Crypto laundress under the “roof” of the Abdulatipovs
Recently, American officials sanctioned and dedicated a separate press release to a Russian woman unknown to the general public. Ekaterina Zhdanova – this is a rather unusual matter, because even Putin (*international criminal)’s oligarchs previously came in whole lists. Zhdanova is accused of helping Russian oligarchs withdraw money by circumventing sanctions, usually using cryptocurrency. The Dossier Center found out who could be the “roof” of such an impressive crypto lady – we are talking about the family of the former president of Dagestan Ramazana Abdulatipova. Ramazan’s son-in-law is a businessman Magomed Musaev known for recently bragging about allegedly purchasing the global media holding Forbes.
However, Zhdanova’s affairs could be of interest not only to American officials, but also to the Russian police. People from her circle were involved in the theft of electricity worth more than 100 million rubles; this money was compensated from the budget of the Moscow region, that is, from the pockets of residents of the Moscow region. The criminal case quickly reached a dead end, although court documents directly point to Zhdanova’s “proxy” as the person directly behind the theft of electricity, noted in the “Dossier.”
What do Americans accuse the Russian party girl of?
American officials accuse the Russian woman Zhdanova of helping her clients withdraw “dirty” money from Russia (*aggressor country), mainly using cryptocurrency. For example, Zhdanova helped a wealthy Russian fraudulently open an investment account, buy real estate, and withdraw a total of $2.3 million to Western Europe, concealing the source of the money. And an unnamed Russian oligarch, with the participation of Zhdanova, tried to transport more than $100 million from Russia (*aggressor country) to the United Arab Emirates.
In general, the meaning of Zhdanova’s services was to ensure that clients could accumulate money in accounts in Dubai that was supposedly of legal origin, which could subsequently be sent all over the world, it follows from the American press release.
Dossier’s interlocutors on the crypto market say that the Russian woman provided a very popular service that is in demand in modern realities.
Ekaterina Zhdanova herself is not the most famous person in the crypto community. Two of the Dossier’s interlocutors had never heard of her before, the third heard something superficially. “She was probably doing some ‘rearrangements’ [денег]but she’s far from a crypto-mom, I don’t even know why the US State Department didn’t like her so much, maybe because of a specific oligarch whom she helped,” says one of the sources.
The third Dossier interlocutor emphasizes that he has not heard about Zhdanova’s connection with large crypto exchanges like Garantex, this is the world’s largest ruble crypto exchange, we talked about it earlier wrote. But I heard about the woman as a socialite, familiar with both stars and big businessmen. He suggests that Zhdanova played the role of an intermediary, bringing people together, that is, she used numerous social acquaintances as a business resource.
Who is Ekaterina Zhdanova
Ekaterina Zhdanova was born in a small village in the Magadan region, studied at school in Barnaul, and then entered the paid department of the Moscow Plekhanovka. In the early 2010s, she began living with her common-law husband Kirill Masliev, who by that time was already the manager of the Federation Tower in Moscow City, as well as a well-known socialite. The couple broke up in 2016, and not very well; Zhdanova was left alone with her little son, her acquaintance tells Dossier.
But her relationship with Masliev allowed her to become part of the Moscow social scene. For example, she became friends with Alla Mikheeva, the star of “Evening Urgant”, also known to millions of Russians from the video “Cabriolet” by the Leningrad group. The telegram channel “VChK-OGPU” wrote that Zhdanova was driven by Mikheeva’s personal driver. Perhaps the friendship between them was unique. Mikheeva did not answer the Dossier question: in the phone of Channel One top manager Sergei Pavlov, Zhdanov was recorded as “Katya Reshala Alla,” as can be seen from the merged databases. Mikheeva herself was distinguished by useful connections for Putin (*international criminal)’s Russia (*aggressor country), for example, she was a close friend Stepan Kovalchukyoung representative Kovalchuk clan we draw a conclusion about this proximity because Mikheeva purchased a car that previously belonged to Stepan Kovalchuk, and she was driven in this car by the driver and security guard of Kovalchukov’s structures, Andrei Baranov.
Around 2017, Zhdanova became involved in cryptocurrencies. So, in the fall, she placed advertisements on Avito, offering the supply of mining equipment from China. And at the beginning of 2018, she published announcements in specialized groups on Vkontakte about the purchase and sale of “huge volumes” of cryptocurrencies – and she did this from her own account and indicating her personal number. This was noticed by subscribers of the closed telegram channel “Cryptocritique”.
