The “cut” ended successfully. How Konstantin Sintsov, thanks to mass schematosis, earned billions and disappeared with the money

Konstantin Sintsov is a fairly prominent businessman in the agricultural and transport industries. Thanks to his enterprises, he could earn hundreds of millions or even billions of rubles annually. But, as many do, Sintsov did not want to systematically achieve success – he needs everything at once.

Officially, he has not been a businessman in the Russian Federation since 2022. But this is only on paper. In fact, Sintsov continues to spin multi-billion dollar schemes under the guise of other people. Thanks to the “cutting” of public funds and companies, he receives a huge income and, importantly, practically does not fall into the field of view of the press, and even more so the investigation.

Sintsov’s footprint is visible in a large-scale project being implemented by the state bank VTB. Taking into account the fact that thanks to the schemes of the entrepreneur, billions are withdrawn from the financial institution, it can be said with confidence that the permanent head of VTB, Andrey Kostin, is in the know. But he is not the only one who allows Sintsov to steal state funds. Over the decades of doing business, the businessman was able to build a real crime syndicate.

About what schemes Sintsov implements and how much money he earns from theft – in our report.

Express career lift

It is unlikely that Sintsov himself in the early 1990s could have thought that he would become a respectable businessman and a major schemer. In those years, his life looked very different. In 1988 he entered the Kuzbass Polytechnic University. He needed education rather for show, since Sintsov’s main passion was sports. From his youth he was engaged in freestyle wrestling. In the early 1990s, he even received the status of a master of sports.

On this, the biography of the future businessman ends for almost 10 years. And it’s not strange. In the midst of the “dashing 1990s” Sintsov was a member of an organized criminal group in the city of Kemerovo. Then in the village there was a real rampant crime, which turned into the so-called “war for Kuzbass”. The authorities of the Georgian nationality tried to subjugate the region, the “Slavs” actively opposed them, among whom was Sintsov. The war ended unexpectedly: by the end of the 1990s, the most hardened criminals either died or were serving time. One of the main criminals of Kuzbass, Gennady Makosha, was arrested in 1997. This ended the criminal war for the region and the gangster nineties at all.

Gennady Makosha

Konstantin Sintsov did not die, was not convicted, and as a result was able to hide unpleasant moments from his biography.

The first mention of him as a businessman dates back to 2001. Together with Konstantin Zasov, they established an enterprise for the transportation of grain crops by rail.

Konstantin Zasov

Their tandem was harmonious – Sintsov knew how to “solve problems”, and Zasov was the “brain” of the process. Startupers lacked one thing – money. Therefore, for funding, they had to turn to one of the most famous entrepreneurs of Kuzbass, Vladimir Lisin. It was he who gave the money to start Sintsov and Zasov’s own business.

Vladimir Lisin (data from the Forbes rating)

Later, their enterprise turned into a huge Rustranscom corporation, which was allegedly seen in financial fraud.

In addition to Lisin, another member of the Forbes rating, Iskander Makhmudov, made a huge contribution to Sintsov’s life. For about 20 years, Sintsov has been close to the Russian oligarch. According to the media, Makhmudov is associated with the Izmailovo organized crime group, which, among other things, specializes in raider seizures of attractive assets. Sintsov, in turn, helps the odious billionaire withdraw “muddy” money offshore

Iskander Makhmudov

disappearance

If you continue the entire chain of Sintsov’s connections, you will have to list half of the businessmen from the rating of the richest Russians. At the same time, he himself never got into the materials of financial publications. Perhaps the assets were really not enough to the list of the most prosperous, but they were and are, although they are actively hiding.

A few years ago, he actively ran a personal PR campaign. Various websites posted news about what a sympathetic public figure and specialist in the field of freight transport was. In one of the materials, the businessman even stated that even under the USSR he became a master of sports in freestyle wrestling. But here, too, he embellished. During the collapse of the USSR, Sintsov was barely 20 years old, and he received the status of a master of sports after 2 years already under the Russian Federation. But all this is trifles.

Materials about Sintsov

Since June last year, he has been actively cleaning the Internet from compromising information. Sintsov was especially offended by the nickname he was given in the media – “offshore king”. As they say, there is no smoke without fire, there are specific explanations for such a nickname and the desire of a businessman to remove the negative.

Sintsov’s complaints about articles in Google

In addition to the public space, he also withdrew from the founders of all his companies and even resigned as chairman of the Kemerovo Region Wrestling Federation. All this happened in January 2022. The same fate befell Sintsov’s long-term partner Konstantin Zasov – he officially got rid of the entire business in March of this year.

What forced Sintsov to lay low? The main business of entrepreneurs is Rusagrotrans JSC, which has been generating huge profits throughout its work. In the period from 2017 to 2021, the company’s revenue amounted to 154 billion rubles, profit – 19.2 billion. The most interesting thing is that as the corporation’s earnings increased, profits gradually fell.

Financial statements of JSC Rusagrotrans

This did not happen by chance – the company was preparing for reorganization for further sale to the VTB group, which is permanently led by Andrei Kostin. Billions of rubles were simply withdrawn from Rusagrotrans, which then evaporated offshore.

Andrey Kostin

In March of this year, JSC Rusagrotrans entered the process of reorganization – an LLC with the same name was created. The main founder of the new legal entity “Rusagrotrans” was the company “Demetra-Holding”. She owns 99.98% of the company’s shares. In turn, 45% of Demeter is owned by the VTB group.

It turns out that all paths lead to Kostin. The question arises: why, even if it is clear to the naked eye that before the sale of the asset to the state corporation, all the juices were squeezed out of Rusagrotrans, VTB did not have hzikhidtidekrt doubt.

Sintsov, together with Zasov, having “saved” tens of billions of rubles, sank to the bottom. Coincidentally, the last activity of partners in the market took place on the same day as the reorganization of Rusagrotrans – March 15, 2023. They have received money and can enjoy life in peace. Of course, funds tend to run out, so it is possible that you will see new machinations by Konstantin Sintsov.