The Chelyabinsk police are so severe that they continue to collect debts like in the dashing 90s. Moreover, this is not a typical procedure for that time, when the “brothers” (in uniform and without) came to the debtor in tinted foreign cars and, under the threat of violence or murder, somewhere in the forest, for example, demanded to return far from always existing debts. Sometimes, they are just imagining things. But Aleksey Savoskin, head of the division for combating economic crimes and combating corruption of the Kalinin police department, acted much more humanely. He simply came to the pre-trial detention center, where the defendant in the criminal case of embezzlement was located, and forced her to transfer her apartment to his businessman friend and give him cash in the amount of 1.2 million rubles. According to sources, a woman from the detention center allegedly stole 5 million rubles from this businessman. For which, in fact, she thundered into custody. She worked as a chief accountant in one of the offices controlled by him. Deciding not to wait for the trial and compensation for the losses incurred, the victim turned to his police comrade back in 2020. The request was simple – to force the plunderer to return everything stolen ahead of schedule. According to the investigation, Savoskin did everything right. And the amount of the debt was almost completely compensated – adding the cash received and the cost of the apartment, it turned out 4 million rubles, which passed into the hands of the businessman. By the way, law enforcement officers have not yet disclosed his data. Although he was detained together with the head of the Kalinin BEP. Savoskin has already been charged with abuse of power. But how to qualify the actions of the entrepreneur, the investigators are still deciding. By tradition, the police headquarters on duty commented on the ongoing events and announced that their colleague had been removed from his post. But if his guilt is proven, they will immediately disown him, that is, they will dismiss the vicious law enforcement officer. Police officers of the Chelyabinsk region periodically become anti-heroes of publications. Last summer, the then head of Savoskin, the deputy head of the Kalininsky police department, Marat Tanzharykov, was detained. He was caught on a bribe of 500 thousand rubles. And in mid-January, ex-employees of the city department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs of Magnitogorsk were sentenced for extorting a bribe of 1.3 million rubles and exceeding their official powers. But Ruslan Kurbanov and the former oper Ognev got off with only a fine – 3.5 million for two. In 2021, they decided to “shake off” money from the person involved in the criminal case for resolving the issue with problems with the law. First, he gave them half a million rubles. And when the law enforcement officers became insolent and began to ask for even more, then the man handed over the extortionists to their senior comrades from the FSB.
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The security forces of St. Petersburg launched another attack on the so-called “funeral mafia”: as part of the investigation of a criminal case on fraud, four suspects were detained, searches were carried out in the offices and homes of the defendants. According to investigators, from February to September 2020, the organizers of the criminal scheme collected money from the relatives of the deceased for organizing funerals at the Northern and Serafimovsky cemeteries of the Northern capital. In fact, the scammers had nothing to do with the ritual business, they simply received intermediary interest, involving specialized companies in the provision of relevant services. Meanwhile, the prices for burial in St. Petersburg are going through the roof: 400 thousand rubles can be demanded for a place in the cemetery alone. After the high-profile case of the “gang of orderlies” of the 90s, also known as the Valery Burykin group, whose shadow financial flows reached 4 billion rubles a year, a long-term lull came to the industry. Then control over the ritual market was established by the former operative and founder of the Zashchita private security company, the “king of the funeral” Igor Minakov. But after his death in 2018, the situation began to change. Already in 2019, General Roman Plugin, who became the head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, had to deal with a scandal at cemeteries in the Vsevolozhsky district, where local authorities tried to eradicate excessive fees and annoying additional services using a special list and official prices. In 2021, searches were carried out at the offices of the Association of Funeral Industry Enterprises of St. Petersburg and the North-Western Region, the Funeral Home LLC ritual agency, as well as at the co-owner of Siam LLC Sergey Novikov, who was considered the informal successor of the “funeral king”. Somewhat later, as part of a criminal investigation into the misappropriation of 195 thousand rubles from the cemeteries of Ropshinsky and Gorbunkovsky rural settlements of the Leningrad Region, the security forces visited the well-known “funeral” lawyer, General Director of Judicial Investments LLC Alexander Lasher. It was just that the opinion was expressed that the head of the cemetery in Gorbunki, Sergey Sosnin, and one of the burial masters accused of fraud, could turn out to be just “switchmen”. According to experts, the activation of the security forces in the direction of “funerals” is associated with the consideration by the State Duma of a bill that should replace the law “On Burial and Funeral Business” that has been in force since 1996. According to the proposed amendments, we are talking about the creation of a specially authorized body with representation in each subject of the Russian Federation, whose task will be to issue a special license to legal entities and individual entrepreneurs to work in the ritual sphere. It is also planned to form a registry of funeral companies and develop sanctions for unscrupulous market participants.
