Did the owner of the “empire” “Eksmo-AST” find his way to success through counterfeit goods?
The founder of the Eksmo publishing holding (today Eksmo-AST) Oleg Novikov is intensively “cleansing” the Internet of publications about his conflict with his ex-wife Marina, as a result of which a woman who received bodily injuries was forced to seek medical help. Materials of the corresponding content were removed from the websites of Express Newspaper, Moskovsky Komsomolets, Komsomolskaya Pravda and a number of other publications. The billionaire calls the news “fake” while his ex-wife refuses to comment to reporters. The incident allegedly took place in the cottage village of Zhukovka on Rublyovka, where the famous “flower house” owned by Novikov is located, worth 3 billion rubles. Its design chronologically coincided with the “absorption” of “Eksmo-AST” publishing houses “Drofa” and “Ventana-Count”, included in the Corporation “Russian Textbook”. But Novikov failed to gain a foothold in the educational literature market: in 2019 he had to sell the Corporation to businessman Alexei Kisin, who was considered a person from the close circle of Arkady Rotenberg. This was preceded by lengthy litigation between Ventana-Count and the Enlightenment publishing house, related to the recovery of billions of dollars in compensation from Novikov’s company for the illegal use of a trademark. As a result, the confrontation ended in a peaceful settlement of the dispute almost simultaneously with the sale of the Russian Textbook. Unable to compete with Enlightenment, Novikov did not stand on ceremony with his own competitors, an example of which is the story of the purchase of the AST group, which was preceded by a criminal case against its founder Yakov Helemsky and his departure to Israel. The founder of Eksmo himself also found himself in the center of attention of the security forces, who at one time investigated a high-profile scam with the release of counterfeit book products, the profit from the sale of which was withdrawn abroad. Considering that Oleg Novikov’s business is tied to numerous offshore companies, proven schemes can still continue to “work”.
Billionaire Novikov “cleanses” the Internet?
Information about the incident with the ex-wife of billionaire Oleg Novikov appeared in the press and telegram channels at the end of last week. Reported, in particular, that 47-year-old Marina Novikova went to one of the hospitals in Odintsovo near Moscow with bruises of her right knee and hip joint. By words patient, she was injured by her ex-husband during a quarrel that took place in a country house in the cottage village of Zhukovka on Rublevka.
The doctors who provided assistance allegedly informed law enforcement officers about the incident, whose tasks included conducting a pre-investigation check. The news drew the attention of the federal media. The most interesting thing soon began: publications about the conflict of former spouses began to quickly retire from internet portals. In particular, a “cleansing” of the websites of such publications as Moskovsky Komsomolets, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Express Gazeta, etc. was noted. copies previously published materials can be found in the memory of search engines.
Almost simultaneously, comments by Novikov himself appeared, refuting reports of any conflict with subsequent assault on his part.
“As far as I know, there was no appeal and there is no verification,” Gazeta.Ru quotes the publication. the words a businessman who described the resonant news as a “fake”.
At the same time, no denials have been received so far from Marina Novikova herself, refusing from interacting with reporters. Although who, no matter how the victim can dot the “i”? Against this background, an opinion is already being expressed, according to which the billionaire is making every effort to resolve the conflict and avoid unnecessary attention from the security forces.
“Flower house” for a book magnate
One of the leading Russian publishers has a house on Rublyovka, just next to Zhukovka. From publications according to the media, the unusual building with a total area of 5.3 thousand square meters, as conceived by the architects, should resemble “an open flower merging with the landscape.” It was erected according to the project of the German bureau “J. Mayer H.” and Russian architect Alexander Erman.
“According to the plan of the architects, the house and nature were to become one. Therefore, there are no sharp corners and straight lines in the construction – only smooth curves and rounded shapes reminiscent of hills and mountains … The house consists of several levels with green roofs that form terraces and in some places merge with the garden, creating a single space. Moreover, such “living” roofs provide a comfortable microclimate in the rooms,” writes edition of AD Magazine.
Experts estimate all this splendor at $ 100 million, the owner himself calls a more modest amount of 3 billion rubles. Previous owner of the land plots where the household is located was the infamous founder of the Euroset company Yevgeny Chichvarkin, who left for London after a lawsuit was filed against him in Russia accusation in organizing the kidnapping of his own employee (later reclassified as aiding in the kidnapping).
In 2009 buyer Chichvarkin’s ruble assets became the offshore company EPA EDV-Dinstleistungs GmbH, whose beneficiaries remain unknown. As for Oleg Novikov, he officially bought two plots in 2013, and the third in 2016. Journalists drew Attention to the fact that the work on the “flower house” project chronologically coincided with the “absorption” by the “Eksmo-AST” group of two publishers of educational literature – “Drofa” and “Ventana-graph”, included in the structure of the publishing house “Russian Textbook”.
Experts expressed the opinion that as a result, the group would become the second largest participant in the “educational” market after “Enlightenment” in terms of turnover. But already in 2019, Novikov had to return to his previously occupied positions as a publisher of “consumer literature” and sell for 6 billion rubles, the Russian Textbook Corporation, which by that time controlled about 30% of the market, the Rustitaninvest company of Alexei Kisin, who was considered a person from the close circle of Arkady Rotenberg.
AT interview Novikov emphasized to Vedomosti that “selling textbooks is good business.” The reason for the implementation of the “Russian Textbook” lies in the restrictions on the part of the Ministry of Education, after the approval of the new federal state educational standard, which excluded almost half of the 482 publications of the corporation from the federal list.
