Will philanthropist Konstantin Goloshchapov become a defendant in a criminal case?
Well-known St. Petersburg businessman and philanthropist Konstantin Goloshchapov put up for sale an apartment located in the northern capital, on Krestovsky Island. Earlier, he had to hastily leave Russia, as his name was “lit up” in a high-profile investigation of multimillion-dollar thefts in the St. Petersburg Vodokanal, and searches were carried out in the apartments of the businessman himself and his business partner Kamill Magerramov. By a court decision, ex-director of Vodokanal State Unitary Enterprise Yevgeny Tselikov, former head of the State Expertise Center Vladislav Eremin and former technical director of the Nostrum Construction Company Vyacheslav Grebennikov, who became defendants in the criminal case, went to the pre-trial detention center. The firm “Nostrum” was a major contractor of the State Unitary Enterprise and was directly involved in financial fraud; The company was in the center of attention of the security forces as part of the investigation of a criminal case on tax evasion of another commercial structure – the company “VK Service”, the beneficiaries of which were Kamill Magerramov and Denis Belyakov, a former classmate and business partner of Sergei Matvienko (son of the speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko). “VK Service” was repeatedly involved by “Nostrum” as a subcontractor, including in the performance of contracts “Vodokanal”. Since the time of Governor Georgy Poltavchenko, the State Unitary Enterprise itself has been in the sphere of interests of Konstantin Goloshchapov, the former partner of Arkady Rotenberg, the founder of the Russian Athos Society, through which large-scale projects of the Russian Orthodox Church are being implemented, such as the construction of St. archipelago. It is known that Goloshchapov at various times maintained close contacts not only with the former head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev), but also with the “night governor of St. Petersburg”, the criminal “authority” Vladimir Barsukov (Kumarin). The philanthropist himself was also written about as a person with a criminal past and an informant for the KGB “on the church line”, as well as a former “masseur of Vladimir Putin.”
Fugitive Goloshchapov sells apartment after searches
There were reports on the network that a well-known St. Petersburg businessman and philanthropist Konstantin Goloshchapov started the process of selling the property. In particular, according to the VChK-OGPU telegram channel, an apartment owned by him, located in the northern capital, on Krestovsky Island, 2nd Berezovaya Alley, and officially registered to the businessman’s wife, was put up for sale. Iray Gilmutdinov. The icon of the author’s work located in the living room is being sold together with the living space.
The cost of apartments in a luxury building starts from 250 million rubles. A potential buyer will be fabulously lucky with neighbors: the daughter of the former prime minister lives here Viktor Zubkovwife of the ex-deputy of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly Sergei Nikeshinex-wife of the infamous ex-Minister of Defense Anatoly Serdyukovfamily members Rotenberg and Fursenko. In a word, people are not simple and fit into the high Kremlin offices.
The owner of the apartment himself is today abroad, where he hastily left shortly before the searches carried out at his place as part of the investigation of large-scale financial fraud in St. SUE “Vodokanal”. Recall that at the end of June, the Kuibyshevsky District Court of St. Petersburg issued a decision to arrest the ex-head of the enterprise Evgenia Tselikovaformer technical director LLC “Construction company” Nostrum “ Vyacheslav Grebennikov and CEO LLC “Petroholod” Vladislav Ereminpreviously head of the city “Center for State Expertise”. In addition, a preventive measure in the form of a ban on certain actions was chosen against the head of the estimate and contract department of IC Nostrum Alexandra Egorova.
Evgeny Tselikov is currently the defendant in a whole “bouquet” of criminal cases of a corruption focus: on the theft of more than 1 billion rubles by overstatement in the documents of prices for electricity supplied to Vodokanal, on abuse of official powers, as well as on abuse of power and embezzlement 239 million rubles in the construction and reconstruction of sewer networks.