A rather remarkable story, which speaks of the complete confidence of Zhdanova’s circle in their impunity, happened in 2019, as can be seen from court documents. Moscow region officials are planning to create the Korolev technopark. The property on the territory of the cluster under construction was transferred to a certain company “Innovative Digital Technologies” (IDT) during bureaucratic procedures. And this company also brought there three forty-foot mining containers with almost a thousand miners, illegal crashed into the power grid near Moscow and quietly mined cryptocurrency for two months, until the electricians noticed something was wrong. By that time, Innovative Digital Technologies had stolen almost 100 million rubles worth of electricity. In 2020, Moscow region investigators opened a criminal case against unidentified representatives of the company. True, it was difficult not to identify the persons: the fact is that there was only one employee working at ICT, who was also the owner of the company and its director at the time of the theft – Yulia Viktorovna Kornilova. The woman worked in several companies associated with Zhdanova, essentially acting as her nominee or “proxy.” For example, Kornilova was listed as the owner of a luxury Mercedes SUV, which Zhdanova’s entire family drove (we’ll talk about this car below). ICT bankruptcy trustee in progress company bankruptcy recorded more than 100 million rubles in debt, including to Yulia Kornilov, as can be seen from the bankruptcy register. But in fact they managed to collect from her less than 700 thousand rublesnothing is known about the fate of the criminal case, and the losses of electricians near Moscow are compensated from the budget.
How illegal transfers to Dubai work
Although American officials mention Zhdanov’s last name in the press release, in fact, for the last few years the woman has been going by the last name Magomedova. In the spring of 2020, she reported in Facebook about his engagement, however, without mentioning the name of the chosen one. The Dossier Center found out that his name is Khadzhi-Murat Magomedov and he is a notable businessman in the market for cash withdrawal and crypto transfers, and with good connections.
How did we even discover Hadji Murat, whom Zhdanova never mentioned on her social networks?
During quarantine, as many remember, Moscow officials required notification of every trip in a personal car. Later, this data, as usual, leaked to the darknet. From such a database it is clear that during the pandemic, Ekaterina Zhdanova, her son Platon Masliev, mother Lyubov Zhdanova, as well as Khadzhi-Murat Magomedov drove a Mercedes SUV registered to “proxy” Yulia Kornilova. The pandemic period occurred in 2020, especially in the spring. It turns out that when Zhdanova announced her engagement, the only Magomedov in her close circle was Hadji Murat. Moreover, the family Mercedes SUV was later rewritten from Korinilova’s name to Patimat Magomedova, Hadji Murad’s mother, which also indicates the closeness of Zhdanova and Hadji Murad.
Zhdanova’s husband (we will continue to call her that) is 35 years old, he was born in Dagestan and grew up in Moscow in a prosecutor’s family. Father Dalgat Magomedov worked in the Prosecutor General’s Office at least in the early 2000s, as can be seen from the merged databases, but possibly later, and brother Mukhtar Magomedov previously worked in the prosecutor’s office of the Moscow region as of 2021, as can be seen from the merged databases. During quarantine, Hadji-Murat, like Zhdanova herself, notified officials about trips to the address Presnenskaya Embankment, 12 – to the Federation Tower “Moscow City”, the famous lair of many crypto dealers.
The Dossier correspondent gained insight into the affairs of Hadji Murad by talking with a close friend of the Magomedov family, Jamilya Ramazanova. We are confident in their friendship, because, for example, Patimat Magomedova, the 61-year-old mother of Hadji Murat, left Jamila’s number with the traffic police and other government agencies as her own. In many phone books, Jamila is listed as “Khadzhi-Murat’s sister” or “Khadzhik’s sister,” although they are not related.
Ramazanova lives in Dubai, she heads the company Mira Holiday Homes, which helps owners of Dubai apartments, usually Russians, rent them out. The Dossier correspondent approached Ramazanova with the following legend: an acquaintance in Russia (*aggressor country) is not allowed to travel abroad, has a lot of cache of illegal origin, would like to send money to Dubai and buy an apartment, what is the best way to do this? We stated that it was Hadji Murat who gave Ramazanova’s phone number – and the interlocutor was extremely frank with us.
“In Dubai, you don’t need to show your source of income to purchase real estate; for this reason, money is transferred here from all over the world. Russian officials buy a lot here, because information is not transferred to Russia (*aggressor country), while the real estate register in Dubai is open, where you can find the owner of the apartment; Dubai purchases of State Duma deputies were recently devoted to FBK investigation, says Ramazanova. — In fact, the “permutation” of illegal money transfers in the jargon of cashers looks like this: your friend transfers cash in an office in Russia (*aggressor country), you come and receive it in an office in Dubai. If they give you dollars there, and here you get dirhams, then it costs about 1–1.5%. But not all developers take cash to purchase an apartment; most only accept bank transfers. A “rearranger” can also help – put your money into your account and make a payment for your apartment, this is a payment from a third party, this is legal. It’s worth another 1%.”
