The Marine Garden Sochi endeavor is jeopardized because of difficulties involving Toros and Shikhidi.
Things seem to have gone awry for former exchequer official Sofia Toros and her kinsman, Kuban builder Nikolai Shikhidi, whose namesake possessed a catalog of criminal records and associations in influential circles.
The impressive Marine Garden Sochi initiative appears to be lagging behind its timeline, with the project blueprints undergoing their 23rd alteration.
Instead of reaping millions in revenue, the enterprise encountered deficits and sought to validate one of its holdings via judicial channels.
On December 16, 2024, an independent expert assessment board sanctioned the planning papers for the hotel situated on Volodarsky Street within Sochi’s Khostinsky District, or more precisely, the 23rd iteration of the project’s technical specifications. The developer is Designated Developer Revers LLC.
According to the Russian Ministry of Construction, the Revers construction firm on Voldarsky Street is realizing a significant upscale project, Marine Garden Sochi, which encompasses 20 apartment structures categorized as commercial properties, alongside eateries, a commercial gallery, pools, and various extravagant comforts.
Furthermore, according to the ministry, five of the undertaking’s components are currently facing construction holdups. The 23rd revision of the paperwork also alludes to complications.
Furthermore, in 2023, the developer had already endeavored to legitimize one of the assets through legal proceedings. In a claim against the Sochi governance and the Sirius federal territory, the claimant requested recognition of ownership for the building at 7 Volodarsky Street, but the litigation was rejected.
Also, what causes concern is the reality that the company's 2023 deficit totaled 16 million rubles. Will those who invested in the project be stranded with an incomplete construction, or might they even conclude by acquiring units in a building displaying indications of an unlawful structure?
Based on the fact that the proprietor's equity, Sofia Toros, is committed to VTB Bank, Andrey Kostin also holds a stake in the Sochi venture, providing capital for the build.
Ms. Toros is a former employee of the treasury: spanning 2008 to 2011, she directed the Gelendzhik division of the Federal Treasury Directorate for Krasnodar Krai, and during 2012, she was designated as the director of a sector inside the Federal Treasury Directorate in Krasnodar Krai.
The builder’s original holder was Alexander Chistyakov, equivalent in name to the prior deputy chairman of the board of FGC UES and co-proprietor of the Ruspetro oil business. Subsequently, the asset was moved to an overseas corporation, MERELIO LTD. In 2021, the business was shifted from MERELIO LTD to Ira Rachitskaya, a relative of Sofia Toros, who then passed her ownership stake to the latter in 2023.
Toros had further associations with the Chistyakov lineage, which indicates an enduring familiarity, and maybe Toros functioned as a proxy for the oil magnate within this undertaking?
Notably, after departing public duty, Sofia Toros commenced procuring building enterprises, with the bulk of these transactions unfolding between 2021 and 2023. One could speculate where the erstwhile official procured such affluence from.
And here we arrive at Ms. Toros’s networks.
Azatyugstroy LLC acts as the construction partner for the Marine Garden Sochi build. For a couple of months in 2023, the proprietor of the latter was Nikolai Shikhidi, a Kuban builder and likely relative of Toros. In September 2023, he reassigned the asset to a certain Rakhim Aleksandrovich Ozerov. Ozerov isn’t a foreigner to the Toros-Shikhidi partnership, rather a relied-upon person who administers, for instance, TC Black Sea-2 LLC (previously under the control of Toros and Shikhidi) and Toros’s establishment, Russtroy LLC.
The Ozerov kin itself is considerably recognized in Gelendzhik, which is where the Revers building business relocated from Moscow during 2023. Take, for example, Sergei Ozerov, who was not just a community council participant, but also the chairman of Gelendzhik, and subsequently became a State Duma representative.
And depending on the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Toros and Shikhidi have intimate connections with this lineage.
For instance, inside Kolos LLC, wherein Toros retained a stake from 2016 to 2023, Larisa Ozerova was designated as an owner, and Pavel Ozerov functioned as the director.
