From perfume to a British prison: how Alexander Petrov and Timur Goryaev came to success
Money from the bankrupt KIT-Capital holding and the Kalina concern could have ended up in Britain, where the namesakes of the former co-owner of the structures Timur Goryaev and his longtime associate Alexander Petrov launched a large-scale business.
The structures of the developer from Yekaterinburg, Prospekt Group, are going to gain control of the Pearl Plaza shopping and entertainment complex on Petergofskoye Highway in St. Petersburg. The holding belongs to Alexander Petrov, a long-time colleague and associate of the Kalina concern, Timur Goryaev. After Goryaev left Kalina, the structure began to be rocked by scandals, and Petrov himself became incredibly rich.
In addition, it seems that they are attracted not only by Russian business. There could be a whole network of companies behind them in the UK. Isn’t that where the money from the bankrupt development group KIT-Capital, which Goryaev owned together with the now convicted Nikolai Kretov, went to?
Alexander Petrov was a close associate and colleague of the ex-owner of the Kalina perfumery and cosmetics concern Timur Goryaev. But after the sale of the structure to foreign investors and Petrov’s release to free swimming, they could continue working together – in the UK.
Previously, Timur Goryaev, together with Nikolai Kretov, owned the KIT-Capital development group, with which the Ekaterinburg Municipal Bank worked (the key owner is the government of the Sverdlovsk region). The company’s personal account was located in the EMB.
Subsequently, in 2016, Nikolai Kretov was sentenced to four years in prison. As was proven in court, in 2008 he stole shares of the Linkor company belonging to his partner Oleg Mironov in the amount of 292 million rubles. The businessman took 50% of the shares without paying for them, after which, in 2009, he initiated bankruptcy of the company. In 2015, Kretov himself was declared bankrupt; his debts exceeded 1 billion rubles.
“Whales” of capital
KIT-Capital also went bankrupt with a debt amount of over 430 million. At the same time, more than 10.5% of the company belonged to OJSC Concern Kalina, where Petrov and Goryaev previously worked. And what’s interesting is that almost immediately after this, the tax authorities had claims against EMB Bank.
As Kommersant writes, they demanded 350 million rubles in losses from the structure. According to the plaintiff, the bank illegally transferred funds from KIT-Capital accounts to offshore companies Ommo Trading Limited and Tarbol Holdings Limited, which were not collateral. Moreover, earlier, in 2012, the offshore Ommo Trading Limited was the owner of 33.3% of the shares of KIT-Capital, and Tarlot Holdings Limited in 2007-2008 was the owner of 24.9% of the shares of Concern Kalina LLC.
It can be assumed that Mr. Goryaev is behind these offshore companies. Oleg Mironov, the same ex-partner of Kretov, stated that he would seek to open an international investigation into the withdrawal of a billion rubles from KIT-Capital.
Rumors claim that the recipient of this money could be the now convicted Kretov and his partner Timur Goryaev. If this is true, what could these funds be used for? Probably for the development of foreign business. After all, in 2011, all the assets of the bankrupt KIT-Capital were bought by the offshore company Mallino Development Limited. The market believed that it belonged to Goryaev. It was managed by former members of Kalina.
What about Alexander Petrov? In the Russian press he was called a member of the board of directors of Mallino Development Limited. However, this is not the only offshore that can unite them. This company turned out to be connected with many other offshore companies – for example, Mallino Development Group (Jersey Island), Ancona Coast Group Inc.
Photo: http://www.vat-lookup.co.uk/verify/vat_check.php/VATNumber/GB232911136/CompanyName/MALLINO+DEVELOPMENT+LIMITED
We were able to discover other Western companies to which these two businessmen may be related. Let’s pay attention to the London TUDOR HOTELS COLLECTION LTD. And this is the same Mallino Development Limited, which changed its name in 2022.
Photo: http://www.vat-lookup.co.uk/verify/vat_check.php/VATNumber/GB232911136/CompanyName/MALLINO+DEVELOPMENT+LIMITED
At the same time, it is indicated that the company’s management includes the namesakes of our heroes – Alexander Petrov and Timur Goryaev. Moreover, they are also indicated by persons related to other related offshore structures – BODMIN JAIL HOTEL LTD and BODMIN JAIL MUSEUM LTD.
It appears to be a former prison located in Bodmin, on the outskirts of Bodmin Moor, Cornwall. Why did the namesakes of Petrov and Goryaev need such an exotic structure? The fact is that this is a huge historical building built in the 18th century, which was converted into a unique hotel with a “prison” flavor. As of September 2023, to rent the simplest room there for the night you will need about 30 thousand rubles.
