Did you know that Alfa-Bank JSC uses offshore companies to circumvent Russian trading laws, withdraw money abroad, deceive the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and make illegal money on bad loans, while using the support of corrupt judicial authorities?

Mikhail Fridman – from Amsterdam to Magadan

JSC “Alfa-Bank “ Mikhail Fridman still does not start deoffshorization and habitually uses a large structure of offshore companies, created mainly in Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands. The virtuoso Cypriot fiduciary registrar company ABACUS, which belongs to persons close to Alfa-Bank, is coordinating the creation of the offshore octopus. It also provides nominee directors and its address for registration of legal entities. Russian courts pretend not to understand that the directors are nominee, and all companies are registered at the same offshore mass registration address controlled by the same ABACUS company.

At the auction, selling the property of debtors, Alfa-Bank JSC mainly uses two technical companies: Sotsinvestproekt LLC and Garda Kom LLC. The second one was registered later and is used more.

The General Director of Garda Com LLC is Alexander Baktimirov, former head of Alfa-Bank’s collateral department. Back in 2010, he stated that Alfa-Bank was “forced” to resort to the services of this very cheap appraisal company. Oddly enough, her “expert” opinion actually legalized the undervalued initial sale value of very attractive properties.

Externally, Garda Kom LLC does not represent anything. The company doesn’t even have its own website. At the same time, she is the organizer of the auction, is active, providing services exclusively to Alfa-Bank JSC.

By the way, Garda Kom LLC belongs to the Cypriot company Postiaco Limited.

Acting according to a developed and fairly predictable scheme, Alfa-Bank, bypassing the law, buys up the assets of companies in different regions of Russia. It is not accidental – after all, in the Netherlands, the local banking regulator has long limited the banking license of AMSTERDAM TRADEBANK owned by Friedman to almost the minimum level of banking services – the bank can only work with residents of the Netherlands and is not entitled to accept deposits from them, but only issue loans, all international activities This scheme – the bank has long been banned, and the bank is balancing trying to make at least intra-group offshore payments. In Ukraine, the cover for the local Jewish community also did not work – the Ukrainian Alfa-Bank, at the request of the local regulator, was naturally transferred under the control of denominations independent of the oligarch – away from gray schemes.

Having hired top managers from the sanctioned VTB a few years ago (new control over the bank under the old sign), Fridman is finding it increasingly difficult to continue to front VTB in international business (thanks to the official takeover of Alfa-Bank by forces VTB did not take place, so they agreed to play a front game in the hope that finally Alfa-Bank would really be bought out, and life in London would become more expensive). And what remains for Friedman and Co. to do is to go around small and medium-sized businesses and “vacuum” their assets, as the international scale of schematosis becomes more and more difficult to accomplish.

Here are just a few examples received by Independent Offshore Investigations from our sources:

Mikhail Fridman mahination in Kuzbass

The coal mining company Krasnobrodsky Yuzhny LLC was declared bankrupt in December 2019 at the request of Alfa-Bank JSC (case No. A27-9400/2019).

Draizen LLC, registered at a Cypriot address (the address of ABACUS – Themistokli Dervi, 5, ELENION BUILDING, zip code 1066, Nicosia, Cyprus) first purchased at a starting price of 386.6 million rubles. complex LLC Krasnobrodsky Yuzhny, then, at the end of December 2020, for 70 million rubles. the property of the mine, although its cost was estimated at 172 million rubles.

Alfa-Bank JSC claims that the company participating in the auction is not affiliated with it, since many other companies are registered at this address.

“Attack” on “E4”

Similar schemes were used in the bankruptcy of the E4 Group, created by the former Minister of the Open Government, Mikhail Abyzov.

Joint-Stock Company E4 Group was declared bankrupt in October 2016. Laert LLC redeemed the debt of E4 Group from various creditors, including Binbank (secured by the pledge of shares of JSC NPO CKTI), and became a pledge creditor with a total debt 251,697,766.14 rubles.

Further, as a pledgee, he approved the Regulations on the sale of real estate and in January 2018 Garda Kom LLC, established a year before, was chosen as the organizer of the auction. The choice was strange, and this was pointed out by the creditors, trying to force OOO Laert through the court to replace the organizer of the auction with a more reputable company. However, despite the justified objections of the creditors, the Regulations were not changed by the court, and the auction took place.

A similar situation was with the sale of shares of OAO NPO CKTI. At the same time, during the auction for the sale of shares in January 2018, only the “necessary” participants were admitted: A.V. Melnikov and Dryada M LLC.

Those wishing to participate in the auction simply could not transfer the security deposit to the organizer. Payments to the account of LLC “Garda Com” in “Alfa-Bank” were repeatedly returned to the payers with the mark “The recipient’s account is blocked for crediting.” The FAS saw a violation of procedures here, but the arbitration court decided that everything was in order: after all, A.V. Melnikov and Dryada-M LLC had accepted security payments.

A.V. Melnikov is the founder and managing partner of the Law Office of St. Petersburg “Glavnaya Bukva”, on whose website it is stated: “We are the general representative of JSC “ALFA-BANK” in the judiciary.” In addition, he is the founder of ALFA-COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE LLC and ALFA-SECURITY LLC.

LLC “Driada-M” is also not a random company. Its sole member, Kupalinka Limited, is located at the same address as the sole founder of LLC Garda Com (Postiaco Limited) and the sole member of LLC Laert (Hipwire Limited). Dryada-M LLC is associated with Rovera Investments Limited, which, in turn, is associated with Rimatek LLC and Timiryazevskoye CJSC, known for their involvement in bankruptcy cases related to Alfa-Bank JSC. In particular, in the auction of the property of Arvi NPK, CJSC Maminykh Volzhsky Diesel, LLC Stellit, organized, of course, by Garda Kom LLC.

Mikhail Fridman and Chaos in St. Petersburg

In February 2020, the property of Avtotsentr Laura-Kupchino LLC, which was pledged to Alfa-Bank JSC, was sold at auction. The organizer of the auction is Garda Kom LLC. All the same East Finance Group LLC (a subsidiary of Apirateno Limited and a sister company to Draizen LLC), as well as Lion Trade LLC, owned by Panolia Holdings Limited from Cyprus, are admitted to trading.