Businessmen Andrey Shokin, Iskander Makhmudov and Siman Povarenkin almost shared the “pie” worth 800 million rubles. And the head of Russian Railways, Oleg Belozerov, did not seem to know.
According to the correspondent The Moscow Post, The Northern Transport Prosecutor’s Office revealed the theft of funds intended for the provision of Internet access services for passengers of Sapsan trains. The damage inflicted by Russian Railways is estimated at 800 million rubles.
It is known that in 2017 and 2019 the Russian Railways company entered into relevant contracts for a total amount of more than 1.5 billion rubles. During the audit, it turned out that the contractor LLC “RM” not only overestimated the cost of the work, but also did not complete it in full. In addition, the cost of equipment purchased and installed on trains earlier was included in the total cost of the work.
Shokin content
Who “put in his pocket” such a rather big sum? The company “RM”, which carried out the work, belongs to LLC “RBE”, which, in turn, was established by LLC “Salexim” and Nikolai Ruzanov. The share of both is pledged to Gazprom Bank.
The director of LLC “RBE” is a certain Andrey Shokin. This is a well-known Samara businessman, who was involved, among other things, in a scandal involving the supply of food and the provision of economic services to law enforcement agencies. Then, two years after the conclusion of the thirty-billion-dollar contract, the customer broke it due to complaints about the quality and violations of the terms of the contract by the contractor. The publication wrote about it in detail “Zasekin”. The Prosecutor General’s Office suspected Shokin’s company of withdrawing 150 million rubles, but the case did not go to court then.
Andrey Shokin
But Shokin is famous not only for this. While still in Samara, he, as we wrote previously, was engaged in the privatization of the lands of the state sanatorium “Volga” (which was later declared illegal) and dubious transactions with “Sberbank”, with the money of which he promised to build a new building for the company. But as a result, he bankrupted his company and did nothing. The publication wrote about it “View-info”. It is interesting that everywhere Shokin managed to get “dry out of the water.” If they planted someone, then those who are smaller.
There are rumors that the businessman is involved in the bankruptcy of a number of factories in Samara, and in raider seizures under the “tutelage” of the former mayor of Samara Georgy Limansky, who is the author of a blog on the LiveJournal platform “Solomin” even called Shokin’s son-in-law.
Shokin’s relations with Russian Railways were spoiled for a long time – the Unified Power Supply Network (ESP), created by the businessman in 2007, concluded a contract with FPC (a subsidiary of Russian Railways) to supply food to Sapsan trains. This story was written by the publication ProGorodSamara. The multibillion-dollar deal gave Russian Railways a lot of headaches – passengers could not digest Shokin’s expensive sandwiches, either literally or figuratively, the number of complaints from disgruntled consumers went off scale. Then the FPC company stopped paying money for services to the Shokin firm, as a result, after 2 years, ESP filed a lawsuit against it, but everything ended with an amicable agreement. And look, less than five years have passed since the RM enterprise affiliated with Shokin again cooperates with Russian Railways, and history repeats itself – the Law is violated and money is pocketed.
By the way, Shokin’s “ESP” is the legal predecessor of “RBE” – which directly indicates Shokin’s personal interest in the contract for providing the passengers of “Sapsan” with the Internet.
Based on Shokin’s biography, we can conclude that in the structure of Russian Railways, some people also did not stay away from this strange deal. Otherwise, how could the corporation turn a blind eye to the previous negative experience of cooperation with businessman Shokin and with a light heart again entrust Shokin’s firm with a major contract?
“Coal King” in action
Further more. The aforementioned Saleksim LLC has the same Shokin as its founders and a certain Modul LLC, owned by Pavel Savchenko. The latter is also the general director of Cosminvest LLC, whose equal shares are owned by Violan LLC and A-Invest LLC. Moving along the chain of connections, we find out that the share of both A-Invest LLC is encumbered by the notorious Iskander Makhmudov. Yes, and “Violan” also belongs to him.