Billion-dollar lawsuit and the “war” for the logo
There are many remarkable moments in the history of Novikov’s relatively short-lived competition with Enlightenment (whose shareholders once included Arkady Rotenberg). For example, in May 2018, the Moscow Arbitration Court satisfied the claim of Enlightenment and ruled to recover more than 3.7 billion rubles from the Ventana-Graf publishing center (the same one that was later sold to Rustitaninvest) – compensation for illegal use of the plaintiff’s trademark in the form of a symbolic globe on manufactured products.
How reported RIA Novosti, in total, about 500 types of textbooks and manuals were identified, published by Ventana-graph using a brand confusingly similar to that used by Enlightenment. As a result, the amount of claims was a calculation of twice the cost of circulation of all types of counterfeit publications.
Defendant of his guilt did not recognize, referring to the fact that the controversial logo was created as the emblem of the Federal State Educational Standard (Federal State Educational Standard) on the instructions of the Russian Academy of Education. And already in June of the same year, Rospatent, according to the statement of Vedanta-Graf, annulled the trademark of the Federal State Educational Standard, owned by Prosveshchenie and denoting the compliance of textbooks with the educational standard, also recognizing its legal protection as invalid.
In October 2019, the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal put an end to the publishers’ dispute, canceling previously rendered decision and terminating the proceedings in connection with the withdrawal of claims and amicable settlement spore. In turn, the Intellectual Property Court dismissed lawsuit “Vedanta-graph” to “Enlightenment” on the recognition of abuse of the right and unfair competition of actions to acquire and use exclusive rights to a trademark that has become the subject of a dispute. Later, the presidium of the same court left the decision unchanged, refusing to satisfy the cassation appeal of the Vedanta Count.
Note that the issue of Enlightenment was finally closed almost simultaneously with the sale of the Russian Textbook corporation to the new owner Alexei Kisin. One gets the impression that all this time Novikov was persistently pushed to make a deal with the subsequent withdrawal from the educational literature market.
How “attached” “AST”
Novikov himself did not stand on ceremony with competitors, absorbing publishing houses and book networks one after another: Comme il faut, which specializes in comics, Origami, which publishes children’s magazines, the Read-Gorod-Bukvoed network, etc. But perhaps the most revealing story happened to the founder of the AST company, Yakov Helemsky.
“AST” published “every fifth book in Russia”, he owned the rights to publish such cult authors as Stephen King, Dan Brown, Paulo Coelho, John Fowles, Vladimir Sorokin, Mikhail Weller, Polina Dashkova, the Strugatsky brothers and others. 2005 in the Moscow office of “AST” were searches within investigations criminal cases of false entrepreneurship and non-payment of taxes in the amount of about $100 million.
From that moment on, a crisis began in the work of the company. One can only speculate whether the visits of men in uniform were organized by competitors, but Novikov used them in his own interests. First he proposed Khelemsky and his companion Andrey Gertsev an alliance with the aim of “optimizing costs”, but they refused. In 2010, the tax authorities submitted claims to AST in the amount of 6 billion rubles.
Two years later, more accusations followed, this time of hiding 1.5 billion. After that, Helemsky left for Israel, and in December 2013 it became known that the Eksmo group bought out a longtime competitor. The cost of the transaction was not disclosed, but experts appreciated it into a meager $5 million, despite the fact that during the period of financial recovery, AST’s revenue was $250 million.
“Left” circulations and offshore “Eksmo”
So Novikov expanded the boundaries of his publishing “empire”. It is noteworthy that in the early 2000s, he himself was in the center of attention of the security forces. Then a large-scale scam with the release of counterfeit copies of many thousands of Eksmo books (including the novels of Alexandra Marinina and Daria Dontsova, which are popular with readers), to which the publishing house was directly related, as well as their subsequent distribution through dozens of one-day companies. As a result, a criminal case was initiated on false entrepreneurship, and during the course of the investigative actions, Novikov prudently preferred leave to Switzerland
The press expressed versionthat the former head of the GUBOP, State Duma deputy Alexander Gurov helped the publisher “solve the issue”, providing the businessman participating in fraudulent schemes with a “deputy roof”, and at the same time … publishing his literary works under his pseudonyms. By the way, tens of millions of dollars received from the sale of “leftist” circulations were listed public organization of the disabled “Center for the Promotion of Social Protection”, and from there they were withdrawn to accounts in foreign banks, including Swiss ones.
And here it should be noted the close connection of Novikov’s business with offshore structures. For example, among the official co-owners Eksmo Publishing LLC includes Sevorn Limited registered in Cyprus and Radcliff Holding Limited registered in the Seychelles. Previously, these were the Cypriot Eksmo Holding Group Limited, as well as the Virginian Lorristone Limited and Koller Holding Ltd. As for Oleg Novikov, he came out from shareholders last April. At the end of last year, with revenue of 12.1 billion rubles profit LLC Eksmo Publishing House amounted to 906.9 million, the value of assets – 6.8 billion.
co-founder Another company, Litres LLC, is represented by the Cypriot Omiko Trading Limited. This company in 2021 declared revenue in the amount of 5.2 billion rubles and profit at 467.4 million. Novikov himself spoke co-owner about 60 legal entities, some of which have now been liquidated. Can a certain percentage of the billions in profit they receive be transferred abroad according to an already worked out scheme? Moreover, today the oligarch feels quite confident, and troubles, such as litigation with Enlightenment, are just temporary difficulties for him.