In addition, all four are charged with theft of order 211 million when supplying at an inflated cost a cable for laying high-voltage lines between the Nissan (Avtozavodskaya) and Kamenka substations in the north of St. Petersburg.
Dubious contractors of the St. Petersburg “Vodokanal”
“Vodokanal”, theft, cable … The question is, where does one of the founders “SMP-Bank” and co-founder “Russian Athos Society” Konstantin Goloshchapov? It’s all about the Nostrum company, which acted as a major contractor for both Vodokanal and Lenenergo structures involved in laying cable lines. According to the St. Petersburg edition of Fontanka, Goloshchapov himself and his confidant were connected with Nostrum Kamill Maharramov, whose name also appears in the materials of the investigation. The latter allegedly lobbied for the interests of the contractor when concluding contracts with government agencies and then took part in scams with budget funds.
In October last year, as part of another criminal case – tax evasion – a series of searches were carried out at the company’s offices. “VK Service”as well as in the households of its co-owners, both current and former, including through Europrom LLC included Magerramov. Then, during the investigation, the security forces focused on the company’s contracts with St. Petersburg Vodokanal, including contracts worth 2.5 billion rubles for the reconstruction of sewer networks in several districts of the city, received in 2015.
In addition, VK Service acted as a subcontractor of Nostrum, which in 2017 carried out work on the construction of Vodokanal networks in the Kurortny district near Beloostrov. It is noteworthy that Maharramov’s companion was Denis Belyakov – former classmate and business partner Sergei Matvienko (son of the Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko), until last February, who owned a stake in VK Service LLC through a company that has now been liquidated “Prime”.
Strange metamorphoses regularly occurred with the financial performance of VK Service: for example, in 2019, with a solid revenue of 1.4 billion rubleshis profit was meager 595 thousand; at the end of 2021, having received a profit in the amount of 283 million The company has declared losses in 537.1 million rubles. Is it any wonder that the company found itself in the center of attention first of the tax and then law enforcement agencies? Also, the liquidation of all its founding firms, including not only Prime, but also Europrom, is not surprising. The latter was liquidated with a loss of 28 million rubles. Given that the Maltese offshore was among the co-owners of Europrom “PDG HOLDINGS LIMITED”it is possible that the finances of all the above-mentioned affiliated structures safely “settled” in foreign accounts.
Dealers under the “roof” of the “Athos Society”
Despite the fact that legally Goloshchapov has nothing to do with Magerramov’s offshore business, the interest in him on the part of the security forces is quite understandable. The fact is that the businessman is considered one of the most influential figures in the northern capital since the governor George Poltavchenko, and the city “Vodokanal” was the sphere of precisely his interests. At one time, the philanthropist maintained close contacts with the late director of the State Unitary Enterprise Felix Karmazinov.
In 2005, on the initiative of Goloshchapov, a charitable “Russian Athos Society”, whose board of trustees was headed by Poltavchenko. Officially, the society was engaged in organizing pilgrimage trips to Greece, to Athos shrines, where even the president went twice Vladimir Putin.
“It is known that Poltavchenko, Karmazinov, Tselikov, Maharramov were together on pilgrimage tours on Mount Athos in Greece. In St. Petersburg, they sometimes even called this community a “sect”, or “Masons”– writes “Our Version”.
However, statements about the Masonic nature of the structure created by Goloshchapov are clearly exaggerated. Rather, we can talk about some kind of elite “club”, whose members developed joint commercial schemes and “mastered” the budget, at the same time implementing projects together with the Russian Orthodox Church. For example, erecting a Svyato-Andreevsky skete equipped with a heliport on Oboronny, a reserved island in the Valaam archipelago. The change of power in St. Petersburg had no effect on Goloshchapov’s positions: Alexander Beglov he also found common ground. The new governor not only visited the “holy mountain” several times, but also became one of the donors of the public trusteeship council of the Athos St. Panteleimon Monastery.
