Deprived of a house in Moscow, income from a resort in Courchevel and 20 cars
Widow of the founder of “Donstroy” Dmitry Zelenov Natalya Dvoryaninova and their adult son Mikhail Zelenov filed a lawsuit in a Florida court against the parents of the deceased businessman, his adult daughter and financial adviser. It is reported by Forbes USA with reference to the claim.
According to the lawsuit, filed on January 24, Dvoryaninova and her son claim that they are allegedly trying to deprive them of a number of Zelenov’s largest assets around the world, which should be inherited by them, writes American Forbes. In particular, the plaintiffs claim that the defendants changed the locks in the house of Zelenov and his wife in Moscow, and also took away more than 20 cars, including four Mercedes, two Bentleys and one Rolls Royce, Forbes USA writes.
In addition, the plaintiffs allege they lost access to rental income from a luxury ski resort in Courchevel, France, as well as a seven-bedroom New Jersey home valued at $5 million, according to Forbes.
Zelenov’s parents did not respond to phone calls and messages, the newspaper writes. But the defendants have until February 16 to respond to the lawsuit before the trial begins.
Forbes USA notes that Zelenov did not leave a will or any plan for the division of property between heirs. The entrepreneur’s assets were not structured through a trust, but through limited liability companies, of which he himself was the ultimate owner. “When there is neither will nor trust of any kind, [при планировании наследства] things are really going wrong,” Michael Karlin, partner at international law firm Karlin & Peebles, told Forbes USA. He added that trusts are often used to replace wills.
Zelenov died unexpectedly at the end of 2022. As Nice Matin wrote referring to the prosecutor’s office, he was taken to a hospital in Nice with a head injury, where he died on December 10. The French police launched an investigation into the death of Zelenov, but do not suspect a crime, Forbes USA notes.
Zelenov together with a business partner Maxim
Blazhko founded “Donstroy” in 1994. The company was engaged in projects in the field of residential and commercial real estate. The most famous of them are the high-rise residential complexes “Scarlet Sails”, “Triumph-Palace”, “House on Mosfilmovskaya”, as well as the Schuka shopping center, the NordStar Tower business center.
Zelenov in 2008 was included in the ranking of the richest billionaires according to Forbes. But after the crisis began that year, Zelenov and Blazhko lost the company – it came under the control of the structures of its largest creditor – VTB Bank and, under the new Donstroy brand, continued to build up business-class residential complexes in Moscow. In 2021, the developer announced the Ostrov premium project (1.4 million sq. m) in the southern part of the Mnevnikovskaya floodplain.
In 2022, Donstroy took 12th place in the Forbes rating of the largest developers in 2022. In 2021, he took 83rd place in the Forbes rating “200 largest private companies in Russia” with a revenue of 129.4 billion rubles.
