Moscow illiquid
Until mid-2020, businessman Maxim Dolgopolov acted on behalf of Investori LLC. He successfully pulled off his real estate schemes here as well.
On the net, you can find an opinion that Dolgopolov allegedly acquired a franchise for opening SPAR stores, which he registered for an affiliated legal entity INVEST RETAIL LLC. And here the scheme could look like this: the company acquires illiquid real estate, getting a good discount from sellers, and then opens its own store there. The lease agreement is drawn up between two affiliated companies, the rental rate is artificially inflated at times, and stores, in order to improve the “liquidity” of the object, simply simply resell their own products to each other. After that, the dealers quickly drain such premises to naive buyers at inflated prices.
Could such a scheme for the sale of illiquid real estate do without Daria Solodkova? Apparently, it was she who, with a frenzy, was looking for “simpletons” in the real estate market and offered them obviously unprofitable objects. So, for example, the store moved out of the premises at Pobedy Park 2 two weeks after the sale of the object. The premises are still empty to this day, although the deal took place back in 2019, and the buyer paid 150 million rubles for it. A similar fate could befall the shops at the addresses of the street. Novopeschanaya d.20, st. Shcherbakovskaya 2, Lytkarino, st. Lenina 2B; Moscow, Maryino settlement, 5.
It is easy to assume that Daria Solodkova had several million rubles in commission from the sale of each object. And if so, then it is easy to guess what a profitable scheme was for Maxim Dolgopolov himself. Probably, after a series of successful transactions for the sale of SPAR stores, Dolgopolov saw talent in Daria, after which he entrusted her with a new, larger project.
When the name of the company “Investori” ceased to inspire confidence among some potential buyers, it was decided to create a new company. This is how the Agaston Investment and Financial Group was born, which some consider to be a personal project of Daria Solodkova.
Daria secured good acquaintances. She struck up a close friendship with the wife of a major official Karen Harutyunyan. Various positive gestures clearly allowed her to win over a new acquaintance and, as a result, could open the door to the development of the capital’s real estate market.
Schemes with entrepreneurs
The first dubious project of IFG “Agaston” was the acquisition of a property on Myasnitskaya Street. Three floors of the Kuznetsov trading house, also known as the House of Porcelain or the House with Mercury, belonged to Alexey Lyakhov. The entrepreneur at that time was in a difficult financial situation. Possessing this information, some “partners” persuaded Mr. Lyakhov to take a loan in the amount of 50 million rubles to solve problems. As a result, Lyakhov was left with nothing. It is not clear whether these “partners” were consultants from the IFG “Agaston”, but the roots could clearly be from there.
The next story is related to the entrepreneur Albert Yesayan. For more than 20 years, Yesayan owned a property at Beskudnikovsky Boulevard, 34, building 1, building 3. Through nominees, some businessmen ingratiated themselves with the businessman and promised to assist him in solving problems with the purchase of rented premises. And then the clearly affiliated company Kverti LLC (IFG Agaston) received all the rights to the object, apparently without even paying the seller even a third of its cost.
After the transfer of the building to the property, Dolgopolov reconstructed the premises, and after that the object was assigned a new cadastral number. Thus, the property in its former form ceased to exist, as well as all the previous rights of the seller. Moreover, information appeared that IFG “Agaston” attracted a target loan from investors for the purchase of this property, allegedly even under the personal guarantee of Maxim Dolgopolov. However, the money to the seller does not seem to have been paid.
“Legal” samostroy
At the beginning of 2021, Dolgopolov’s company strangely legalized a shopping center near the Otradnoye metro station at ul. Decembrists 21G. This object was abandoned for a long time due to the dispute of the previous owners, as well as the lack of part of the title documents. Moreover, in the future, the building could be threatened with demolition in accordance with the same Decree No. 819. The issue, which for a long time was considered unsolvable, was easily promoted by Daria Solodkova, apparently, not without the help of Karen Harutyunyan (deputy director at the Moscow Real Estate Center GKU) . Now on the official website of the IFG “Agaston” you can see an announcement about the leasing of the premises of this shopping center.
How, without connections at the top, “Agaston” managed to erect a building at st. Caspian d.28, it is not clear. Allegedly, the building was built without a single document or compliance with any norms and rules of the urban planning code.
mysterious fire
The schemes in which Solodkova and Dolgopolov may be involved were not lucky enough to please the Honored Coach of the RSFSR, Master of Sports of the USSR in sambo and judo Viktor Alekseevich Zaitsev. Dolgopolov was interested in the building of the judo section, located on Filevsky Boulevard, 6A (apparently on his initiative, Zaitsev was offered to buy a dilapidated building and breathe new life into it). As usual, with this building, too, everything was not so simple.
