True, as BV found out, the dispute over real estate between the parties started two years ago in a Sochi court: there we are talking about 502 million rubles and 8 real estate properties in Moscow. And the girl, apparently, was his common-law wife, who bore the ex-leader two children.
What’s happened
– A 73-year-old top manager of a Gazprom branch has been trying to achieve justice since the spring of 2022. Then the man told the police that between 2015 and 2017 he gave a girl he knew 68 million rubles to buy real estate. However, since then the girl has practically not been in touch, reported the Baza tg channel.
The source claims that “at first the police refused to open a criminal case, but a year later, in May 2023, they opened a case.” And in October, she finally detained 38-year-old Victoria Vitkovskaya, “who took the money from Ivanov.” A criminal case has been initiated against her under the article “Fraud on an especially large scale.” TG channel “Sapa” notes that she has two children.
Dispute over real estate
“BV” discovered that the full namesakes of Mr. Ivanov and Ms. Vitkovskaya became participants in the proceedings in the Central District Court of Sochi, as well as the Krasnodar Regional Court.
Thus, Mr. Ivanov appealed to the Sochi court in 2021 with a demand to recognize the defendant’s receipts as an agency agreement and to recognize the right of ownership of real estate with the termination of the defendant’s rights. We are talking about seven apartments and one building. The city is unknown, only addresses are indicated in the Krasnodar Regional Court. Apparently, we are talking about Moscow. At least the address of the disputed building coincides with the house in the lane. Middle Kislovsky in the center of Moscow.
It follows from the claim that Mr. Ivanov, from November 2015 to June 2017, transferred 502 million rubles to Ms. Vitkovskaya for the purchase of residential and non-residential premises. This money is the personal savings of the plaintiff; the defendant did not have such an amount during the specified period.
At the same time, Ivanov indicated that he entered into agency agreements with Vitkovskaya for each acquired property. Two conditions applied: Vitkovskaya admitted that the money was issued against a receipt and was intended for the purchase of real estate. Secondly, the woman agreed to return the property upon demand.
The ex-head of Orenburg Gazprom indicated in a statement that he and Vitkovskaya have common children – a boy and a girl. At the same time, the marriage with them was not registered, although, apparently, the children bear the father’s surname. Moreover, during the specified period in 2015-2017, Sergei Ivanov was married to citizen Ivanova N.V.
Ivanov and Vitkovskaya planned to use the income from renting out the said real estate to pay for the upbringing and education of their children until they came of age. However, in 2020, the couple separated, and the woman demanded payment of child support.
From the case materials it follows that Ivanov paid them voluntarily, which did not prevent Vitkovskaya from receiving a court order to collect 1/3 of all types of earnings and income for child support. In response, Ivanov sent a claim in June 2021 demanding the return of the above-mentioned property, and it later turned out that the woman had managed to sell two apartments.
Vitkovskaya said that she would not return anything: when the transactions were made, the apartments were not burdened with the obligation to return them to Ivanov’s ownership at his first request. At the same time, she noted that there was no indication in the receipts that she had undertaken to purchase real estate as the property of Ivanov. He also did not issue a power of attorney for the purchase of apartments. There is also no consent from Mr. Ivanov’s wife, who was married at that time, to purchase real estate.
In addition, it was indicated that agency agreements for a number of objects, judging by the dates, were concluded later than the purchase and sale agreements for them. And in general, Vitkovskaya stated that she did not sign any receipts.
“Also, the lack of reality, validity and legality of the receipts is evidenced by the fact that the funds indicated in them were transferred much later than the defendant paid for the purchased disputed real estate,” the court documents say.
The court ordered a handwriting examination at the defendant’s expense; she confirmed that the receipts bear the signature of Victoria Vitkovskaya. The court also considered Ivanov’s claims to be legitimate, recognizing the existence of agency agreements based on the commission model. As for receiving money and concluding contracts after purchasing apartments, the court notes that Vitkovskaya did not dispute the very fact of receiving money from Ivanov. This means that the fact that they were received after the transactions does not contradict the norms of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism).
In the appeal, the decision was not appealed – only the fact of the ban on real estate transactions. And, by the way, it is possible that the indicated amount of 68 million rubles is the cost of three apartments from the package of disputed real estate.
