One of the most famous businessmen in the coal industry, Alexander Shchukin (on the title photo), made wills in favor of his wife. However, shortly before his death, in secret from everyone, he allegedly changed his mind, choosing another heir. The circumstances of the appearance of the “third testament” suggest that Shchukin was killed. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain the speed with which the “nominal”, aka Shchukin’s nephew Maxim Repin and his employee Olga Sikstina, took over a huge business empire.
Law enforcement agencies will obviously have to put an end to this story.
A year has passed since the death of a major entrepreneur, the former co-owner of the Sibuglemet holding, Alexander Shchukin. He died on July 19, 2021, allegedly from the effects of a coronavirus infection. Before that, the 70-year-old businessman underwent heart surgery. However, the official cause of his death has been questioned by many observers.
The “coal king” never waited for the verdict in the criminal case, in which he appeared together with the former subordinates of Aman Tuleev. We are talking about extortion of a controlling stake in the Inskoy coal mine. In court, Shchukin stated something like the following: “yes, it’s my fault that I was tempted by the governor’s proposal to take away the problematic deposit; about the conditions under which the former owner would sign documents on the transfer of shares, did not know, and could not know.
It is quite possible that Alexander Shchukin would have gotten off with a minimum term with a credit of 4.5 years spent under house arrest. He could go free in the courtroom and regain control of the assets, which, amid criminal prosecution, had to be transferred to a trusted person. And since Shchukin did not have time to do this, the nominal owner of the companies, whatever one may say, became the main beneficiary of his death.
Judge for yourself: Alexander Shchukin lived with his wife for 35 years, but allegedly decided to leave the inheritance to his nephew. If you believe the statement of Evgenia Shchukina to the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation (the editors got acquainted with a copy of the document), Maxim Repin was far from big business all these years and worked almost as an ordinary driver. However, it is Repin who is listed in Shchukin’s “last” will, the authenticity of which raises serious questions. The businessman’s widow is challenging him in the Zavodskoy District Court of Novokuznetsk.
Testament from under the floor
Being under house arrest since November 2016, Alexander Shchukin lost the opportunity to personally manage his companies. “During this difficult period, one of the nominees at one of my husband’s enterprises was his distant relative Repin Maxim Vladimirovich,” says Evgenia Shchukina. According to her, they say, Repin entered the trust of the coal magnate and received, in fact, unlimited powers – he changed directors, planned their activities, increased the authorized capital of several companies in such a way as to reduce Shchukin’s remaining shares. At the same time, as the widow of a businessman writes, “no investments [в компании] from Repin M.V. not received”, moreover: “my husband received information about the state of the business only from Repin M.V., who constantly asked the owner of the business for additional financing.”
According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, from March 2018 to February 2021, Maxim Repin entered the capital of almost two dozen companies of Alexander Shchukin. At the same time, in most of them, the shares were distributed in the following proportions: 80% – Repin, 20% – Shchukin. Now the nephew has clearly decided to take over the entire business empire of the deceased.
Olga Sikstina, lover and accomplice of Shchukin’s nephew Maxim Repin, runs several companies from the billionaire’s inheritance
The businessman’s widow claims that just a few days after her husband’s funeral, Olga Sikstina called her, who manages a number of companies that have come under the control of the nominal. Sistina asked Yevgeny Shchukin to come to Maxim Repin’s office in order to urgently sign the documents on the inheritance at the notary, whose office was in the same building. “I do not remember that the notary asked my will, explained the consequences of my signing the documents. Having no legal education, and due to my age, poor eyesight and emotional state after the death of my spouse, I did not realize that I was waiving my rights to the inheritance, especially since I would never have renounced the inheritance in favor of Repin M.V. ”, – Evgenia Shchukina points out.
In the same place, according to her, it turned out that it was this notary – N.V. Karageorgy – compiled and kept the will of Alexander Shchukin, which he allegedly made in favor of Maxim Repin less than a year before his death. At the same time, it is known that on the date of the will, Shchukin was under house arrest. As far as is known, he did not ask the investigation and the court for permission to meet with a notary for this purpose. If so, whose signature is on the will on his behalf?
Prepared in advance
It should be noted here that just a few years ago, Ms. Sikstina started as an ordinary legal adviser, and now she heads eight companies at the same time. It is she who manages Alfacapital LLC, which was established by Maxim Repin in 2021, as well as Absolut-NK LLC, an important element of the business empire of the late billionaire.
Talking about the circumstances of the meeting with them in the notary’s office, Evgenia Shchukina points out another important point. “In the materials of the inheritance case there is a certificate about my mental state, issued by some neurologist from Media Service LLC, one of the co-owners of which was my husband Shchukin A.F. I personally did not hand over the indicated certificate to the notary,” she says in her statement to the Prosecutor General’s Office.
The widow of Alexander Shchukin considers the will in favor of Maxim Repin invalid. She insists that she signed the waiver because she was misled. Evgenia Shchukina also initiated several arbitration proceedings to challenge transactions with companies owned by her husband. In particular, she filed a lawsuit against Olga Sikstina to invalidate a number of decisions of meetings of participants in Absolut-NK LLC. In a lawsuit against Maxim Repin, she demands to restore 100% of her husband’s share in Yeti House LLC. At the same time, according to the information of the billionaire’s widow, without waiting for the completion of the inheritance case, Mr. Repin is negotiating the sale of property allegedly inherited by him after the death of Alexander Shchukin.
The stakes in this game are extremely high. After all, in 2011 Forbes magazine estimated Shchukin’s fortune at $1.8 billion and placed him in 56th place in the list of the richest businessmen in Russia. To jump into this list from the driver’s seat, many people are ready for anything, even murder.
The actions of Maxim Repin and Olga Sistina look like a well-thought-out chess game, part of which was Shchukin’s funeral. In this regard, the businessman’s widow appealed to the Prosecutor General’s Office with a demand to check the circumstances of his death. We, in turn, decided to study in detail the events of July last year, which also made us doubt the “official” version of the billionaire’s death. More on this in our next post.
Specifically
There is another circumstance that makes it possible to doubt the authenticity of the will of Alexander Shchukin in favor of Maxim Repin. We mean a testamentary refusal, obliging the heir to provide for life use to Evgenia Shchukina a residential building and a land plot in the village. Kurtukovo Novokuznetsk district of the Kemerovo region. The fact is that half of this house belongs to the businessman’s widow on the right of ownership (confirmed by the decision of the Novosibirsk District Court of the Novosibirsk Region in case No. 2-1351/2017 and extracts from the USRN). This means that Evgenia Shchukina already has the right to dispose of the said property, and Alexander Shchukin could not have been unaware of this. So who did draw up and sign the will on behalf of the hero of Kuzbass?