In 2008, the Moscow Government applied to the Arbitration Court with a claim against Children’s Sports Club DZYU-DO LLC to invalidate the registered ownership of the object of this organization. Despite the fact that the court satisfied the claim in favor of the Government of Moscow, nothing happened for the next 10 years and the building, in fact, remained in the ownership of the sports club. This, of course, was known to the lawyers of the company.
Further, events developed approximately as follows: as soon as the ownership was transferred from the individual to the IFG “Agaston”, the Rosreestr received a demand to deregister the ownership of the sports club on the basis of the same court decision of 2008. At the same time, by a strange coincidence, a fire broke out in the building. Curiously, at the time of the fire, repairs were being carried out in the premises by a team of builders.
The fire and the resulting litigation made it possible to postpone the payment of money indefinitely. The elderly Zaitsev could not stand the nervous tension and on 06/15/2020 passed away from a heart attack. Now the Pyaterochka store is located at this address, as we understand, the Agaston company continues to make a solid profit from renting the premises, even despite the sluggish courts with the Department of City Property of the City of Moscow.
Methods of the nineties
In 2021, Maxim Dolgopolov decided to run for the State Duma, so in the middle of summer 2021 he fully delegated his powers to manage the company to Daria Solodkova and Dmitry Golubyatnikov. By this time, Daria had already become Dolgopolov’s right hand, in fact running the company’s affairs. Daria Solodkova and Dmitry Golubyatnikov slipped even lower in methods.
An indicative, but not the only example of the manner of doing business in the style of the nineties, is the construction of a building at ul. Cheerful house 2. As always, it was built with oddities. But something else is interesting: in December 2020, through another company that did not shine with a reputation, Demetris LLC was awarded a contract for construction and installation work with Barberhouse LLC, whose director is Sergey Rotar.
According to the contractor himself, by the time the work was almost completed, prices on the construction market had risen. Barberhouse LLC did not have enough money to complete the construction, which Rotar informed Darina Solodkova, who oversees this construction. Solodkova and Golubyatnikov seemed to think the contractor had stolen the money.
“They invited me to their office, where they put pressure on me for 7 hours. After that, I signed a loan agreement for 10 million rubles as a guarantee that all construction work would be completed.”– said Sergey Rotar.
After this incident, Dmitry Golubyatnikov went to the city of Tolyatti, where his wife is from, and filed an application with the court in order to recover an obviously non-existent debt.
“When passing the verdict, the judge did not pay attention either to the presence of a dictaphone recording or to the testimony of eyewitnesses that Golubyatnikov did not actually give me any money”Rotar said. “The court decided to recover this money from me, putting me in a critical situation. I contacted the police.”
Further, as expected, Dmitry Golubyatnikov resorted to a proven and unpunished method of taking possession of buildings. In 2021, IFG “Agaston” acquired a building at 7A Electrolitny proezd. Noticing the huge plot of land adjacent to the building, Dmitry Golubyatnikov, apparently, did not stay away from this scheme either. At night, a whole forceful special operation took place: concrete blocks were placed on the adjacent territory with a crane, fencing the site, and guards were posted. The participants have a photo and video confirmation. At the same time, a person resembling Dmitry Golubyatnikov shook in front of the employees of the company of the Kant sports store chain, which owns the land, strange papers about the alleged ownership of the Agaston IFG on this land plot.
Throw dust in your eyes
A natural question arises: how do businessmen manage to turn their schemes? Most likely, buyers and sellers fall for the presentable appearance of businessmen and the gloss of the enterprise: executive cars, drivers and security, an office in the center of Moscow, a promising website and the media head, who ran for the St. Petersburg parliament and the State Duma, owns dozens of companies and often speaks in Media as a real estate expert, and in some publications Maxim Dolgopolov is even called a philanthropist.
The official representative and face of the company is Dmitry Golubyatnikov, despite his dubious past. The company continues to exist and implement various schemes, apparently not without Maxim Dolgopolov’s connections in power structures. At the same time, Maxim Dolgopolov and Dmitry Golubyatnikov continue to actively speak on behalf of the company and give expert comments to serious authoritative media, such as RBC.
Daria Solodkova, she is probably Darina Wagner, practically does not appear in the public field, but she clearly manages the Agaston IFG while in the shadows. He manages tough and uncompromisingly: he immediately puts in his place objectionable colleagues who can guess the real state of affairs.