The editors continue to cover scandals in the activities of the Donstroy developer, which were largely provoked by the head of this company, Alena Deryabina, and Andrey Kostin, head of the state bank VTB, who patronizes her.
The developer Donstroy, associated with the state bank VTB, has found itself at the center of a new scandal over the Ostrov residential complex under construction in the capital. From advertising it follows that it will be very environmentally friendly, but in reality everything can be different. The complex is being built next to the former industrial zone.
So, the first quarter will appear close to the former chemical plant “Galalit”. Dichloroethane was stored on the territory of the enterprise, and production waste was poured into the river. Back in 1967, the plant was recognized as dangerous and closed, but the reclamation and excavation has not been carried out since then. Apparently, this does not bother either the developer or the Moscow mayor’s office.
The infamous Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin canceled inspections of developers, so it is not known how the quality of apartments in the Ostrov complex will be determined. To “Donstroy” repeatedly there were claims regarding the quality of housing. In the Life on Plyushchikha residential complex, the Moscow State Construction Supervision Committee found out even before the pandemic that the developer had forgotten about insulation and smoke ventilation. Moreover, he forged the data in the notice of completion of construction.
Sanctions against VTB may mean that Donstroy will have to get used to smaller amounts of funding. Earlier, the company announced its intention to attract partners from Turkey, China and India to cooperation. But the Russian developer has huge debts, which foreign investors probably do not know about. At the same time, it was the debts that led to the fact that Donstroy was owned by the state bank VTB. He bought it for a symbolic 500 rubles, and back in 2009, the developer’s debts exceeded $500 million. Andrey Kostin put Alyona Deryabina at the head of the company, but the position of the developer did not change for the better under her.
What else is on Madame Deryabina’s face?
State Bank VTB controls many companies, and their common feature is huge losses. It would seem that the Demetra Trading company, which is part of the structure of Demetra-Holding, is different. So, last year it became known that only in September the company exported 750 thousand tons of wheat. And at the end of the season, it increased exports by 35% – up to 5 million tons.
Vitaly Sergeychuk, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Demetra-Holding, noted that the company is actively increasing its market share, investing in expanding its branch network and team, and also investing in the digitalization of its own business and the entire industry. At the same time, Sergeychuk drew attention to the fact that the company doubled in terms of revenue, and 63% in terms of loss. At the end of 2019, with a revenue of 42.8 billion rubles, the losses of Demetra Trading amounted to 1.7 billion rubles. And in 2020, revenue reached 84.6 billion rubles, and a loss of 2.8 billion.
It turns out that the company is increasing its turnover, and with it the losses? In this case, the success of Demeter Trading is doubtful. Surprisingly, this does not bother business owners. At the same time, Demetra-Holding is owned not only by VTB Bank represented by Andrey Kostin, but also by Agronov and Marathon Group. Their beneficiaries are Taimuraz Bolloev and son-in-law of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Alexander Vinokurov. Perhaps the owners of Demetra-Holding are not worried about the financial performance of the company, because they know where the proceeds go?
The business of Alexander Vinokurov is tied to offshore companies. Marathon Group, through Marathon Pharma JSC and Marathon Group LLC, is associated with the Cypriot company MG MARATHON GROUP (CYPRUS) LTD. At the same time, Demetra-Holding is increasing not only revenue, losses, but also assets. Thus, the company owns 75% of the Smartseeds digital platform for grain transportation in Russia, 50% of the Pole.rf marketplace for the agricultural business, and other assets. In addition, the company became the owner of Russia’s largest railway operator, Rusagrotrans, and companies specializing in the transportation of industrial goods. This means that businessmen can earn huge money from grain exports. According to some reports, we are talking about the amount of 300 million dollars. Can there really be losses with such earnings?
DERYABINA AND KOSTIN “SCARLET SAILS” ON THE DRUM
The editors of Kompromat.VIP drew attention to another failed object of Donstroy. The residential complex with the romantic name “Scarlet Sails” in the north-west of Moscow was advertised as premium-class housing, and the price corresponded to these statements. The tale of high quality collapsed for the first time when on January 14, 2016, the bottom of the elevator collapsed in one of his buildings. And the recent collapse of the facade of the building is another blow to the reputation of the builders, the Donstroy company, which sells very expensive apartments and positions itself as the largest and most reliable developer.
In January 2016, 36-year-old Muscovite Irina Volodina crashed in an elevator shaft after falling from the eighth floor. It was only by chance that her little daughter and her nanny did not manage to get into the elevator with her.
The other day, a new misfortune fell on the Scarlet Sails. To be more precise, the cladding from the residential complex on Aviatsionnaya Street collapsed. Its wreckage fell on cars parked nearby, a motorcycle and the sidewalk, residents and passers-by, fortunately, were not injured.