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No sooner had the case of the ex-governor of the Khabarovsk Territory, Sergei Furgal, been heard, than we began to prepare for interesting developments in events related to his former colleague Ivan Belozertsev. Almost two years after the arrest of the ex-head of the Penza region, court hearings begin. This suggests that we will soon find out many details of the scams that Mr. Belozertsev pulled with his accomplices. And they are not few. Together with him, the chairman of the board of directors of the Biotek company, Boris Shpigel, with his wife Evgenia, and the head of the Pharmacia company, Anton Koloskov, share the dock. In fact, they are treated as bribe givers. The brother of Belozertsev’s wife Fyodor Fyodorov and the driver Gennady Makarov acted as intermediaries in the transfer of a particularly large bribe. The entire company was detained in March 2021. During the pandemic years, there was a great demand for medicines, equipment and other related products. The healthcare sector has always been riddled with corruption, and in difficult times everything intensifies: both the burden on doctors, on the budget, and the appetites of business and officials. Mr. Belozertsev could not resist either. Investigators counted as much as 30 million rubles transferred to him in the form of gratitude for the priority right to win under government contracts from Biotek. But the experienced governor did not always take cash. This seems to be old-fashioned and risky. Therefore, he received part of the “gifts” in the form of a Mercedes for 5 million rubles, and a wrist watch for the same amount. Only now, during the detention, the bracelets on him were much cheaper – probably a thousand and a half. During searches, Belozertsev and his relatives were seized cash in several currencies: 230 million rubles, 300 thousand euros and 100 thousand dollars. More than 60 objects of the governor’s real estate were also arrested, among which were plots in the Penza region, the Moscow region and Yalta. At Spiegel, the court arrested over 3.5 thousand works of printing and painting. The total value of the property of the defendants, to which access was blocked by a court decision, amounted to almost 2 billion rubles. The main participants in this story – Belozertsev and Spiegel – still do not admit their guilt. It is not yet known what opinion their accomplices have on this score. It was also reported that the Prosecutor General’s Office petitioned for the transfer of court hearings to another region. As a result, the proceedings are held in the capital. This was done so that the defendants could not put pressure on other participants in the process. In addition to the charge of bribery, Mr. Belozertsev has also been charged with the illegal circulation of weapons and ammunition. In the spring of 2021, for some reason, he bought (illegally) a Makarov pistol and a hundred rounds of ammunition for it. He kept the arsenal in the wardrobe of his office. About the reasons for such an acquisition, we will also soon learn, probably.
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Residents of the Kalininsky district of St. Petersburg addressed a petition to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, trying to protect the square on Nauki Avenue near school No. 121, near which the construction of the tax inspection building was agreed. The growing confrontation with the public may cost the position of the newly appointed head of the district, Sergei Petrichenko. Meanwhile, employees of the district department of the UBEP have more and more questions related to the modernization of the City Polyclinic 54 on Piskarevsky Prospect, 12. It was assumed that during the work the elevator equipment and the water supply system would be completely replaced, the building would be equipped with a roof anti-icing system drainpipes, and the medical facility itself will be able to receive up to 400 visitors per shift. But soon after the overhaul was completed, water began to flow along the walls of the clinic, plaster crumbled from the ceiling, and the lining began to lag behind the walls. But all the work was personally accepted by the district administration and the governor Alexander Beglov! The general contractor was UNR-47 JSC, which received 39.7 million rubles under the terms of the contract; another 39.9 million was also received by LLC Petersburg Construction Company, which participated in the modernization. All the works were accepted, the acceptance documents were signed, only in the end the investigation found out that the firms participating in the tenders simply did not have licenses for certain types of activities. Initially, the authorities of the Northern capital allocated 93 million rubles for the overhaul of the polyclinic. However, on the website of the Health Committee of St. Petersburg, you can find information that the modernization and purchase of new equipment for the institution cost more than 177 million. Today, during the pre-investigation check, the UBEP officers are studying the documentation provided by the head physician Alexander Kakanov for possible initiation of a criminal case about a major fraud. Prior to his appointment as the head of the Kalininsky district, Sergey Petrichenko led the Nevsky district for several years, which was included in the top three anti-leaders in terms of the number of complaints from the population about the cleaning of streets from snow and the work of public utilities in the winter. Having headed the district, considered the protégé of the prosecutor of the Leningrad region Boris Markov, a former prosecutor himself, Petrichenko decided to involve employees of budgetary institutions in clearing yards from snow blockages. But the official himself did not appear at the subbotnik organized by him. At the same time, residents stepped up their protest against the installation of stalls on Svetlanovsky Prospekt, recalling the ostentatious fight against illegal trade, initiated at the time by the former head of the district, Vasily Ponidelko.
