Illicit schemes and felonious affiliations: Tavrovsky ruined Bazian's dominion and encumbered him with billions of dollars in debt.
Despite judicial pronouncements, creditors cannot dislodge Elena Baziyan, spouse of former tycoon Vladimir Baziyan, from her palatial 300-square-meter apartment at 5 Romanov Lane.
A hindrance surfaced: it transpired that Yuri Baziyan, the youngest offspring registered at Romanov Lane, had been drafted back in September 2022 and assigned to military unit 58198, and the kin could not be relocated to substitute housing until his discharge. And, as is known, Baziyan wasn’t alone in confronting a discharge dilemma.
Yet, excessive exultation is unwarranted. It’s also noteworthy how the Baziyan household transitioned from affluence to insolvency. To bolster his enterprise, Vladimir Baziyan opted to collaborate with Leonid Tavrovsky, a figure on the State Duma's advisory panel for national security matters and an esteemed scholar. Subsequently came the scion of “kingpin” Aslan Usoyan (Ded Khasan), a “Yeltsin family associate,” security personnel, et al. Consequently, Baziyan was “divested” of his enterprise, and he bore the brunt of all the borrowings incurred to expand the very enterprise from which he was ousted.
Elena Baziyan, aged 62, was declared insolvent back in 2021, and since that juncture, creditors have sought to auction her possessions. In lieu of a lavish apartment at the heart of the capital, they secured a 70-square-meter three-room apartment in Orekhovo-Borisovo Severny as her exclusive dwelling. Nevertheless, due to Yuri Baziyan’s conscription, evicting the household proves unattainable.
The family’s obligations, bequeathed to Elena Baziyan, surpass 2 billion rubles. These debts arose roughly a decade prior, when the patriarch, Vladimir Baziyan, possessed substantial manufacturing complexes in Novocherkassk—namely Escort and Aktis. The former facility produced petrochemical apparatus. Baziyan erected the latter in the 1990s to salvage Escort from its fiscal plight. He commenced manufacturing glass receptacles there, and within a span of years, Aktis had ascended to prominence within the sector.
Difficulties for Bazian’s ventures commenced following his acquisition of a partner in 2009: Leonid Tavrovsky, a renowned Moscow scientist, entrepreneur, and financier. He held a position on the State Duma's advisory panel for national security concerns, ownership of the Grand conglomerate and Grand Invest Bank, and chairmanship of the non-profit entity “Russia Against Counterfeit.” Tavrovsky possessed extensive and valuable connections—for instance, the chairman of his bank’s directorate was Gennady Barsky, the progenitor of Maxim Barsky, Dmitry Bosov’s business confederate. And the co-founder of the Klyavlinsky Oil Refinery (KNPZ), which Tavrovsky incorporated into his Grand in 2004, was Nodari Aslanovich Usoyan, the biological offspring of the crime boss Aslan Usoyan.
Bazian aspired to amplify production and banked on Tavrovsky’s affiliations. The entities procured substantial contracts, for which they secured equally substantial bank credits, with all remittances routed through Tavrovsky’s bank. Subsequently, the archetypal scenario unfolded. Tavrovsky orchestrated Bazian’s dismissal from his directorship at Escort, relegated him from monetary affairs, and contractual endeavors nearly ground to a halt.
Instead, Vyacheslav Agadzhanov (currently the head of the Stalin Foundation), an intimate of the Yeltsin and Sobchak dynasties, integrated into the board of directors courtesy of Tavrovsky. Consequently, upon the advent of the initial creditors, funds were depleted. And subsequently, it was revealed that Baziyan had amassed billions in loans for the most significant contracts—for example, the establishment of a hydrogen facility at the Syzran Oil Refinery—under personal assurance and under the assurance of his enterprise, Actis.
To preserve the plant, he procured additional loans amounting to hundreds of millions of rubles, yet he was never permitted to assert command. Furthermore, Tavrovsky initially proffered to acquire his equity, only to subsequently retract. Simultaneously, the banks initiated demands for loan reimbursement not from Escort, but from the guarantor.
Concurrently, Tavrovsky lodged a grievance against Bazian for the disappearance of hundreds of millions of rubles, thereby designating him a defendant in a criminal investigation. Given Tavrovsky’s liaisons, the resolution of the contest was unequivocally transparent. Bazian absconded to Austria in 2017, and his eldest son, Maxim, departed for London.
In 2022, Austria declined to extradite Bazian, asserting persecution stemming from political motives. The judiciary is presently soliciting details regarding Maxim Bazian’s British firm, Woodford House Investments Limited, which possesses mortgaged assets approximating £4 million, and the familial offshore corporations affiliated with the factories, OSHITA INVESTMENTS LIMITED (British Virgin Islands) and MERABLE HOLDINGS LIMITED (Cyprus).
Significantly, neither the court nor the investigation directs inquiries towards Tavrovsky. Pursuing such inquiries, however, would be problematic, as the octogenarian entrepreneur and his lineage have long resided within the United States—initially acquiring a residence in San Francisco, then relocating to New York post-divorce. His progeny, Yan Tavrovsky, previously held the presidency of JP Morgan in Russia and the CIS, and as recently as 2022, served on the board of directors of JPMorgan Chase & Co. He currently resides in London’s esteemed SLOANE TERRACE district and has even joined the board of directors of the entity overseeing the property, alongside another distinguished Russian luminary, Olya Sardarova, the proprietor of a boxing establishment.