The high-rise residential complex “Scarlet Porusa” consists of six buildings with a height of 27 to 48 floors. The construction went on from 2001 to 2017.
The cost of apartments in 2001 was about $1.25 thousand per “square”, by 2008 it increased to $7.45 thousand for unfinished apartments and up to $17.8 thousand for finished apartments. Today, an apartment with an area of 128 square meters is offered there for 70 million rubles, a large five-room apartment – for 202 million rubles. The developer of the complex is Donstroy, a leading development company. His portfolio of projects includes millions of square meters of real estate. However, there are several points in the company’s activities that should be taken into account when dealing with it.
Like some other developers, Donstroy quarreled with neighbors, that is, with residents of nearby houses. Those accused the developer of illegal seizure of territories for construction. More than once, the townspeople held rallies in order to stop the actions of the holding. The media reported that during one of these speeches to the public, the protesters were beaten.
Potential home buyers should be aware of other aspects of the construction. In particular, a florid biography Maksim Blazhko. 25-year-old graduate of the Moscow Geological Prospecting Institute in 1994, together with Dmitry Zelenov founded the development company “Donstroy”. The business and premium projects they have implemented (Scarlet Sails is the first of them) have set a high bar for the entire Russian development.
Construction was carried out on borrowed funds, they were mainly credited by VEB and VTB. Then residential projects were brought into a separate block, they were managed by CJSC Donstroy-invest. Its shareholders are five legal entities, personal data about them are not disclosed. But it seems that the largest Russian banks have gradually become them.
CRIMINAL AND CREDITORS
Donstroy-invest had a “daughter” – OOO Construction Trust Donstroy. In August 2008, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against the leaders of this company. They were suspected of illegally refunding value added tax (VAT), which was transferred to companies that, according to investigators, had signs of fictitiousness.
However, the controversy has been resolved. In September 2009, the case was suspended. According to some reports, this could be related to a strange deal. As the media wrote Andrey Khorev, the first deputy head of economic security at the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, a subordinate presented an apartment that she had bought the day before … for 9.5 thousand rubles. That is, the general almost free of charge received an elite apartment of 100 square meters in the capital’s residential complex “House on Smolenskaya Embankment”, built by “Donstroy”.
In July 2011, the then interim “president of the Russian Federation” Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on the dismissal of Major General Khorev from his post as having not passed recertification, his subordinate was arrested, a participant in the events, a police captain, managed to escape. Nevertheless, the apartment remained with Khorev’s father, and in September 2012, the Donstroy case was finally closed.
In 2009, the financial condition of the company led to the restructuring of the debt to VTB Bank, where Donstroy took a loan for development, its amount was $500 million. -invest”, which owned the developer’s housing projects, for a symbolic 500 rubles.
In September 2009, it became known that another and a controlling stake was transferred to Sberbank – a subsidiary of Donstroy DS Development LLC. It was engaged in the construction and management of commercial real estate, along with the Nordstar Tower business complex (a high-rise office center on the border of the Northern and Central districts of the capital, second only to Moscow City in height). The reason is the same – the impossibility of paying the debt of a banking organization. Later, the debt in the amount of 20 billion rubles was restructured. Part of the debt was repaid by transferring the Nordstar Tower business complex to Sberbank.
Thus, the business of the developer Donstroy was divided between Sberbank and VTB for a long time.
UNDER THE COVER OF KOSTIN AND DERYABINA
On this trouble Maksim Blazhko have not ended. In 2016, when he owned 90% LLC “Rita”which owns the River Tower construction company, Blazhko demanded bankruptcy Bank “Russian Capital”. The developer’s debt to this bank then reached 4 billion rubles.
By 2011, Blazhko also owned the Schuka shopping and entertainment center (total area 100,000 sq m), which rented out its premises. The company managing the center took a $275 million loan from Sberbank and failed to repay it on time.
In 2015, Sberbank assigned its claims on Pike to the Cypriot offshore Riverstretch Trading & Investments Ltd. According to the investigation, she suffered damage in the amount of at least $299 million. Blazhko was placed under house arrest, then they agreed: the building of the Schuka shopping center was transferred to the creditor as a compensation.
In 2021, the founder of Donstroy, Maxim Blazhko, lost his last asset. His former problematic project, Neboruchny Home&SPA, was undertaken by the mayor’s office to complete the construction with the help of the Fund for the Protection of the Rights of Shareholders. This will require about 4-5 billion rubles.
It remains to be added that both JSC SK Donstroy, registered in October 1998, and Donstroy-invest, which has been operating since April 2001, are now in the process of reorganization. They took pseudonyms – their successors from 2020 were the specialized developers “Freedom” and “House on Tishinka”, respectively. They are located in the same “parent” house on Mosfilmovskaya street. So far, few people are suing them, and it is unclear who will be sued over the collapse of the facade.