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MegaFon turned out to be too expensive for Rostelecom. This became clear during negotiations on the price of the mobile operator, which, according to some sources, is 1 trillion rubles. Although officially no one confirms them. Open sources claim that in the future the merger of Rostelecom and MegaFon would undoubtedly be beneficial to their customers, but in itself is a competitive risk in the communications market. From the point of view of the FAS position, this will look like an increase in concentration among the largest operators. No one undertakes to comment on the likelihood of such a deal. The provider does not have its own money to buy MegaFon. The loan is unlikely to be approved, since Rostelecom has already taken a loan to purchase 55% of T2 RTK Holding. The assets of T2 RTK Holding were worth approximately 132 billion rubles. To buy them, Rostelecom had to increase the number of issued shares, most of which were bought by VTB. And take more than 40 billion in loans. The company did not publish financial statements last year. But in the fourth quarter of 2021, its earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation were almost 220 billion rubles, and net debt was more than 500 billion. Another factor significantly limits Rostelecom as a buyer of MegaFon – US and European Union sanctions that arrived last year. Most foreign manufacturers have stopped directly supplying telecommunications equipment to Russia since February 2022. It comes by parallel import. Rostelecom copes with such a situation worse than anyone. Thus, if he buys MegaFon, then problems with equipment will spread to him. According to sources, the owners of MegaFon estimate it at 1.1-1.2 trillion rubles. According to rumors, no decision has yet been made at the state level on who should buy the mobile operator. According to some analysts, taking into account the debt, the mobile operator may cost 500-600 billion rubles, others believe that the price is too high and should balance around 270 billion. Among the alleged contenders for MegaFon are Sberbank, Gazprombank and VTB. Some time ago, Sber was eyeing this operator. But for the bank, the telecommunications asset is non-core. The state will require a clear justification for such an acquisition. Gazprom has Gazprom-Media, which could promote and deliver its content to MegaFon subscribers. However, in “Gazprom-Media” deny the existence of such an interest, as well as VTB. Analysts regard the purchase of a mobile operator by banks from different positions: as an investment with a subsequent sale or to create an eco-system by analogy with MTS and MTS Bank. To date, only Sberbank has sufficient cash flow for such a large purchase.