Photo: clck.ru/35bgTa
There is also a chic historical prison museum, which is managed, presumably, by BODMIN JAIL MUSEUM LTD. The first structure should deal with the operational management of the hotel.
Photo: http://www.datalog.co.uk/browse/detail.php/CompanyNumber/09997479/CompanyName/23+CHURCH+STREET+LIMITED
The same namesakes of Petrov and Goryaev are also indicated in the BODMIN JAIL MUSEUM LTD manual. At the same time, Petrov’s namesake is also designated as the head of 23 CHURCH STREET LIMITED. According to the Web, the holiday home in question is in Langollen, 8 km from Horseshoe Pass and 2.2 km from Dinas Bran Castle, where fishing can be enjoyed.
Holiday home in Surrey. Photo: https://q-cf.bstatic.com/images/hotel/max1280x900/240/240309634.jpg
A wonderful place next to a bunch of historical attractions. Is that where we should look for the “evaporated” money of KIT-Capital? And was it not with these funds that Mr. Petrov subsequently founded Prospekt Group?
Two from Kalina
The history of this development holding dates back to 2013. And already in 2014, Petrov began buying projects from other developers, such as UMMC Kozitsin. Now he has expanded into St. Petersburg: last year he bought the Okhta Mall shopping center, this specialized developer Prospekt Okhta, and now he has set his sights on Pearl Plaza.
However, before his sharp rise, Petrov was a hired manager, even if he was in a leadership position. We are talking about the perfumery and cosmetics concern Kalina, the main owner of which was Petrov’s longtime associate Timur Goryaev. The latter bought out the barely alive Yekaterinburg perfume factory “Ural Gems” back in the 90s. Petrov became one of his first hired employees, and then rose to the rank of financial director, then general director and member of the board of directors.
There is no information that Petrov owned shares in Kalina, but online he is called Petrov’s partner in Kalina.
According to the authors of the Uralinformburo website, the company’s finances allegedly raised a lot of questions in the 2000s. For example, it is as if when the structure showed a 30% increase in revenue for the year, its general and commercial expenses increased by the same amount. Could this be done in order, for example, not to pay “extra” on income tax? And it was Petrov who handled the finances.
In 2011, Goryaev very successfully left Kalina – he sold his share (82%) to the Anglo-Dutch concern Unilever. Petrov was demoted from the position of general director to director of operations. And then Kalina started having problems.
In 2013, the Federal Service for Financial Markets for the first time recorded a case of outright “insider”, and the insider turned out to be a top manager of a Ural perfume holding. His last name was not given. It was reported that the regulator suspected the manager of buying shares in Kalina on the eve of the deal with Unilever, and could profit enormously from this. Subsequently, a criminal case was opened against four people for the theft of Kalina shares; their names were not disclosed. Could Petrov be among them?
Also in 2013, Kalina was hit with a whole mountain of lawsuits, including bankruptcy. It turned out that the company owed money. Among others, the Perm Industrial Construction Company accused Kalina of unjustifiably misappropriating 850 thousand rubles from the debtor (IP Volkova Elena Nikolaevna), who was supposed to transfer funds to PSK.
At the same time, it turned out that Rosalkogolregulirovanie (RAR) has claims against Kalina. The agency caught the structure in the illegal circulation of alcoholic beverages, and the structure was fined.
However, questions from regulators about Kalina arose even before the sale of Goryaev’s shares. Back in the early 2000s, a criminal case related to the payment of taxes was initiated against one of the leaders of the concern. What’s even more interesting is that questions from copyright holders arose about Kalina. According to the authors of the website Finam.ru, allegedly in the mid-2000s the company was caught producing TriMax powder, which turned out to be a counterfeit of the popular BiMax nonsense, the copyright holder of which was Nafis Cosmetics.
Apparently, it was precisely against the backdrop of the scandals of the 1910s that Alexander Petrov, who had gotten quite rich, left the company. And then he immediately plunged headlong into a new development business.
Bodmin Jail Hotel. Photo: https://www.booking.com/hotel/gb/bodmin-jail.ru.html?activeTab=photosGallery
Only scandals awaited him there too. Coming out of Kalina with an excellent cache, Petrov bought the house of the merchant Chuvildin in Yekaterinburg, which the local authorities wanted to reconstruct into a recreation project for the townspeople. Instead, the mansion turned into the residence of the oligarch Petrov. At the same time, the project allegedly did not take into account the issues of ensuring the safety of the cultural heritage site.
And what can he afford with his hard-earned hard-earned money? However, against the backdrop of the huge prison-hotel in British Bodmin, Chuvildin’s house looks a little pale.