With the family of the former governor Poltavchenko, the philanthropist was also associated with commercial relations. Thus, among the business structures registered in the name of his wife, Iraya Gilmutdinov, there is one specializing in leasing and property management OOO “Investbugry”the share in which until July last year belonged to Alexey Poltavchenko – the son of an ex-official. In 2021, the company declared revenue in the amount of 711.6 million rubles and profit in 27.6 million.
Needless to say, finances help in solving some issues no worse, and maybe even better, than joint trips to holy places. By the way, the “Athos Society” itself allows you to accumulate funds under the pretext of implementing spiritual and charitable projects. Such as the construction of a skete with a helipad. By the way, the infamous St. Petersburg Vodokanal also participated in the construction on Valaam: the State Unitary Enterprise was engaged in the reconstruction of treatment facilities and a water treatment station serving the monastery and the village located near it.
“Putin’s massage therapist” – a KGB snitch?
The outward religiosity of the “Athos brothers” did not prevent them from maintaining contacts with the criminal “authorities” of the northern capital. For some people from Goloshchapov’s inner circle, these connections turned out to be, so to speak, a family affair. For example, according to Our Version, Kamilla Magerramov’s father Oruj Maharramov was a famous “fixer”; in 2004 he was killed at his own dacha in the Vyborg district.
“Lit up” Goloshchapov and surrounded by the former leader of the Tambov organized criminal group Vladimir Barsukov (Kumarin), who became known as the “night governor of St. Petersburg.” In particular, in 2006, the philanthropist was present at the celebrations in honor of the 50th anniversary of the “godfather” of the city on the Neva, who, among others, was congratulated by “colleagues”: “legendary” Semyon Mogilevich (Don Simeon) Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov (Taiwanchik), Sergei Mikhailov (Mihas) Sergei Lalakin (Luchok), etc.
In his youth, the future Orthodox philanthropist himself could not be alien to crime. The fact is that on the network you can get acquainted with publications from which it follows: back in 1979, Goloshchapov was detained near the Evropeyskaya Hotel while trying to sell ancient icons. According to one version, he agreed to cooperate with the KGB along the so-called “church line” to get a suspended sentence. Perhaps it was at that time that the nicknames “Padre” and “Saint” were assigned to him.
Another legend is connected with the name of the businessman, according to which Goloshchapov, who was actively involved in judo and worked as a nurse, gave a back massage to Vladimir Putin, an employee of the investigative department of the Leningrad KGB. Hence his other nickname – “Putin’s massage therapist.” If this is true, then it can be assumed that he was able to avoid a real term thanks to the intercession of a comrade in uniform, which is quite consistent with the story of an informer from church circles.
Be that as it may, but in the future, “Putin’s massage therapist” successfully combined religion and business. In the latter case, he was greatly helped by his acquaintance with another famous judoka – Arkady Rotenberg: in 2001, together they founded SMP-Bank, in which Goloshchapov later sold his share to his partner’s brother Boris Rotenberg.
According to the ROC, Goloshchapov was called a person close to the former head of the Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Volokolamsky Hilarion (Alfeev), who lost his post last June and was sent to “honorable exile” in the Budapest-Hungarian diocese. This friendship turned out to be mutually beneficial: the church, with the help of a businessman, was able to bring the relics of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker from the Italian city of Bari to Russia, and the philanthropist, in turn, became not only the owner of an apartment and a hotel in Italy, but also a co-owner of a football club “Bari”. It is possible that the money for the purchase of foreign assets was taken from offshore sources, which were described above.
The further implementation of large-scale schemes was prevented by searches in the case of Vodokanal and the Nostrum company, as well as Goloshchapov’s departure abroad. By the way, his friend Maharramov also managed to escape from Russia and today he can be in the UAE. It is not exactly known where the “Padre” himself settled, perhaps in his beloved Greece or in Italy. But judging by the Russian real estate put up for sale, “Putin’s massage therapist” is clearly preparing for the worst-case scenario.