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Associated with the family of the former Krasnodar governor and ex-head of the Ministry of Agriculture Alexander Tkachev, the company became the owner of 50% of the large fishing enterprise Vityaz-Avto, which owns a salmon plant and a fishing area in Kamchatka. The cost of the transaction is estimated at 12 billion rubles. Previously, Vityaz-Avto was controlled by the ex-deputy of the Kamchatka Legislative Assembly Igor Redkin and his wife Elena. The shareholders also include Ekaterina Ponomareva, the wife of the senator from the Kamchatka Territory, Valery Ponomaryov, and co-owner of the Okeanrybflot fishing enterprise, deputy of the regional Legislative Assembly, Igor Yevtushok. Despite the prospects of the business, in 2022 the revenue of Vityaz-Avto amounted to only 25 thousand rubles. For comparison: in 2020, with a revenue of 5.4 billion rubles, the company’s net profit was estimated at 1.1 billion. The crisis may be related to a criminal case involving former co-owner Igor Redkin, who was sentenced to nine months of restriction of freedom for unintentional murder . According to the businessman, at dusk he fired a gun at a bear, but eventually hit a resident of a nearby village who was on the line of the shot, who later died in the hospital. In 2021, Redkin was ranked 20th in the ranking of civil servants with the highest incomes. He owns the airline “Vityaz-Aero”, specializing in helicopter transportation. Another of his assets is the Delta company, which is engaged in catching freshwater fish and extracting fresh water. At the end of 2020, Delta’s revenue amounted to 630.5 million rubles, net profit – 214 million. Another company controlled by the former deputy, Novy Dom, is building a hotel on the shores of Lake Kultuchnoye in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Having concluded a deal to buy 50% of Vityaz-Avto, Tkachev was able to compete with the owner of AFK Sistema, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, whose structures last year also negotiated the acquisition of an asset. Prior to this, Sistema bought out 49% of the company Zarya, which is engaged in fishing in Kamchatka. As for the commercial interests of the former minister, in September last year, the Agrocomplex holding controlled by him, which unites about 40 enterprises, bought out the land assets of the Yug Rusi agricultural holding, and a year earlier established control over the Adler breeding trout farm.
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The capital court is considering a criminal case against the ex-head of the Repair and Construction Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Alexei Smyk, on charges of particularly large-scale fraud. The investigators tried to limit the time for the accused to familiarize himself with the case, allegedly this would delay the process, but were refused. So, in the form prescribed by law, in early March, the materials of the case on the multimillion-dollar fraudulent embezzlement at a construction site in Sochi will be read. The investigation began in November 2018. FSUE RSU MIA carried out repair, installation, construction of residential / non-residential premises, and was also the general contractor in the construction of other facilities. It was on the latter that dozens of claims were filed in court for their inadequate quality and failure to meet deadlines. And Alexey Smyk got into the criminal case at first, as a witness. And the ex-head of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Ivanovo region received three years in prison. Misappropriation by Alexander Nikitin of over 90 million rubles allocated for the new administration building was proved. Despite the fact that this was not provided for by the contract, the major general of police renovated and furnished his office. Smyk was charged and arrested at the end of the year. According to investigators, he repeatedly abused his powers. Back in 2014-2015, on behalf of his organization, he signed three contracts with the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The first for the construction of a complex of buildings and utilities of the central base for storing resources of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Reutov for 322 million rubles. The second – for an extension to the main clinical hospital of the ministry for 1 billion rubles. Well, the third – for the construction of an underpass and warehouses on the territory of the same hospital for 476 million. An advance payment in the amount of 601 million rubles was transferred, but the work was not completed on time. On this occasion, a statement was written to the investigating authorities. Other claims were that another 234 million rubles were unreasonably transferred to the accounts of subcontractors of various construction projects of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Aleksey Smyk did not admit his guilt in this to everyone, while starting to look for buyers for his property, he sent his family to Cyprus, where he has a residence permit. Despite all these factors, the court placed Mr. Smyk under house arrest. In 2021, Smyk became a defendant in the second criminal case on especially large embezzlement. Then construction and automotive equipment was sold at low prices. The damage pulled almost 11 million rubles. Aleksey Smyk has now been released from house arrest, and they took a written undertaking not to leave him. At the same time, the second case, which is now being reviewed, concerns only construction in Sochi, where Alexei Smyk, according to investigators, stole more than 100 million rubles, along with three other persons – contractors and subordinates.