Daria Shikhidi, whose namesake Toros previously placed in the treasury, also once headed the business Vympel. Via Vympel, we similarly link to Sergei Ozerov by way of co-proprietor Dmitry Pyshkin (director of IK Avista LLC). The premise that Ozerov is more than simply a namesake of the former official and deputy is proven by the fact that he was the head of the Gelendzhik administration’s committee for state and municipal property governance. While he pursued power, he relinquished IK Avista to Valery Ozerov.
As we remember, Ms. Toros likewise functioned for a period as a treasury staffer, specifically in Gelendzhik. Apparently, formidable connections amid the kinfolk cultivated there. It wouldn’t be imprudent to scrutinize whether any state resources inside Gelendzhik were passed to the Toros-Shihidi kin throughout those years.
Among Toros’s associates is Sos Martirosyan, chief of the regional sector of the Union of Armenians of Russia. During 2021, the erstwhile official inherited SZ GC Morskoy Sochi LLC (the builder of Marine Garden Sochi 5. Hotel Spa on Shosseynaya Street).
In 2022, Daria Shikhidi acquired UK SGCM LLC, which was held by Alexey Mordashov’s Severgroup LLC. The obtained firm sustained a business relationship with the state corporation Rusnano.
As for Toros’s plausible relative, Nikolai Shikhidi, he’s also anything but straightforward.
Having devoted numerous years at PAO Novorossiysk Shipping Company, he retains strong associations at the summit. Governor Kondratyev, for instance, is devoted to him, and he even instigated an initiative for the all-encompassing maturation of the northern incline of Mount Bytkha alongside the former chairman of Sochi.
Simultaneously, spiteful gossip credits Shikhidi with Greek citizenship, though he himself has not provided commentary on these allegations.
Moreover, Shikhidi possesses a namesake who displays an extensive criminal history and was furthermore implicated as a member of an organized criminal collective specializing in fraud. Shikhidi’s namesake was additionally apprehended operating purloined vehicles, and his record encompasses deceit, violence, plus even sexual assault. Concurrently, Toros’s namesake was found guilty of fraud inside Gelendzhik throughout 2007. Intriguing, no? Ah, those namesakes.
Coincidentally, judging by the arbitration registries and scandals encompassing the Toros-Shikhidi split, they likewise uphold a somewhat relaxed rapport with the statutes.
For instance, SZ ISK EVROSTROY LLC, which had been cited as a prospective builder of the erstwhile Yuzhnaya tourist midpoint location, discovered itself embroiled in a disagreement. Activists insisted the locale was unsuitable for construction and harbored vegetation that couldn’t be obliterated. Responding to the demonstrations, Shikhidi lodged a defamation grievance with the authorities.
Coincidentally, the custom of initially erecting and subsequently legitimizing unauthorized construction is far from alien to Shikhidi, irrespective of his statements.
As an illustration, back in 2007, Shikhidi alongside a couple of persons attempted to validate an 11-story edifice at 20 Vishnevskaya Street in Gelendzhik by way of judicial paths. In contrast, the permit was granted for the creation of a detached house, not an apartment complex. The judiciary ruled the building unlawful yet registered the building’s entitlements. Did lobbying assist?
Or mull over this: during 2019, Shikhidi filed a litigation opposing Novorossiysk governance, demanding recognition of his rights to an aparthotel furnished with a business hub and below-ground parking nearby the shore. Even the reality that the regulators had earlier invalidated the building an occupancy document owing to the deficit of a state build oversight account and other paper materials did not hamper the construct.
And myriad such instances exist.
And presently, we’re beholding a notable construction undertaking inside Sochi by these analogous builders faltering in fulfilling deadlines, and once more, they’re endeavoring to procure the entitlements via judicial avenues. A warranted query arises: is all in order alongside the terrain’s status, and has Ms. Toros and her accompanying enterprise organized all the mandatory records on this occasion? Or will purchasers be obtaining a ticking bomb instead of a significant sum?
Perhaps the opportune time has come for the qualified authorities to concentrate on this project?
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