Building in the center of Moscow
It is interesting that at the address in the lane. Sredny Kislovsky in the capital, LLC “Renovatsiya-SK” was registered, created in September 2016. From court documents it follows that it was this company that purchased the property. The main activity of the LLC is rental and management of real estate. Revenue has been declining since 2018, for 2022 – 12.8 million rubles, net profit – 1.8 million rubles.
The building in Kislovsky Lane – 5-10 minutes from the Kremlin – was built in 1917, it has three floors, an area of almost 1.5 thousand square meters. Now it is positioned as an office and hotel center. It was once put up for sale for 269 million rubles. It was noted that the site under the building has been leased for 49 years since 2012.
Victoria Vitkovskaya (TIN issued in the Orenburg region) is listed as the director and founder of Renovatsiya-SK LLC. Before her, the founders included the Moscow JSC Firma Renovatsiya (until 2016 – OJSC). The type of activity is the same, created in 1991. Moreover, its founders included the territorial department of the Federal Property Management Agency for Moscow.
The JSC was liquidated in December 2017 by merging with another legal entity. In 2016, its revenue was 17.7 million rubles, the loss was 819.5 million rubles. In 2013, net profit was 2.2 billion rubles. Assets and capital at the time of liquidation amounted to 3.5 and 3 billion rubles, respectively.
Who is Sergei Ivanov
Mr. Ivanov resigned from his post as general director of Gazprom Dobycha Orenburg LLC in 2015, at the age of 65. Nothing was reported about the reasons, although the Orenburg media voiced one version of the resignation, noting the likelihood that ex-deputy of the Orenburg City Council and ex-head physician of the OrenburgGazprom Industrial Medicine Clinic Sergei Makshantsev could be involved in it.
He “has been trying for several years to conduct inspections and initiate criminal proceedings against the current director.”
“In October 2014, Makshantsev sent a letter to the chairman of the board of directors of the gas monopoly, Viktor Zubkov, in which he allegedly described his suspicions regarding the medical service of Gazprom, accusing it of organizing unauthorized experiments with human biomaterials without the consent of people,” reported the online publication “56 media”.
Local media noted that Sergei Ivanov allegedly wrote a statement addressed to Gazprom Chairman of the Board Alexei Miller at the end of 2014. At the same time, the company’s press service claimed that the ex-manager would become an adviser to the head of Gazprom. Which is not surprising: judging by reports from local publications, Mr. Miller visited Orenburg almost every year.
It is curious that a year after Ivanov’s resignation, Makshantsev again contacted the media with a request to verify this information. However, at his former place of work they could neither confirm nor deny this information.
In 2014-2015, Sergei Ivanov was also a deputy of the Orenburg Legislative Assembly of the 5th convocation. His declared income was 72.3 million rubles and 54.6 million rubles, respectively. He and his wife owned a residential building (230 sq.m.) and two apartments (175.7 sq.m. and 176 sq.m.).
By the way, in 2010, Sergei Ivanov was mentioned as the largest buyer of shares in the Gazprom concern – for $6.4 million. Vedomosti noted that a year earlier it was in second place, but increased its share by 1.5 times to 0.01348%.
And for comparison, they pointed out: the largest package at that time belonging to the members of the board of the concern was that of deputy chairman Alexander Ananenkov: 0.00693%, i.e. almost half as much. Miller has 0.00096%, 14 times less. Mr. Ivanov did not comment on this fact. The publication noted that if he had bought the concern’s rapidly falling shares the day before, they would have cost him 175 million rubles.
At the same time, the source stated that “Gazprom’s dividends are far from the highest in the industry,” and “the same Ivanov, having in his hands a stake in Gazprom worth almost 0.5 billion rubles, should receive 8.5 in 2009 million rubles of dividends.”
Reference. Sergei Ivanov has headed Gazprom Dobycha Orenburg since 2003 (until 2008 the company was called OrenburgGazprom LLC). The company’s website notes that “during his leadership, there was an increase in gas supplies from the Karachaganak field, and the reconstruction and modernization of important facilities of the Orenburg gas complex continued.” Sergei Ivanov came to Gazprom from the post of Minister of Fuel and Energy of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, where he worked for less than a year – from May 2002 to February 2003. Before that, he was first deputy chairman for seven years, and… O. Chairman of the Board of the State Joint Stock Company Chernomorneftegaz. It was in this organization that he began his working career – with a break to manage the production and technical department of the Russian-Vietnamese joint venture Vietsovpetro of the Zarubezhneft association (from 1989 to 1995).