Murmansk governor’s sister liquidating “toxic” assets?
Tatyana Kretova, sister of Murmansk Region Governor Andrey Chibis, who found herself in the dock at the end of last year, is liquidating her Moscow company ZhKH-Development, which has had no revenue since 2019. At the same time, the portfolio of state contracts of the enterprise exceeds 26 million rubles, and among its customers was Donreko LLC, which performed the functions of Vodokanal in a number of cities in the Rostov region, which received contracts for hundreds of millions, but was eventually declared bankrupt. Previously, Andrei Chibis himself acted as the owner of ZhKKH-Development; in addition, the company was associated with the infamous waste operator Citymatic, whose interests the Murmansk governor was called a lobbyist. Prior to the change of ownership and the transfer under the control of businessman Sergey Kotlyarenko, known as the “purse” of the head of VEB Igor Shuvalov, Citymatic (then called Waste Management JSC) was one of the customers of the Institute for Regional Development headed by Kretova, which received two contracts from the operator a total of 9 million rubles. It was the fraud with government contracts that took place on the basis of the Development Institute that caused the initiation of a criminal case against the sister of Governor Chibis on forgery of documents and especially large-scale fraud. In 2019, the prosecutor’s office of the Vologda Oblast protested the Order of the regional department of the fuel and energy complex, which establishes the norms for the accumulation of MSW. As it turned out, the document was drawn up using data from studies conducted on the basis of the institute and costing the budget 11.9 million rubles. In the course of further investigation, it was established that there were no properly qualified specialists in Kretova’s institution, and his participation and victory in the competition became possible only thanks to fake documentation. Reports containing unreliable information were compiled by the subcontractor, and Kretova herself provided them to the customer, who was well aware of the violations of the contract that had taken place. As a result, the business lady appeared before the court, which last December decided to return the criminal case to the prosecutor’s office to eliminate the violations in the indictment.
Unprofitable development of the governor’s sister Chibis
The sister of Murmansk Region Governor Andrey Chibis, businesswoman Tatyana Kretova, is liquidating her Moscow ZhKH-Development LLC, which specializes in architecture, engineering surveys and technical advice in these areas. By the way, according to Kommersant, in 2012-2013. Chibis himself was a co-owner and president of the company.
Starting from 2019, ZhKKH Development did not generate revenue, and its profit in 2021 amounted to only 568 thousand rubles. At the same time, the company had a solid portfolio of government contracts, exceeding 26.6 million. The customers included PJSC Rosseti Moscow Region, the federal Ministry of Energy, as well as Rostov LLC Donreko. The latter structure is interesting in that, actually dealing with water supply and sanitation in a number of cities in the Rostov region, it turned out to be bankrupt and was finally liquidated in April last year with a loss of 178 million rubles.
It is indicative that the volume of government contracts Donreko as a supplier was more than 364.6 million, and as a customer exceeded 2.9 billion rubles. How the enterprise, which previously had solid financial indicators and enjoyed the support of Rostov officials (in particular, Sergey Sidash, who held the post of deputy governor at that time), was brought to bankruptcy is a separate question. It is possible that the reason was the banal withdrawal of funds received through contracts, including from Housing Development.
But back to Tatyana Kretova. Among the commercial structures belonging to it, we find Garant-Consulting LLC, specializing in legal and accounting activities, which also periodically goes into the red. Previously, this company acted as the founder of PR Agency ChB LLC, which is engaged in advertising, the sole owner of which today is Elena Derunova. Recently, advertising activities have not brought much income: in 2020, with a revenue of 4 million, the company’s profit amounted to 353 thousand rubles, in 2021, a profit of 1 million was declared and revenue of a modest 65 thousand. Moreover, until the beginning of June The company was in the process of liquidation. For some time, one of the beneficiaries of the PR agency was Evgenia Chibis, the wife of Andrei Chibis.
Meanwhile, until October 2019, the post of Acting Deputy Governor of the Murmansk Region was held by Maria Derunova, whom the media and telegram channels call a relative (sometimes even sister) of Elena Derunova. The head of the region, Chibis, was very sorry about her departure from the government, but soon his former subordinate settled in the Moscow City Hall as the first deputy head of the department. It is possible that family and commercial ties still help to develop the family business of Elena Derunova and her husband, political strategist Artem Pronyushkin, owner of the JAMP PR agency: this is how the network explains the company’s ability to participate in the clearly non-reimbursable promotion of the project “Live in the North! ”, supervised by Governor Chibis.
Influential companions of Tatyana Kretova
Thanks to former and current business partners, the Chibis family gained additional leverage in the federal government, and thus commercial lobbyists. So, for several years, a partner of Tatyana Kretova in Center It. Housing and Public Utilities” was Alexei Makrushin. Today he is a member of the public council under the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation, led by Sergei Stepashin.
