Palikhata on the edge – “I don’t know anything”
After the arrest of Leonid Venzhik, who is called “the manager of Vladimir Palikhata” behind his back, can he slow down his expansion in the Moscow region?
According to the correspondent of The Moscow Post, the Presnensky Court of Moscow has taken into custody the co-owner of the Perlovy & Co company, Leonid Venzhik, who is involved in the case of a bribe on an especially large scale, he faces a sentence of up to 12 years in prison. Venzhik is a well-known entrepreneur in his circles, who is considered the manager of Vladimir Palikhata. Both businessmen have been seen more than once in stories in which we can talk about not entirely friendly takeover attempts.
Magomed Tagirov, an investigator from the Moscow Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Leonid Venzhik, co-owner of the Perlovy & Co. company, were taken into custody for a period of two months. According to the investigation, Tagirov was the recipient of the bribe, and Venzhik acted as an intermediary for the transfer of money. Tagirov led investigations of major economic crimes, while Venzhik is one of the owners of the popular Tea House store in the capital on Myasnitskaya.
There is a very ambiguous fame about Venzhik. At one time, in response to a direct question from Komsomolskaya Pravda, his longtime acquaintance Tatyana Zavyalova: “Is it true that Venzhik is a representative of the Solntsevo group?” She gave an entertaining answer: “We were all young, and each of us was with someone sign. Leonid Yurievich grew up at the time when the Mercedes exploded. He comes from Solntsevo, but left for America when these criminal formations were formed. In Russia, he is not judged.”
Now, judging by the latest news, is it a matter of time? By the way, the same “Komsomolskaya Pravda” wrote that Venzhik could “heat up” partners for property and business. In particular, he was noted in the story with the “cooperative”, which included 200 sites, to which large families, the disabled, and other categories of low-income citizens “ran” to. But they remained, it seems, “with a nose” …
childhood friends
In addition, Venzhik is known for his history with TsentrObuvyu. At one point, Vladimir Palikhata became interested in a successful company – at that time the president of the Rosenergomash concern. And Mr. Venzhik suddenly found himself in the role of the general director of JSC “Trading House “TsentrObuv”.
In 2015, TsentrObuv was supposed to repay a loan of 3 billion rubles to VTB, but she did not have the money. Then the shareholders Dmitry Svetlov and Anatoly Gurevich were inclined to initiate bankruptcy proceedings, but other shareholders, Sergey Lomakin and Artem Khachatryan, did not agree with this. To save TsentrObuv, Lomakin offered to contribute his own 8 billion rubles and promised to negotiate with banks on debt restructuring on his own.
It was then that Palikhata entered the stage. As RBC wrote, he “offered 4 billion rubles on the condition that Lomakin pays part of the network’s debt. In fact, from that moment on, the shareholders were divided into those who supported the new investor, and those who did not want such a partnership, as a result, the transaction did not take place.”
In October 2015, Gurevich assigned his share in the business (40.4%) to Dmitry Vernimont, after which the board of directors changed in CenterObuv, and there were no representatives of Khachatryan and Lomakin left in its new composition. Also, without their consent, the accounts were transferred to another bank and a new CEO, Leonid Venzhik, was appointed. RBC wrote the following: “Palihata planned to “build a new business in a new legal entity, gaining control through the general director over the assets of CenterObuv itself.” But “no investments were made in TsentrObuv,” and debt restructuring has slowed down.”
But Palikhata could not waste time: supposedly, on his instructions, Venzhik signed a number of contracts, and overnight the assets of TsentrObuv began to go to enterprises controlled by him. One of these lured firms could be Fashionshoes LLC, which became the tenant of a number of premises and the owner of the leftover goods.
According to Rusprofile, Fashionshoes LLC is registered to Svetlana Yung, who previously specialized in legal assistance to convicts. At that time, the company was headed by Viktor Girka, who had previously tried himself as a manager at TK-TNP LLC, the owner of which was Plazia Consulting Ltd. Plazia Consulting Ltd. is a Cypriot offshore company, which is practically the sole owner of Centro LLC.
Affairs near Moscow
As they say, all this was the work of days long past. However, even now Palikhata cannot sit idle. His name appears in the story of the Ivory factory, which at the present time may be subjected to almost an attempted raider seizure.
The situation is as follows: the Ivory Interiors furniture factory has been in a state of defense for 2 years now, workers and activists are holding unsanctioned protests. The official website of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation reports the following: “According to the factory workers, the seizure is carried out in order to transfer land for “elite” development, since the KANT ski slope is located directly opposite the factory and an elite residential complex is already being built. Remarkably, the team of Vladimir Palikhata is trying to seize the territory of the factory.”
And again – all the same in the arena?
The following information appeared on the Krasnaya Moskva portal not so long ago: “On December 3, 2021, employees of Likvidator LLC, led by an unidentified employee of the Moscow State Real Estate Inspectorate, came to the territory of the Ivory Interiors furniture factory on Electrolitny Proyezd to start illegal demolition of buildings and structures of the enterprise”.
First, the director of the factory, Galina Kostetskaya, provided a court decision, according to which all the property of the factory is security for a claim for the right to inherit buildings, and for this reason it cannot be touched. But it was allegedly not possible to solve the situation with words, and the matter, they say, came to a real fight. So far, however, the factory is still intact.
The name of Palikhata also appeared in the history of the “long-suffering” Schelkovo-Agrokhim near Moscow, whose fate has been written about by The Moscow Post more than once.
In the case of Schelkovo-Agrokhim and Ivory, Palikhata’s likely opponents should be wary. After all, he can be very tough on those who get in his way.
And here it’s time to recall the case with the Victoria Plaza business center on Baumanskaya Street, the premises of which were occupied for a long time by the investigative department of the ICR for the Central Federal District (CFD) and forensic experts of the committee’s central office. Then the complex was held as material evidence in the case of the raider seizure.
The case of fraud on an especially large scale was investigated by the investigator of the ICR Andrey Grivtsov, who himself then began to be tried in the Moscow City Court on charges of extorting a bribe of $ 15 million from Palikhata. After Mr. Grivtsov became a defendant, the case was transferred to the ICR department for the Central Federal District.
Its employees established that the building on Baumanskaya was stolen back in 2004 from Vladimir Kasatkin, the general director and owner of Infiko CJSC: fraudsters, having forged documents, re-registered the property to Infiko LLC. This summer, the TFR filed charges under Art. 159 of the Criminal Code to the former owner of the private security company Vityaz, Nikolai Krut, who participated in the seizure of the complex, since the shares of CJSC were transferred to him, as well as to the general director of Rustorg LLC, Yevgeny Karnaukh.
His company, in fact, acquired the buildings from Infico LLC, renting out the premises in them, including the TFR. “Kommersant” in the case was Mr. Palikhata and his closest assistant, previously sentenced to a suspended sentence for raiding, former commando Nikolai Nesterenko. However, including due to the fact that the case was transferred from department to department, this time they were not brought to criminal responsibility, including due to the fact that the case was transferred from department to department.
Simply put, did Palikhata just manage to get away from real criminal problems? And instead of him, they apparently went to other people.
Practically how is Mr. Venzhik now?