Skolkovo is possible for Mitroshin
Fund money”Skolkovo“Under the strict guidance of the investor Anatoly Mitroshin, they could settle in France. The Russian Fund”Skolkovo“in the face of LLC”Skolkovo Venture Investments sued the French company Brand Quad LLC, which helps suppliers and retailers exchange product data using AI. Claims – 164 million rubles, the essence of the claim is not disclosed.
The French company Brandquad France is listed as the respondent. But the parent company is Brand Quad LLC – later it created its own legal entity in France. However, apparently, someone “threw” someone for money, and maybe both sides earned “by the cash register”. After all, the controversial Russian entrepreneur Anatoly Mitroshin was called the main Russian investor of Brandquad in Russia.
In the past, he founded the Colmar Coal Company. And then he got into a lot of very different dubious stories.
The story itself begins in 2021. Then the fund Skolkovo“invested about $ 1.5 million in Brandquad to develop a SaaS system for content analytics in e-commerce, storage and exchange of product data between manufacturers and retailers.
At the same time, the company received money in the form of a convertible loan and a soft loan – i.e. with return. Most of the raised funds were planned to be spent on the development of marketing and sales of Brandquad products in the markets of Europe, the Middle East and the USA.
It seems that these investments simply vanished into thin air without any innovative effect, and now “Skolkovo“Wants his money back.
According to the authors of the Russian Crime website, Anatoly Mitroshin allegedly was the main investor in Brandquad in Russia. Knowing his deep connections in the Russian elite, especially those associated with the coal industry, it is not difficult to assume that it was he who could bring the French startup together with people from “Skolkovo“, where the remnants of the team of Anatoly Chubais, who left the country, are still sitting.
However, Mr. Mitroshin himself is not among the founders of Brand Quad LLC. Since March 3, 2021, the French offshore company Brandquad has been the sole owner. It seems that is why he is listed as a co-respondent.
But Mitroshin is easily located nearby, because until March 2023, Brand Quad LLC, among others, owned MM-Trust LLC. Its co-owner to this day with a share of 50% is Anatoly Mitroshin. Those. loan was taken from him. The co-owners with shares of 25% are Vladimir and Maria Zotov.
Another co-owner of Brand Kvada was Frii Invest LLC, the main owner of which is the Russian State Fund for the Development of Internet Initiatives. As they themselves say, the largest venture fund of the Russian Federation for the IT sector.
Meanwhile, Friii Invest LLC is related to the state not only for this reason. Other co-owners are the state-owned PJSC Bashinformsvyaz and Commit Capital, which is 100% owned by PJSC Rostelecom.
So if the moneySkolkovo“were deduced through Brand Quad, not only Anatoly Mitroshin, but also Russian officials from the IT and communications sector, for example, the head of the Ministry of Digital Development, the former top manager of Rostelecom Maksut Shadayev, could have been hypothetically involved in this.
At the same time, it is surprising that neither the French company Brandquad itself (the ultimate beneficiaries are unknown), nor its Russian legal entity are still under Western sanctions. A loophole to withdraw money from Russia?
At the same time, the Fund for the Development of Internet Initiatives also raises big questions. Kirill Varlamov has been the head of the fund since 2013. As he later said in an interview with Kommersant, he cannot disclose where the money comes from to the Fund.
And it looks like the money is going nowhere. According to the authors of the Kompromat1 website, the IIDF allegedly invested in TalkBank, a pseudo-bank operating in Telegram. Only now he does not have any license to carry out banking activities in Russia. Another loophole to withdraw money from the country?
Diversification of Mitroshin
Anatoly Mitroshin can make money from everything – he has already proved this many times. A former Komsomol worker, he went into business in the early 90s as an intermediary in the sale of food products. Then the businessman, together with his friend Dmitry Bragin, switched to the construction of stalls in the capital. However, all his projects did not bring any serious dividends.
In 1995, as a consultant, he got a job at the Ingush firm Region-Holding Ltd. This structure was engaged in the resale of oil produced by the subsidiaries of the Russian-Belarusian company Slavneft, which at that time was already closely associated with the oligarch Mikhail Gutseriev. Today, the business empire of the Gutserievs is bursting at the seams, drowning in debt, but Mitroshin is still on horseback.