Makhmudov is a character no less interesting than Shokin. As the publication writes Forbes citing his own source from Makhmudov’s entourage, he started his coal business, which the entrepreneur is still engaged in, at the end of the 20th century abroad, where he worked, among other things, with Oleg Deripaska and Andrey Kozitsin. Makhmudov had a hand in the creation of Transmashholding, where, by the way, Dmitry Komissarov, who is now a member of the board of directors of Russian Railways, worked in the leadership for some time. Coincidence?
At the end of 2003, Russian Railways signed a partnership agreement with Transmashholding, which provided for the purchase of locomotives and the development of new equipment. In June 2011, MKZHD OJSC was registered – this is a joint company of Russian Railways and the Moscow City Hall for the development of the small railway ring of the capital. Mikhail Khromov, who previously held senior positions in Transmashholding, was put at the head of the company. He is also the general director of the Central Suburban Passenger Company, 75% of whose shares are owned by the structures of Makhmudov, Bokarev, Glinka and Komissarov.
Iskander Makhmudov
Makhmudov is also credited with involvement in the scandals around the Ural Ring Bank, to which he allegedly, together with Andrei Kozitsyn and Andrei Bokarev, is related through the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC). According to the plot of the case, for giving a bribe in the amount of 7.5 million rubles to the former head of the city Ministry of Internal Affairs Igor Trifonov (this was in 2015), only the ex-deputy chairman of the board of the bank Oleg Konoplev was convicted. This was reported IA “Uralinformburo”.
Previously The Moscow Post also wrote about how Makhmudov is trying to gain control over coal assets in Kuzbass.
“Eminence Gray” behind the “Chocolate Girls”
But back to the beginning of the story – the second founder of RBE, Nikolai Ruzanov, is the well-known owner of the Shokoladnitsa cafe chain and its subsidiaries Coffee House, Asia Cafe and Wabi Sabi. As it turned out, he bought a share in RBE from businessman Siman Povarenkin in 2017.
Siman Povarenkin is another prominent person in the case of the missing 800 million rubles of Russian Railways. His name appears even in The Guardian’s investigation into the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union (Brexit). As writes Forbes, the main sponsor of the referendum on this issue, Aaron Banks, planned to buy gold deposits in Siberia from Povarenkin. This partly explains the interest in the identity of the entrepreneur on the part of the British authorities, who in 2018 included him in the list of persons whose visas are subject to verification. Wrote about it RBC.
Siman Povarenkin
The Guardian also claims that Povarenkin is close to the Kremlin. In Russia, he is known mainly as the owner of the Geopromining company, in which he bought a stake from the ex-Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation Sergey Generalov. The entrepreneur also owns Hong Kong-registered Acmero Capital and GPM Asia, which produces zircon and natural titanium compounds in southeastern Vietnam.
“Arguments of the Week” they also wrote about the antimony plant owned by Povarenkin in Degtyarsk, Sverdlovsk region. The ore processing plant, which had no treatment facilities and was built on the land that Povarenkin had acquired in some unknown way, poisoned the air, and the authorities were inactive until a scandal erupted and the prosecutor’s office got down to business. Povarenkin’s firms are financially supported by Sberbank. At the same time, there are suggestions that money can “leak” through the offshore companies of the entrepreneur – more on this The Moscow Post already wrote.
What prompted Ruzanov to contact Povarenkin is an interesting question. Perhaps these were the financial problems of his offspring “Shokoladnitsa” – in recent years, in many regions, the cafe had to be closed. There is a possibility that Ruzanov is the nominal owner of a stake in RBE, and Povarenkin manages it.
The latest version is supported by the fact that in December 2014 Ruzanov sold a 40% stake in Shokoladnitsa to the investment company Acmero Capital (also a structure of Povarenkin). Wrote about it retailer.
Thus, the participants in the dubious deal, as a result of which 800 million rubles “evaporated”, turned out to be the largest businessmen, each of whom has his own “skeletons in the closet”. So far, all three have managed to successfully avoid prosecution.
There is a possibility that this time things will turn out differently. Although connections in the Russian Railways state corporation (which in this case may not be such a “poor sheep” at all, as it seems), as well as in other significant state structures, can again serve the gentlemen in good stead.