Our interlocutor confirmed that Khadzhi-Murat Magomedov, Zhdanova’s husband, is engaged in precisely the “reshuffles” – that is, the withdrawal of “dirty” money from Russia (*aggressor country), which is what American officials accused Zhdanova of.
How Zhdanova and her husband are connected to the family of the ex-president of Dagestan
Who is behind the hundreds of companies from Dagestan involved in illegal transfers, which the Dossier’s unwitting interlocutor Jamilya Ramazanova talks about? We discovered an important business connection between Ekaterina Zhdanova and her husband Hadzhi-Murat.
In the fall of 2017, Zhdanova became involved in crypto, or at least advertised the supply of mining equipment. And about a year earlier, she had a new business partner – Anton Goncharov, who received ⅔ in Stoleshnikov LLC, which previously belonged only to Zhdanova, managing a small hotel in the center of Moscow.
It seems that very friendly relations have developed between the business partners, Goncharov and Zhdanova and Magomedov even settled next door – in the elite complex “Barkley Plaza” on Prechistenskaya embankment, Goncharov – in a 2* apartment, and Hadji-Murat indicated his address as a 1* apartment (full Apartment numbers are at the disposal of the editors). The partners also drove the same car – the same Mercedes SUV that was Zhdanova’s family; at least, Goncharov’s security guard and driver, named Oleg, happened to park this SUV, as can be seen from the merged databases.
And Goncharov has an important business partner and, perhaps, even a childhood friend – Abdulatip Abdulatipov, the son of Ramazan Abdulatipov, the former head of Dagestan. Let’s list what exactly connects these people. Firstly, as children, Anton and Abdulatip most likely lived not far from each other in the Krylatskoye district of Moscow – by the way, little Khadzhi-Murat Magomedov also lived there. Secondly, Anton Goncharov and Abdulatip Abdulatipov worked in the same company – Sigma Capital of his son Roman Abramovich, visible from the merged databases. Thirdly, in 2016, Goncharov registered the company “DS Services”, and a year later this company was transferred to Abdulatipov, a few years later the tax authorities liquidated this company without finding it at the place of registration; All this time she showed no signs of life. Finally, Goncharov parked the same cars as a man named Maxim Lysov, who parked many cars associated with the Abdulatipov family.
Almost nothing is known about 32-year-old Abdulatip Abdulatipov himself; you can’t even find his photographs in the public domain. The media claimedthat when his father headed Dagestan in 2013-2017, Abdulatip gained control of a company that removes garbage from Makhachkala. Now she is bankrupt.
Ramazan Abdulatipov, although he ruled Dagestan for a short time, is a significant figure in Putin (*international criminal)’s vertical of power. He managed to sit in both the Federation Council and the State Duma, and in recent years he represented Russia (*aggressor country) in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. It seems that this is some kind of parquet position, but recently it had an important meaning: it was Abdulatipov who convinced Islamic countries not to impose sanctions against Russia (*aggressor country) and, in general, to adhere to neutrality in Putin (*international criminal)’s conflict with the Western world – the official himself spoke about this in a recent interview. And Ramazan Abdulatipov is quite familiar with the head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin and his former deputy Igor Sobolevsky: once all three played for the national team Leningrad University in volleyball, which the official also talks about with pleasure.
Abdulatipov’s son-in-law, businessman Magomed Musaev, owner of the Russian Forbes, recently became a hero in the world media. Available editions of The Washington Post turned out to be audio recordings and a video recording where Musaev boasts that he allegedly recently bought the American media holding Forbes, and the frontman of the deal was the young billionaire Austin Russell. These recordings were made a few days before the celebration of Musaev’s 60th birthday in New York. At the same time, the Russian businessman emphasized that his role in this deal was a secret. Later, he denied to journalists his participation in the purchase of American Forbes, and refused to comment on the audio recordings.
Magomed Musaev since 1998 worked at the All-Russian Exhibition Center (VVC), becoming its director in 2004. The All-Russian Exhibition Center was then a spontaneous market with flows of uncontrolled money. In the second half of the 2010s, Musaev became the owner of the Russian Forbes, as well as helped large Dagestan businessmen like Suleiman Kerimov or Magomedov brothers invest in projects in Silicon Valley. Pavel Cherkashin played a key role in these projects – it is this man who now tells The Washington Post what a big role his father-in-law Ramazan Abdulatipov played in Musaev’s life: for example, it was he who brought Musaev and Kerimov together.
As you can see, the political “heavyweight” Ramazan Abdulatipov has influence everywhere – both in Dagestan itself and in Putin (*international criminal)’s power hierarchy. That is why his son can be an important partner for crypto traders like Ekaterina Zhdanova and her husband Khadzhi-Murat Magomedov. These people help Putin (*international criminal)’s elite withdraw money, establishing a pleasant life away from Russia (*aggressor country), but they do not even disdain the primitive theft of electricity for crypto mining.