A developer close to the mayor of Novy Urengoy left people without apartments, and the city without social facilities. State money was cashed out and “taken out in packages”
The Municipal Economy Department refused to work with SeverStroyService. According to the Unified Register of Developers, the second largest company in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, in terms of the number of housing being built, failed to complete the construction of a large residential complex in Novy Urengoy in four years. Shareholders of the Happiness Residential Complex fear that they may find themselves in the status of deceived, since SeverStroyService has already been at the center of scandals with the timing and quality of work.
After the mayor’s office of the city could not get a warranty repair of an apartment building, in which people were moved from dilapidated barracks, the head of the city, Andrei Voronov, said that he feared for the fate of “Happiness”. At the same time, participants in the construction market talk about close cooperation between the official and the management of the developer. The companies helped with raising loans to complete the construction of houses, handed over numerous municipal contracts, and even forgave shortcomings in the creation of social facilities. Today the situation has worsened. Due to problems with the quality and timing of the work, even the Municipal Administration of the city terminated one of the last contracts with this contractor. True, market participants do not exclude that SeverStroyService may be led to bankruptcy in order to hide the “financial schemes” that were previously turned. Amirkhan Tsulaev even registered a company that entered the construction site of a new residential complex, the design and preparation of documents for which was carried out by SeverStroyService.
In the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, hundreds of families could not get their apartments in the residential complex “Happiness” at 31A Sibirskaya Street in Novy Urengoy. The nine-story, eight-entrance building with 348 apartments was started by the specialized developer SeverStroyService back in 2018. They promised to put the housing into operation no later than the fourth quarter of 2022, and even the external insulation and finishing of the apartment building has not been completed yet.
“The delivery of the house is planned for April this year. The builders are working, there are few apartments left for sale,” the developer’s sales department said. At the same time, a wider time lag for completion of construction is stated on the LCD website – the second quarter of 2023.
It is worth recalling that back in 2021, after the scandal with the refusal of SeverStroyService to carry out warranty repairs in a high-rise building on Yuzhnaya Street, 52a, built for migrants from dilapidated and dilapidated housing, residents talked about a certain “special status in Novy Urengoy”, which has a construction a company owned by Amerkhan Tsulaev. Deputy of the Tyumen Regional Duma Ivan Vershinin described the meeting with the developer as follows: “Instead of an adequate dialogue, the representative of SeverStroyService was frankly rude to the residents, interrupted, behaved aggressively and defiantly. One gets the impression that he is sure of his 100% impunity.”
Only after the intervention of politicians and public figures, the head of the city, Andrey Voronov, began to comment on the situation with the quality of construction, and also initiated a lawsuit in court demanding warranty repairs. At the same time, he stated that he had fears of failure to meet the deadlines for the completion of the Happiness residential complex. At the same time, they continued to conclude new municipal contracts with the legal entity, including in July 2021 the company became a contractor for the overhaul of the hospital complex at Geologists, 7 (125 million rubles).
In addition to problems with housing construction, the company is experiencing serious difficulties with the execution of government contracts. In particular, by the end of last year, SeverStroyService promised to complete the overhaul of the building of the Polar Owl IDC (Novy Urengoy, microdistrict, Yubileyny, d, 2, bldg 1). The premises for 217 million rubles were to be converted into the Art Residence Center for Creative Spaces and Creative Development of Youth. At the moment, the MKU “Municipal Economy Department”, according to the State Procurement portal, has accepted work from the contractor for 99 million rubles.
Meanwhile, the director of the MKU, Elmar Gadzhiev, told Pravda UrFO that the company had not completed even 30 percent of the work planned. “I can’t say yet when the renovation will be completed. In January, we terminated the contract with this contractor and will be looking for a new contractor. We were not satisfied with the pace and quality of work,” the official stressed. The source of the publication could not comment on the fate of other social construction projects, which today should be carried out by a specialized developer, citing the fact that the district government agencies were the customers.
A source in the political circles of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug said that many of the successes in obtaining and subsequent delivery of government contracts in Novy Urengoy coincide in time with the periods when Andrei Voronov worked in the city administration in the status of deputy head for capital construction, then as deputy governor of the district, and now in the status of mayor . Moreover, in a number of cases, he signed documents allowing the commissioning of real estate, which in fact was not built with high quality. Moreover, in an interview with local media, Mr. Voronov stated that he would negotiate with banks in terms of lending to this organization, explaining that this was necessary to complete the construction of the house.
From 2012 to the present, the company has received more than a billion orders from the municipal structures of the gas capital of the YaNAO alone. The LLC also built housing for migrants under a contract with YNAO FZhS. At the same time, several years ago, security officials and representatives of the Federal Tax Service managed to convict the company of serious financial fraud, including with budgetary funds.
SeverStroyService was prosecuted for tax evasion and ordered to pay tens of millions of rubles to the budget. The company tried to challenge the decision of the fiscals in the Arbitration Court of the YNAO, but was able to cancel only part of the penalties.
The tax authorities, in particular, proved the fact of the withdrawal of funds through the Arkada construction company, which allegedly carried out construction and installation work at the facility “Engineering support for the building site on the street. Tundra town Novy Urengoy.
In this case, the Yekaterinburg Stroykolorit LLC acted as the general contractor for the administration of Novy Urengoy. The company was supposed to build networks for 169 million rubles. In fact, the work at the facility was carried out by the subcontractor represented by SeverStroyService and the companies hired by him. In particular, SK Arkada LLC, according to documents, received 45 million rubles for work at a budget construction site.
“Information on the cash flow on the account of IC Arkada LLC actually indicates that such an account was used to redistribute funds as part of the implementation of the “cash out” scheme of funds through settlement accounts of organizations that have signs of “one-day firms”, subsequently with which the same individuals withdrew funds, ”the arbitration materials say.
The security forces and representatives of the Federal Tax Service identified two people who, by proxy from front companies, received money from banks. They turned out to be Sergei Zorin and Igor Vargich. During interrogations, the first man stated that for 5 thousand rubles a month he provided services for withdrawing cash and transferring it to people whose full names he does not know. “The funds were transferred in packages along with documents (powers of attorney and cash withdrawal checks), the powers of attorney were already signed by the heads of enterprises,” Zorin said.
The second cashier stated that he worked as a courier at TrustM LLC. An employment contract was signed with him, but he could not receive his work book from his former employer after his dismissal. “I was given a power of attorney to receive cash from Pripolyarkombank and Sibneftebank. Under this power of attorney, he withdrew cash and handed it over to unknown people: they were constantly changing – both women and men. The transfer of funds was carried out at the post of Gazprom in the northern part of Novy Urengoy, behind the intersection of the Zhara club, the transfer was carried out in UAZ 89 cars in the region, ”the data of the interrogation of Igor Vargich are cited in the arbitration materials.
As a result, transactions to the accounts of IC Arkada were recognized as fictitious, and SeverStroyService was obliged to pay taxes and penalties for tax crimes. Meanwhile, the further fate of the cashed budget funds has not been established. But participants in the construction market are discussing the possible prospect of bankruptcy of the developer and the transfer of Tsulaev’s assets to a new legal entity. In mid-2022, Elitstroy SZ was registered, which is 100 percent owned by the businessman. This company is responsible for the construction of the Atamari residential complex in the Yagelny microdistrict. A new company received a building permit, but SeverStroyService was responsible for the work at the design stage.