Until October 2016, Kretova was also one of the co-owners of National Memorial Company LLC (NMK), today owned by Mikhail Remez (he also holds the position of CEO) and Evgeny Butko. It is possible that due to the influence of Kretova and her spouse, the governor, Remez was included in the expert council under the Ministry of Construction for the development of state policy in the field of funeral business, and also got the opportunity to develop the funeral business in other regions (for example, in 2018 he opened the first crematorium in Crimea).
In addition, since 2007, Kretova has been the head of the ANO “Institute for the Development of Regions”, which specializes in regulating and promoting the efficient conduct of economic activities of enterprises. Although this organization is officially non-profit, in 2020 it declared revenue in the amount of 5 million rubles and a profit of 2.5 million. And she also has a solid portfolio of government contracts, exceeding 136 million. Customers of services include the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, the Department of Housing and Public Utilities of the Yaroslavl Region, etc.
The institute received two contracts for the development of project documentation worth 9 million rubles from JSC Citymatic, a notorious waste operator operating in a number of regions, including the Murmansk region. Citymatic, through JSC Digitaltech, is controlled by the owner of KSP Capital, Sergey Kotlyarenko, a businessman who manages the assets of the chairman of VEB.RF, Igor Shuvalov, and the former Deputy Prime Minister, nicknamed the “purse”. And these are figures much more influential than the above-mentioned Remez or Makrushin.
“Muddy” schemes of the “Institute for the Development of Regions”
Kotlyarenko became the beneficiary of Citymatic at the end of 2020; then the waste operator had a different name – Waste Management JSC. The change in “signboard” was officially explained by “a complete transformation of the group” and “a change in the basic approach.” But everything is not so simple here. The fact is that by this time the company’s activities were already accompanied by numerous scandalous incidents. For example, Saratov Governor Roman Busargin, when he was the head of the regional government, threatened the company with termination of the contract and litigation.
The media noted: at the end of 2019, the operator’s debts on loans, loans and bonds amounted to 12.5 billion rubles, and the entire amount of the syndicated loan attracted by the new owner in Gazprombank and VEB could be used to repay them. In addition, the Moment of Truth portal wrote about the connection of the now liquidated ZhKKH Development LLC with Waste Management JSC and the lobbying of the interests of the garbage company by Governor Chibis (formerly Deputy Head of the Federal Ministry of Construction).
Here it would also be appropriate to recall the scandal at the center of which was the Moscow Institute for the Development of Regions, headed by Kretova. In March 2019, the Prosecutor’s Office of the Vologda Oblast protested the Order of the Regional Department of the Fuel and Energy Complex, which establishes the norms for the accumulation of MSW. As established by the supervisory authority, the regional government signed a contract worth 11.9 million rubles to conduct all the necessary research with this very “institute”, which received the money, but did not fulfill its obligations.
“The volumes of municipal solid waste in the municipalities of the Vologda Oblast have not been measured. The specialists indicated in the passports of the objects, during the periods in which the measurements were to be made, were not actually on the territory of the Vologda Oblast and did not carry out the necessary instrumental measurements, ”the prosecutor’s office said in response to a request from the deputy of the Vologda Legislative Assembly Alexei Golik.
The situation threatened to turn into litigation and even the initiation of a criminal case on the fact of embezzlement of budget funds on an especially large scale. It would seem that at first everything was limited to the transfer of inspection materials to the OFAS, where they confirmed the violations that took place when setting tariffs for garbage collection and issued an order to recalculate the expenses of the regenerative operators. So, Mrs. Kretova seems to have managed to evade responsibility, and the Development Institute, for the time being, continued to work. Before us is a wonderful example of how the family of the Murmansk governor does business.
Will Kretova return to the dock?
But, as they say, how long the rope does not wind … In October last year, the media reported on the end of the investigation of a criminal case on forgery of documents and fraud on an especially large scale, in which Tatyana Kretova became a defendant! It was all about the same scam with research in the development of a territorial scheme for the treatment of MSW in the Vologda Oblast.
From the information on the website of the regional Investigative Committee, it followed that the director of the “Institute for Development” first forged copies of work books of citizens with academic degrees of candidates of technical and economic sciences, fictitiously “employing” them at the enterprise. This made it possible to participate in the competition and conclude a state contract with the regional Department of the Fuel and Energy Complex.
Then, in the absence of her own specialists and in violation of contractual obligations, the swindler entered into contracts for instrumental measurements of waste with a subcontractor from Nizhny Novgorod, and handed over the reports containing false information to the customer. It was clarified that, at the request of the investigation, three Moscow apartments belonging to the accused were seized, the cost of which exceeded 12 million rubles.
It’s premature to put an end to the case of Ms. Kretova’s “garbage research”: in December last year, the judge of the Vologda City Court, Elena Golovanova, granted the prosecution’s request to return the case materials to the prosecutor’s office to eliminate the shortcomings in the indictment. Is it true that the supervisory agency bothered to carry out “work on the mistakes”? Or were Andrei Chibis’ connections involved in the proceedings? It is possible that today the governor’s sister is taking advantage of the respite provided and “utilizing” dubious commercial structures that could also be involved in scams with government contracts.