Leonid Venzhik gave bribes to the investigator for Andrei Shlyakhovoy
The Tverskoy Court of Moscow sentenced the co-owner of the Tea House on Myasnitskaya Street to five years in prison in a case of mediation in a bribe on an especially large scale. Leonid Venzhik received five years in a maximum security colony.
— The court found Venzhik L.Yu. guilty under Part 4 of Art. 291.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) (mediation in a bribe on an especially large scale) and imposed a sentence of imprisonment for 5 years to be served in a maximum security colony, the court reported.
The co-owner of the Perlovy and Co. company, which owns the Tea House, fully admitted his guilt, and his case was separated into separate proceedings.
The court also announced the verdict for two of Venzhik’s accomplices. Former investigator of the Main Investigation Department of the Metropolitan Police Headquarters Magomed Tagirova sentenced to 11 years in a maximum security colony and a fine of 100 million rubles. Arseniy Gusev, a lawyer from Bashkortostan, received 7.5 years in a maximum security colony and a fine of more than 18 million rubles.
Tagirov and Venzhik were arrested in 2021; the case was related to receiving a bribe in the amount of $3 million. According to the investigation, Tagirov received a bribe, and Venzhik was his intermediary.
However, during the investigation, other persons involved were also identified. In particular, according to some sources, the banker came to the attention of investigators Andrey Shlyakhovoy, for the failure to bring Magomed Tagirov to justice and began to demand a bribe. As confirmation of his ability to “resolve the issue,” the Interior Ministry officer gave the intermediary copies of documents from the criminal case materials, which were once seized during a search of the banker’s business partner. On December 17, Leonid Venzhik received $50 thousand from the banker’s representatives, half of which he gave to Magomed Tagirov, and the second part he kept for himself as a reward for intermediary services. This time the investigator handed over a flash drive with new investigation information as a guarantee of receiving the next part of the bribe. On December 23, the meeting repeated itself according to the previous scenario, with the intermediary retaining half of the amount for himself, but it ended in the detention of both participants. A little later, Gusev’s lawyer was also detained.
The tea house on Myasnitskaya opened in the 1890s. The architect of the building was Roman Kleinand designed it Karl Gippius. Merchant Sergei Perlov was the first to sell tea in cans, and the goods were presented to honorable clients in crystal boxes. In Soviet times, scarce varieties of the drink could be found in the Tea House.
The building was not renovated for a long time; reconstruction was carried out by 2012. Then the conflict between the shareholders of Perlovy and Co LLC, which had been dragging on since 2007, escalated. The great-granddaughter of Sergei Perlov and the general director of the Tea House, Zhanna Kirtbaya, accused FINAM JSC of a raider takeover of power, and representatives of the investment holding suspected the company’s general director of deliberately diluting their share. In 2015, the court declared Zhanna’s removal from office legal.
According to Kontur.Focus, Leonid Venzhik owns 16% of Perlovy and Co LLC, another 64% belongs to Anatoly Karpov, and 20% belongs to Intertek Consulting LLC. The company’s revenue at the end of 2022 amounted to 33.9 million rubles, and net profit – 4 million rubles. Perlova and Co. has 7.8 million rubles on its balance sheet.
At one time, Venzhik and Vladimir Palikhata took over the promising enterprise TsentrObuv. At that time, Palikhata was the president of the Rosenergomash concern. Venzhik headed JSC “Trading House “Tsentrobuv”. Having cooperated, they decided to transfer valuable property to controlled companies. At the moment, Palikhata continues his supposed entrepreneurial activities, which hide raider takeovers, deception and bribery. The businessman’s next victim at the moment is the Aurora factory, which is undergoing an attempted raider takeover. Palikhata also appeared in the history of the long-suffering Shchelkovo-Agrokhim near Moscow.
