Elite cars and millions in income: what is known about the director of the Gazprom plant arrested in Ufa

Ex-deputy Kurultai and former head of Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat are on trial in Ufa on charges of major fraud Airata Karimova. For many years he headed one of the key factories in the region and was an extremely wealthy man – how it happened that now they are going to judge him, we understand this article.

Long road to success

Airat Karimov was born on January 2, 1968 in Leninogorsk, Tatarstan, follows from his official biography. Educated at the Gubkin State Academy of Oil and Gas, St. Petersburg State University of Engineering and Economics.

In 1990, he began his career as an oil and gas production operator in the Pravdinskneft oil and gas production department of the Yuganskneftegaz association, the largest subsidiary of Yukos, bought out after bankruptcy in 2004 by the little-known company Baikalfinancegroup, which was later acquired by Rosneft.

From 1994 to 2006, Karimov headed the Moscow company Mikas-Plastics, his biography mentions. In later publications, this period was also described with the short wording “was in senior positions in commercial organizations.” It is worth noting that in the years mentioned, according to the Kontur.Focus service, he actually headed some other companies.

The businessman began his career path back in the nineties

In particular, Karimov was a co-owner and director in the companies Giftboard (the operator of a mobile application designed to send gifts by users – goods and services of Moscow institutions), Symbol Inc (judging by the types of activities in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and location, the company was engaged in car maintenance in Moscow), “Kemikal”, “Khim-expert” (both of these Moscow firms specialize in the sale of chemicals).

He was a deputy and co-founder of the Neftekamsk plant of non-woven materials, which for many years has been led by his alleged brother Rustem. The latter also acts as a co-founder of the enterprise together with a businessman Ilyas Mukhatrov, who in the middle of the 2000s went after Airat Karimov to Mikas-Plastics. It has now been liquidated.

Airat (left) and Rustem Karimov. The latter captioned the photo as follows: “As a child, we dreamed of such a horse.”

Mukhtarov also got the Chemical company, which he owns together with a little-known businessman Yuri Shirokov and the Moscow management company “Mercury Capital Trust”, which owns a major contractor of “Gazprom” and “Rosneft” company “Salavatneftekhimremstroy”. A biography on the Unified Republican Innovation Business Portal mentions that in 2006-2007, Airat Karimov also ran Salavatinvest, now a subsidiary of the Bashkir Gazprom, which you may remember as the owner of such unexpected non-core assets as the Rakhat restaurant -Lukum” in the recreation center “Neftekhimik”, hotels “Bashkortostan” and “Zhelanny” in Salavat.

big appointment

In the middle of the 2000s, the businessman “participated” directly in the “national treasure”. Since 2006, he began working in the management of the well-known Bashkir enterprise Salavatnefteorgsintez, which was controlled by Gazprom. In 2007, as he wroteFinam“, the gas giant acquired a controlling stake in the plant for $ 736 million (in rubles “BFM.RU“With reference to the reporting, he estimated this deal at 20.96 billion). In 2011, the company changed its name to Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat.

After the purchase of shares, the company changed its name

In 2014-2016, Karimov was the executive director of Gazprom Pererabotka, which managed the former Salavatnefteorgsintez, and in 2016 he became the CEO of the enterprise alone. In 2018, the businessman showed political ambitions and was elected as a deputy of the Kurultai. Thanks to the declaration of income and property that he submitted then, we know that he came to power as a very accomplished person.

The father of three children and the Gazprom manager by that time owned, according to this document, plots of 15.86 and 14.96 acres with a residential building of 340.9 “squares”, a non-residential building of 152 “squares”, an apartment of 165.4 “square”, three parking spaces, a Mercedes-Benz G 63AMG car, and its annual income exceeded 37.91 million rubles.

Now this “gelik” does not belong to Karimov

The deputy’s wife also reported on her own elite foreign car Mercedes-Benz E 400 4MATIC, as well as two large land plots, an apartment of 89.2 square meters, a parking space, nine non-residential premises, seven of which belonged to her on the right of shared ownership. The woman’s income amounted to more than 54.23 million rubles.

The businessman’s wife is allegedly Nadezhda Karimova – in the 2000s, she was the founder of the Moscow company Stock Logistics, now owned by Rustem Gabdulkhaev, a business partner of Airat Karimov and his brother in the Chemical company, in which he is now the general director. At Nadezhda’s, we found the same Mercedes – according to the database of the Russian Union of Motor Insurers (RSA), it still belongs to her.

The same car of Karimov’s wife

Health problems

Airat Karimov remained as director of Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat until 2021, after which the management powers went to RGD Processing Salavat, the main share of which, through JSC Rusgazdobycha, is owned by Gazprom structures, oligarch Arkady Rotenberg (in particular, represented by his business partner Artem Obolensky) and the non-state pension fund “Welfare”, which is associated with the team of the president of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin.

Leaving the post of general director of Gazprom neftekhim Salavat, Karimov, as reported in Gazprom neftekhim Salavat, retained the position of adviser at the same enterprise. The company explained the transit by the need to speed up the implementation of a new project – the construction of a gas processing plant.

In February 2022, Karimov suddenly left the post of deputy of the Kurultai of Bashkiria, citing family circumstances. This could be due to a deteriorating state of health – according to “Kommersant”, that year he underwent heart surgery after a heart attack. It should be noted that Karimov’s parliamentary career was not very bright – I only remember one strange scandal related to the “monument to the Hulk” in Salavat. Then, at the personal expense of the servant of the people, a memorial was erected to the soldiers-internationalists, the appearance of which was not liked by some citizens.

Opening of the monument in Sterlitamak in 2019

By the end of 2022, the businessman and ex-deputy managed to acquire a 25% stake in the company AutomationSystemsTechnologies (AST), due to a non-competitive concession with which a criminal case was later opened against ex-mayor Salavat Igor Mironovwrote “businessman» (for more details about the fate of the mayor, we discussed in a separate article.). The AST company, among other things, is known as a large power grid in Bashkiria – last fall it flashed in the news when, due to repairs on its networks part of Sterlitamak was left without electricity.

The wife, brother and children of Airat Karimov, judging by the “Contour. Focus”, continue to do business today. Wife Nadezhda is registered in Moscow as an individual entrepreneur, she is engaged in the rental and sale of real estate. Brother Rustem owns a 64% stake and the chair of the director of the Neftekamsk Plant of Nonwoven Materials enterprise, the Razvitie construction company and the Aquavector company for managing fitness centers. Both of the latter organizations are registered in the same building at 77 Gafuri Street, where the StroiTEK developer’s office is located.

The same office

In the companies of this construction group, Stary Center Management Company (SC Stroytek, Stary Center Management Company, Stroytek Center and others), in turn, Airat Karimov himself and his alleged son Azat own shares. In addition, the latter is a co-founder of the Italian restaurant “Papa Gnocchi” on Malaya Dmitrovka in Moscow.

Karimov himself in April 2023 arrested on charges of grand fraud. According to UFA1.RU, the investigation considered that he had illegally privatized the White Deer recreation center, previously owned by the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat company, which he led. According to Karimov’s lawyer Ramil Gizatullin, at the moment his client’s preventive measure has been changed to house arrest.

“The decision was made today in the Supreme Court of Bashkiria,” Gizatullin said in a conversation with UFA1.RU. “We pointed out to the court the state of his health and asked him to choose a preventive measure not related to deprivation of liberty.

At the time of writing, the representative of the press service of Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat did not answer the correspondent’s questions.