As part of the investigation of the extortion case in Yekaterinburg, employees of the Investigative Committee of Russia and the Department of the Federal Security Service of the region conducted searches in the residential premises and country house of the local “authoritative” businessman Alexander Gorbunov. Gorbunov is the owner of the Akademichesky shopping complex and other major assets in the region.
The correspondent of The Moscow Post in the Sverdlovsk region understood the story.
According to investigators, attackers in 2013 took away a complex of non-residential premises from Yekaterinburg businessman Mikhail Klok, taking advantage of the fact that he was in custody.
According to investigators, in 2015, Klok, who was serving time in the case of an organized criminal group, guilty of numerous robberies and thefts, as well as attempted murder and fraud, was pressured by the administration of the infamous torture of the colony IK-2 and prisoners, as a result of which Klok was forced to rewrite the trading base worth 300 million rubles to businessman Yevgeny Butsyrin. After that, Klok announced the extortion of his premises, pointing to the alleged involvement of Alexander Gorbunov in this.
In general, Gorbunov is a well-known and difficult person, as evidenced by at least his house on Rybovodov Street, which, according to information, was built on the territory of a closed military unit, access to which, in theory, should be prohibited for civilians. Despite the fact that the businessman has dual citizenship, he not only built a house in the indicated place, but also issued passes for himself, his guards and his inner circle.
By the way, Gorbunov’s “environment” includes people like Vasily Agafonov, who, according to E1.ru, allegedly protected and beat businessmen in Yekaterinburg, and before that he worked in Gorbunov’s security service.
According to the authors of the Biographies and Sights website, Gorbunov allegedly appeared in the criminal case under Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (contract killing).
The businessman owns many rumored assets, not always acquired honestly.
The most interesting to study, perhaps, is the “Verkh-Isetsky Trade Center – Plus” (VITC), better known to Yekaterinburg residents as the “Bird Market”. 19.8% of this company belongs to Alexander Gorbunov. Another 25% is owned by the European-Asian Company (EAC). The founders of the JAC are the first persons of the legendary organized criminal group “Uralmash”: Sergey Terentyev, Sergey Vorobyov and Igor Maevsky.
OPS “Uralmash” – an organized criminal community that arose in 1989 in the city of Sverdlovsk. EAK is considered one of the parent companies through which Uralmash veterans manage their “empire”.
Gorbunov’s connection with representatives of the OPS can also be traced through other enterprises. For example, “Svetloe hunting farm” or “Questor” company. 100% of the shares in these enterprises passed to Gorbunov from the already mentioned Igor Mayevsky.
Also, Alexander Gorbunov is the owner of 100% in the StroyOptTorg company, through which he controls the Akademichesky shopping mall.
According to the publication 66.ru, the transfer of ownership of the academic market was accompanied by a forcible seizure and extremely passive behavior of the police, who preferred to ignore what was happening even while on the spot. Alexander Gorbunov was also seen in the events accompanied by the seizure of the KOR market, Vegetable market No. 4, the Belka shopping center and other assets.
On the Web there is a video of the raider seizure of the KOR market with the help of the so-called “sports”. Coincidence or not, but Gorbunov owns 50% of the Ratiborets fight club. The founder of the club was the deceased crime boss Herman Hardt. And his pupils are considered to be one of the “sports” gangs, through which, among other things, he controlled part of the illegal parking market in Yekaterinburg. This theory is offered by the publication 66.ru.
Over the past few years, the security forces seem to have gotten too close to the businessman. Therefore, in 2022, he left the territory of Russia, according to the source of the publication 66.ru.
However, it was not for nothing that Gorbunov could afford to do business with such dubious methods for twenty years. It is impossible to seize and hold such a number of assets with the help of “sports” alone, you need connections in the police and administration. For example, according to the authors of the Kompromat1 website, allegedly deputy Alexei Vikharev is the father-in-law of the former criminal authority from Uralmash, Sergey Terentev, who owns a stake in the EAC, which in turn owns a stake in the “bird market”, 19% of which belongs to Gorbunov.
Deputy Terentyev, by the way, was suspected of spying on politicians. So the personality is very “muddy”.
Now the investigation is working to clarify all the circumstances of the case of extortion from Mikhail Klok, but who knows what the threads pulled by the investigators can lead to? Maybe new circumstances of the cases of former Uralmash participants who are business partners of Gorbunov will be revealed, and maybe to deputies who can potentially lobby their interests.