Quotas are not the limit: how London could make money by supplying Chinese counterfeits to the FSB

British companies could be involved in fraudulent schemes to supply tablets to Russian border guards.

The chief communications officer of the Coast Guard Department of the FSB Border Service, Dmitry Kafanov, was arrested as part of an investigation into a case of fraud in government procurement.

The situation is classic: the investigation believes that Mr. Kafanov, using his official position, purchased Chinese tablets for the department, passing them off as the latest domestic developments. Moreover, I bought them for much more than they actually cost. All this happened in 2014-2019.

As we managed to find out, the interests of people close to the head of the fishing holding “Russian Fishery Company” Gleb Frank and oligarch Gennady Timchenko may be protected in the scam.

Armenia and Britain are friends forever

As the suspects themselves explained, the gadgets were produced by NPP Muromsky Radiopribor LLC, and supplied by Radio-Navigator LLC. Criminal cases have also been initiated against the heads of these offices.

“Tricks” start from the very top of the investigation. The founder of Moscow LLC Radio-Navigator is the British company KAYDET INC LTD, registered in the name of Samvel Gevorkyan. At the same time, it was registered in February 2018 and was liquidated in December of the same year. As if specifically in order to carry out some operations (maybe with FSB money) and disappear.

The notorious Gevorkyan indicated as his address the one that coincides with the address of the Guest House On Novaya Street hotel. It was not possible to find out whether this hotel belongs to him. In fact, Gevorkyan could indicate the address of the place where he was staying, and if something happened, look for him?

“KAYDET INC LTD” refers to two more liquidated companies: “Nice Price” and “Planet”. The first, even during its existence, received several government contracts from Mosgortrans and other structures. The general director of the company is Hakobyan Garib Aikovich. He is also the head of the Tekhnostroykompleks company, registered to another offshore company – INSIGHT LTD. The company is now being liquidated. All this variety of companies, offshore companies and “collapsing” offices is very similar to a network of “bags” created for the withdrawal of funds.

The same can be said about the companies of the former founder of Radio Navigator, Miroslav Grishin. Among his companies was the eponymous Radionavigator LLC, registered as FRISSINK LTD, which in 2018 received from Ernk LLC a contract for a million rubles for the supply of marine radio communication and navigation equipment of the Samyung brand and spare parts and units for it.

Behind FRISSINK LTD is a certain Shavarsh Aleksanyan. The name of the former official of the Armenian State Agricultural Industry is exactly the same. FRISSINK LTD, by the way, also did not last long: created in June 2018, it was liquidated in August of the same year.

“Offshore Empire”. Photo: Rusprofile

Frank’s trail

But the thread to “Ernk” is much more interesting. Now this group belongs to private owners and the Latvian “UNIMARS NAVIGATION”. Its website states that since September 2018 (that is, six months after concluding a contract with Radionavigator LLC), the company has been affiliated with Unimars SIA. This is a Latvian shipping company. which operates quietly on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Previously, it belonged to Sovcomflot, where the state has most of the shares, and there are also shares of the former Minister of Transport Sergei Frank. His son, Gleb Frank, is the owner of the Russian Fishing Company, which is considered almost the main monopolist in the water resources production market.

After the departure of Sovcomflot, Vitaly Pavlovich Keondzhyan appeared in the management of Ernk. Apparently, in fact, both before 2018 and after, “Ernk” is “friends” with “Radio Navigator”. It seems that Shavarsh Aleksanyan and his colleagues, right up to Samvel Gevorkyan, may be people who are no strangers to the Frank family.

Sergey Frank. Photo: Dmitry Lebedev/Kommersant

Son-in-law in action

As for the Research and Production Enterprise “Muromsky Radiopribor”, interesting connections were also discovered here. The company was liquidated; since 2017, its general director has been Alexey Svyatoslavovich Denisov. And before him, the main one was Svyatoslav Denisov, judging by Alexey’s patronymic, his father. The latter also headed the Murom Radio Plant, which is a major supplier of Russian shipbuilding structures.

It is possible that the notorious NPP was used as a lining specifically for the activities of the plant – contracts could actually be carried out by it. Such schemes are sometimes carried out so that a large enterprise appears to be out of business if theft is discovered. It is worth noting that “Murom Radio Plant” and “NPP MRP” are legally located in close proximity to each other in Murom.

“Murom Radio Plant” is known as a domestic developer and manufacturer of operational communications, warning, broadcasting and signaling equipment, mainly for the defense industry.

The structures that most actively order from him are USC and Almaz-Antey; there are four contracts from the Rostec structure of JSC Concern Sozvezdie. However, out of 69 contracts, only 17 have been fulfilled! It is possible that the plant is directly used, including for the development of money state corporations?

Who owns this brainchild? Previously, Murom Radio Plant was part of the ROEL investment group of Vladimir Dorokhin, and in 2007 it was sold to AFK Sistema of Vladimir Yevtushenkov. Life wrote last year that the plant is also controlled by the Kameshkovsky Mechanical Plant (KaMZ JSC), which produces tractors and combines.

Denisov worked at the Murom Radio Plant from 2019 to the current years, so, most likely, he is associated with this management. After Stroytransgaz ceased to appear on the list of founders of KaMZ, no one took its place, which suggests that the same persons actually retained control.

Photo: Rusprofile

And, according to an investigation by the same Life.ru, the capital of the plant also included the family of the artist Maxim Galkin (recognized as a foreign agent on the territory of the Russian Federation) (Galkin’s brother Dmitry is still the founder of the company “Weapon Workshops” – the former “daughter” of “KaMZ”). Who, after the start of the SVO, moved to Israel, from where he speaks out sharply against the SVO. And it turns out that he can continue to earn money in Russia?

Gleb Frank is Timchenko’s son-in-law. It is hardly a coincidence that Stroytransgaz and Sovcomflot appear in the same story. Thus, issues of cooperation between NPP “Muromsky Radiopribor” and LLC “Radio-Navigator” could be resolved at the highest level?

This means that law enforcement officers should also ask them – Timchenko and Frank.

Frank is confidently moving towards monopolizing the fishing industry, and, apparently, using dubious methods, for example, promoting to the government legislative initiatives beneficial to him on the redistribution of production quotas, which The Moscow Post has reported on more than once.

Apparently, the billionaire’s son-in-law didn’t find enough fish. Have you decided to make money in the defense industry?