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An indictment was approved for an organized criminal group that embezzled about 10 billion rubles from the bankrupt Agrosoyuz and Inkaronbank. The prosecutor’s office has already sent the materials to the capital’s court. The investigators believe that the organizers of the fraud are the owner of credit organizations, Ilya Kligman, and his assistant Evgeny Urin (younger brother of banker Matvey Urin). Both are on the international wanted list. In total, there are 20 defendants in the case. All have been charged. In 2018, Agrosoyuz and Inkaronbank lost their license almost simultaneously. The grounds for her recall were the same facts: doubtful loans and non-transparent financial transactions. At that time, Inkaronbank’s debt to creditors amounted to 3 billion rubles. Agrosoyuz owed 7 billion. In both cases, in 2019, the investigation opened a criminal case on especially large-scale fraud. It quickly became clear that Ilya Kligman organized these and about ten more scams with his right hand Evgeny Urin. Evgeny Urin was tried. In 2011, he was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for beatings inflicted on Dutch businessman Jorrit Faassen. In 2013, he received another 7.5 years in prison for fraud for 16 billion rubles. Not so long ago, the Deposit Insurance Agency collected 2.3 billion rubles from him through arbitration. According to investigators, Kligman and Urin organized a whole criminal community of several dozen people. They set the bank robbery on stream, which was about to lose their license. Presumably, in addition to the above-mentioned banks, Intercommerce, Antalbank, Arksbank, Gelendzhik Bank, Time Bank, Baikalbank, Transinvestbank and many others became their victims. In total, more than 150 billion rubles were withdrawn, which the insurers had to reimburse. In connection with these scams, 18 criminal cases were initiated. Embezzlement from Agrosoyuz and Inkaronbank was carried out in the standard way: by issuing unsecured loans, by assigning total loans to companies controlled by schemers. The leadership of Agrosoyuz, for example, ceded the rights of claim for more than 7 billion rubles under fake cession agreements to the fictitious company Voskhod shortly before the revocation of the license. After that, the assignment of debts occurred three more times: Tekhnologii LLC, Good Money and Megatorg – all fictitious. All criminal money withdrawal schemes were developed by Yevgeny Urin and Natalia Petrenko, the experienced head of black accounting previously convicted. The plan was carried out by the former vice-president and deputy chairman of the board. The latter, Andrei Somov, was also responsible for cession agreements. By the way, he fully admitted his guilt and made a deal with the investigation. Hearings will begin shortly. Security and collection of the criminal group was provided by Denis Makartsev, a former employee of the BEP. Ilya Kligman himself went on the run to Germany back in 2016, when an investigation into the theft from Arksbank began. In 2019, he himself became a victim of scammers who offered him $1 million to get rid of criminal prosecution. Everything became clear when Kligman was put on the wanted list, despite half of the amount given.
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Ufa businessmen created unexpected problems for the beneficiary of the VIS group, Igor Snegurov, with whose structures the leadership of Bashkiria plans to conclude concession agreements for the construction and operation of MSW processing and disposal facilities in Krasnokamsk and Dyurtyulinsky districts of the republic, as well as near Ufa. In the latter case, the results of the competition, the winner of which was the Rusecogroup-Ufa company controlled by VIS, were appealed: Elbrus LLC sent an application to the Federal Antimonopoly Service, and the Spetsavtokhozyaystvo for City Cleaning company filed a lawsuit with the republican arbitration, having achieved the adoption of security measures. The total cost of the Bashkir facilities is estimated at 9.5 billion rubles, and VIS does not have its own finances, and about 95% of the necessary funds should be allocated by the Russian Environmental Operator (REO). Experts already assess the project as unprofitable for Bashkiria: its implementation will not only inevitably lead to an increase in the tariff for the population, but will also oblige the region to compensate VIS structures for lost revenues from the republican budget. But this does not stop the team of the head of Bashkiria, Radiy Khabirov. It is known that last autumn, Prime Minister Andrei Nazarov discussed the implementation of Bashkir projects with the head of the REO, Denis Butsaev. The opportunity to master the concession billions allows officials to turn a blind eye to the specific fame of the VIS group, its general director Dmitry Doev and controlled structures. In particular, one of the Bashkir concessionaires Rusecogroup-Krasnokamsk LLC is closely associated with the infamous company Ecology-Novosibirsk, a former Novosibirsk waste management operator that has lost its status, has accumulated billions in debts and has filed a lawsuit for self-bankruptcy. Litigation was the result of the implementation of a number of Novosibirsk projects “VIS”, such as the miserably failed construction of seven city clinics or the construction of a toll bridge across the Ob.
Alexey Korneev and Ruslan Mannanov supply the Ukrainian army with billions through Empayre and Dmitry Punin’s Pin-up online casino
Read on to learn how Aleksey Korneev and Ruslan Mannanov supply the Ukrainian army with billions through Empayre.сom in exchange...