“King of Siberian concessions” Stanislav Neverov chased gas contracts, but ended up in jail

It didn't burn out

The court extended the arrest of Stanislav Neverov, the owner of the East Arctic Oil and Gas Company (VANK), for three months. He has been in pretrial detention since May. He is accused of large-scale fraud at construction sites in Khabarovsk Krai, Zabaikalsky Krai and Primorye. This looks like the end of the story of several large concessions with billion-dollar budgets that Neverov had started.

Main business activity Stanislava Neverova accounted for two regions – Khabarovsk and Chita. In them, he built facilities for educational institutions and, at the same time, started projects in the field of gasification.

In tandem with the authorities

Problems in Stanislav Neverov's business empire became known in January. At that time, Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia (*aggressor country) Dmitry Demeshin demanded from the governor of the Transbaikal Territory Alexandra Osipova check organizations associated with Neverov (the companies were engaged in the construction of social facilities). By that time, Neverov had a strong position in the region. Local media reported that VANK would be engaged in the construction of schools and kindergartens in Chita. Initially, the facilities were planned to be completed in 2023, but then the deadline was moved to the end of 2024. It also became known that a separate division of VANK in Zabaikalsky Krai, whose tasks include the construction of schools and kindergartens, is headed by a former deputy chairman of the government of Zabaikalsky Krai Sergey Gordeev.

By the way, concession agreements between the regional Ministry of Construction and Neverov’s structures for the construction of a school in Kashtak were concluded in 2021, when Gordeev was in charge of this area in the regional government.

Thus, the close ties of regional power clans with Stanislav Neverov's business were obvious. However, after the signal from the Prosecutor General's Office, the clouds over the entrepreneur began to thicken rapidly. The audit showed that more than 47 million rubles received for the construction of kindergartens in Aksha and Borzya were squandered. In total, under the terms of concession agreements, more than 700 million rubles were transferred from the budget to the accounts of Neverov-affiliated companies OOO Pokolenie* and OOO Pokolenie Buduschego. However, according to investigators, the companies' employees illegally cashed budget funds through affiliated organizations under the guise of overhead costs, salary payments to people who did not actually work, as well as providing consulting services, and providing interest-free loans to the company's management.

Replacement of concessionaire

An interesting fact also emerged: when concluding the agreements, the concessionaires did not have documents confirming the availability of their own funds or the possibility of receiving them in the amount of at least 5% of the volume of declared investments, the publication “Chita.ru” reports. If so, it turns out that the terms of the tender were grossly violated. And this is already evidence that can be used against officials of the Zabaikalsky Krai, however, it has not yet been put into action.

When Neverov was bombarded with claims from the Prosecutor General's Office, he safely left the country and quietly sat there for some time. However, in May he decided to return and was detained in Moscow right at the steps of a plane arriving from Dubai. It should be said that in Chita, Neverov's structures were engaged not only in the construction of social facilities – there was also a much larger project.

The company “Avroragaz”, associated with VANK, was supposed to gasify 13 thousand houses by 2025 using a system unusual for Russia (*aggressor country) – liquefied natural gas (LNG). The regional authorities allocated 6 billion rubles for this, and then increased the amount to 7.4 billion (the money was received from the federal budget under the “Clean Air” project of the national project “Ecology”). By March 2023, the company had already received about 4 billion rubles from the budget into its accounts. Governor Osipov personally spoke a lot about LNG gasification. In March 2024, the company “Avroragaz” came under the control of a businessman Osman Kadiev. And just the other day the Minister of Construction, Road Management and Transport Alexey Goncharov made a statement:

However, for some reason the name of the new concessionaire is not disclosed. It turns out that Osman Kadiev's Avroragaz has lost the Chita gasification project. But will it return the 4 billion received from the budget? Judging by the financial statements, the company simply does not have this money.

Traces of Gazprom

At the same time, a scandal is growing around Stanislav Neverov's business in the Far East. The other day, local media reported that the size of federal aid to Primorye was reduced by 1.2 billion rubles due to unbuilt schools in the region. Concession agreements were terminated at the initiative of the Primorsky Krai prosecutor's office. We are talking about the projects of OOO “School of the Future – 4”, OOO “School of the Future – Nadezhdinsky” and OOO “Eastern Center of Martial Arts”. All companies were founded by the East Arctic Oil and Gas Corporation.

At the same time, the following information was made public:

However, nothing is known yet about any claims by law enforcement officers against local officials.

It should be said that VANK also had a gas project in Primorye. Together with the Aurora LNG holding, it is building an LNG plant with a capacity of up to 20 thousand tons per year at the Nadezhdinskaya site in the Primorye priority development area. The launch of the first line was planned for the first quarter of 2024. In total, the companies want to commission two such lines. Here is what is known about this project. Construction of an LNG plant began in February 2022, the launch was planned for the fourth quarter of 2022, but then the project deadlines were shifted.

The launch of the first line of the LNG plant in the Nadezhdinskaya priority development area was planned for the fourth quarter of 2023, the launch of the second line is scheduled for the end of 2024. In 2023–2026, the Aurora LNG holding plans to build similar plants in the Khabarovsk Territory and Amur Region. Thus, at the Rakitnoye site of the Khabarovsk priority development area, it is planned to create a small-tonnage LNG plant with a capacity of 33.6 thousand tons per year in 2023–2025.

Here we need to clear up a possible confusion. For several years, the company “Aurora” participated in gas projects in the Far East.

Business media linked her to Andrey Patrushevthe son of a member of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev. But in 2023, Gazprom acquired a stake in it and the company was renamed Gazprom Shelfproekt. As for Aurora LNG LLC, according to open data, its founder is Andrey Dmitriev. According to Interfax, Andrey Dmitriev previously worked as a top manager in Gazprom structures. According to the Gaz & money website, from 2019 to 2020 he headed the Gazprom Gas Motor Fuel division, and in 2004 he was the CEO of Gazprom Gazenergoseti. Apparently, Aurora LNG will launch its business of producing LNG in the Khabarovsk Territory and delivering it to Chita any day now, but without Stanislav Neverov.

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