How Yury Gushchin “mutes” in the Seychelles
The founder of the Guta group became a citizen of Malta and the Seychelles, renounced his middle name, but not raiding.
It is interesting to observe how some Russian oligarchs are trying to “dissolve” in other countries. Today we will tell you a little about the owner of Guta-bank Yuri Gushchin.
Yury Gushchin, the owner of the Guta Group (Guta Bank, United Confectioners, Guta Development), four times convicted during the Soviet era, having bought the passports of Malta (2019) and the passport of the Seychelles, is now called IOURI GOUCHTCHINE. According to his statement, in two countries (Seychelles and Malta), the patronymic Nikolaevich was removed from his name, apparently, in order to identify Gushchin it became simply impossible.
In addition to this, a fairly high-profile lawsuit has recently ended in the Seychelles. Local lawyers sent a court decision explaining how a company associated with Yuri Gushchin, which bought two Seychelles hotels Coral Strand Hotel and Savoy Hotel, tried to buy out for $ 1 the share of the Seychellois owner of the company, which expected millions of dollars in compensation. She flew to Moscow and discussed with Gushchin the sale of her share in the hotel, but she was banally thrown. Of course, Russian businessmen were turned around in a Seychelles court, forcing them to pay the market value of the company’s shares.
Interestingly, in the case file, the lawyers of the Seychelles side mention that one of the loans issued to the company owning the hotel raised suspicions of money laundering. This multimillion-dollar loan from the Russian side appears to be fictitious, as the foreign money was taken as a loan, deposited in a local bank account, and then returned back to the lending company without any use.
Seychellois business: how Guta pays off investments in a hotel
A strange story from the islands: Guta invested up to $ 30 million in a “resort for oligarchs”, and sues 2/3 of the costs from the contractor who worked with her for six months
“A place where you can sleep, eat coconuts and relax,” one of its guests praises the five-star Savoy Seychelles Resort & Spa on Booking.com. In the reviews section of the resource, at least 15% of the messages are in Russian. This hotel has not only visitors from Russia, but also owners – Russians.
Since 2008, Guta has also owned the four-star Coral Strand Hotel located next to the Savoy. Guests praise Coral for excellent views of the Indian Ocean, turtles on the territory, but criticize that the renovation in it “was decades ago.”
In 2011, it was bought by the investment group Guta, Savoy became its second hotel on the islands. After the deal, Guta began restructuring to turn the hotel into a resort for oligarchs with $5,000 a night rooms, Life.ru claimed, citing a source in the group. According to the publication, at that time it was the most ambitious hotel project in the Seychelles, the Russian investor planned to invest about $30 million in it. 700 sq.m. and a spa complex with a Russian steam room — solemnly opened in 2014.
It turned out that Guta is trying to return more than 2/3 of the money invested in it. The Seychelles structure of Guta – Eastern European Engineering Limited (EEEL) – requires € 19 million from the local company Vijay Construction (about $ 22 million at the exchange rate on June 27), Open Media found out from the database of the High Court of London.
As stated in the court materials, EEEL hired a Seychelles contractor in the spring of 2011, but after six months of work, it terminated all contracts with him ahead of schedule and applied to the International Arbitration in Paris demanding compensation for delays and poor quality of work. At the same time, at the time the proceedings began, EEEL paid the construction company only €3 million out of the €20 million provided for in the contract. Vijay Construction rejected all claims.
In 2014, when the hotel opened after a renovation completed by another contractor, the arbitration sided with EEEL and decided to pay it about €14 million. contractor. So far, EEEL has not received any money, the amount, including interest, has grown to €19 million.
Vijay Construction tried to challenge the arbitration decision in the French courts, as well as in the Seychelles. In 2017, the Seychelles Court of Appeal decided not to recognize French jurisdiction in a commercial dispute between EEEL and Vijay Construction.
After that, EEEL tried to obtain a sanction from the High Court of London to seize Vijay Construction’s assets around the world, but the court decided to freeze the company’s assets only in the United Kingdom. At the same time, the judge noted that he himself was not sure of the existence of such assets.
Now, on the Pravo.ru service, the Guta group is looking for a lawyer who is ready to work in the Seychelles. A potential employee must be a specialist in international law and in disputes between residents and non-residents of this state.
The press service of the Guta group did not respond to a request from Open Media about the stories with the Seychelles builders.
Businessman Yuri Gushchin is considered the owner of the Guta group. In 2018, Forbes estimated his fortune at $1 billion. According to Forbes, Gushchin has Seychelles citizenship.
Guta Group specializes in commercial and residential real estate, confectionery and agriculture. According to the company’s website, it manages assets worth €10 billion. Among them is United Confectioners, one of Russia’s largest producers of confectionery and chocolate products, which includes, among other things, the Krasny Oktyabr factory (it is planned to build a residential complex on its territory). complex), the Savoy Hotel in Moscow and the Seychelles, Guta Bank.
KP.Ru, 07/03/2018, “The grandson of a Russian billionaire from the Forbes list committed suicide”: Young, handsome, from a wealthy family. Relatives and friends of 19-year-old Yuri Gushchin-Kuznetsov, the grandson of a billionaire from the Forbes rating, businessman Yuri Gushchin, still cannot understand what pushed the guy to suicide. The body of the deceased was found near his house on the Leningrad highway in the capital on June 15, but the tragedy became known only now. Apparently, influential relatives did their best to avoid publicity. The guy’s father is also a shareholder of the Guta company, his mother is an assistant to the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Igor Shuvalov. Law enforcement agencies are now investigating the tragedy. […]
Yuri Gushchin is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Guta Group. […] In Soviet times, he was a “tsekhovik”, he produced kozinaki. In 1991 he founded Guta-bank. — Inset K.ru