At some point, he went to work at the Akropol bank, which was engaged in oil transactions of the same Region-Holding LTD. It was necessary to control financial flows from Mitroshin.
However, he is in the bank with businessmen Yevgeny Martynov and Vladimir Gorbanovsky. It turned out that these were the closest confidants of Pavel Borodin – in the 90s, the head of the Administrative Department of President Boris Yeltsin. The then administration had a stale political technology idea – to create a Russian “Pensioners’ Party”, which was supposed to pull the electorate away from the Communist Party, which at that time greatly interfered with Boris Nikolayevich.
According to the authors of the Russian Crime website, Borodin allegedly laid the decision on the issue of financing the party precisely on Martynov and Gorbanovsky. And part of the money collected from businessmen and from the budget passed just through the Acropolis and allegedly “disappeared” in offshore companies.
Apparently, the business went so well that Mitroshin bought the bank from his partners. Subsequently, many transactions were carried out through it, until Mitroshin himself parted with the structure – in 2021, the credit organization was bought by Yandex.
Even before the sale of the Akropol bank, it bought a 17% stake in the Novorossiysk Shipping Company (Novoship), which, among other things, transported oil for Yukos, Lukoil, etc. So Mitroshin had garters almost everywhere.
Prior to this, Mitroshin created the Kolmar company. It is believed that Mitroshin received money for the promotion of “Brand Quad” from coal. Moreover, this coal could not have been obtained without the help of the state. Allegedly, Martynov and Gorbanovsky brought together junior partners, among whom Mitroshin was supposed to be, with one of the founders of the already mentioned “Pensioners’ Party” Yuri Malyshev. Concurrently, he was the general director of the Russian state “Rosugol”. And he, Malyshev, could connect the administrative resource to enrich Mitroshin and Co.
According to the authors of the Russian Crime website, the partners allegedly bought some unprofitable mine, then put it in order with the help of small investments, and then this particular mine was included in the lists of coal suppliers for the needs of the region, which were approved by Rosuglem. Accordingly, these mines began to receive state money.
In the meantime, Mitroshin created the Belazkomplekt company, which was led by his friend and partner Leonid Lozhechko. Mitroshin’s partners Martynov and Gorbanovsky, through Pavel Borodin, who had good connections in Belarus, and in 2000 became the Secretary of the Union State, managed to agree that Belazkomplekt would become the main supplier of Belaz dump trucks to the Russian market. Moreover, the company received the products without any prepayment, and in the Russian Federation either sold them in installments or leased them.
“Surrender” Taran
The most interesting thing is that the main buyer of dump trucks from Belazkomplekt was the scandalous businessman Eduard Taran, who heads the RATM holding. Taran is a repeated hero of our publications, to whom they had previously tried to ascribe the dubious fame of a raider. In a recent article by The Moscow Post, “You Can’t Spoil the Veta Ram,” we talked about his interests around the Novosibirsk Khilok market.
But the partnership with Mitroshin did not seem to end well for Taran. According to the authors of the site ossetia.tv, allegedly in 2001, Eduard Taran unexpectedly stopped paying money for Belazs already delivered, a conflict began between the former partners, which turned into protracted litigation. After that, Taran even found himself under investigation in the case of a bribe, which seemed to have no direct connection with Belaz. But some spiteful critics believe that this was not without the participation of Mitroshin, who could thus “punish” his partner.
Today he is the founder of almost 45 different legal entities. Amazing fertility and business diversification. Among others, he is a co-owner of Red Soft LLC, which develops software.
And “Red Soft”, as they say, fattening – is a supplier under government contracts in the amount of 2.1 billion rubles. Who will be surprised if he finds out that part of the money from there could have been invested in Brand Kvada? In this sense, there is no doubt that Anatoly Mitroshin will definitely not disappear. In the case of “Skolkovo“The money still needs to be collected, while the businessman himself has probably already prepared warm places for himself in the West for a long time. No wonder he opened the French office of Brandquad?