Whose money did Emil Gainulin withdraw from Russia through the Cypriot Graff Diamonds boutique?

Emil Nilovich Gainulin is one of those semi-oligarchs that they seem to have heard of, but no one can really say what exactly. A certain analogue of Alexander Ivanovich Koreiko from the immortal film.

True, Gainulin does not keep his millions in a suitcase in the storage room of the station. He does smarter with them – he leads them out of Russia to the West. Perhaps the loudest scandal in which he appeared, and even then not very strongly, is the story of the Graff jewelry boutique, which Gainulin opened in Cyprus together with Rustem Magdeev. Moreover, it turned out that Magdeev, as it were, left most of the negative on the results of the activities of this boutique, while Gainulin remained, as it were, in the shadows. Although people in the know claim that the accents are skillfully shifted and Gainulin, at least, played no less a role in the withdrawal of Gazprom’s money through this jewelry boutique than Magdeev.

Actually, the story of Gainulin should be started back in 1991, because it will not be entirely clear how he is connected with Gazprom and how the Graff Diamonds boutique in Limassol is involved in the theft of Russian money.

Now most of Gainulin’s firms have been liquidated:

Only one remained active – BL Project LLC, but it also has obvious signs of fictitiousness – for the last two years it has not shown any signs of activity, and Gaynulin seems to be keeping it only for a legal facade for himself.

In addition, Mr. Gainulin needs to somehow justify his income, which, according to the press, he generously shares with others:

Why did Gaynulin become a benefactor? Then the same as the rest of the Russian businessmen who rose on the cut of budget money and theft – to wash their reputation.

As already mentioned, it all started in 1991, when Emil Gainulin founded the commercial company Intermeks, which traded computers and all sorts of things. However, he made his first big profits between 1993 and 1999 in the Lukon financial and industrial group, which, according to him, was mainly engaged in construction.

By the way, it seems that in 1999 a criminal case was initiated against Gainulin precisely in part of his activities in the FPG “Lyukon”, the name of which was deciphered as “Lyubertsy Concern” (Lyubertsy is the patrimony of the infamous Lyubertsy organized criminal group), as a result of which in 2000 he was allegedly arrested in Prague at the request of the Russian authorities and extradited to his homeland.

Then, until 2008, Mr. Gainulin held the position of General Director of the Granal company, was an adviser to the representative office of Marvin Holdings, and an investor in a number of real estate objects in Moscow. Then he became a co-owner of the innovative company “Biozashchita” and the president of the company “Gazinvesttsentr”.

But all this, in terms of income, was incomparable with the chance that he had in 2008, when he became a co-owner of Podvodtruboprovodstroy (PTPS). Which became one of the largest contractors in the construction projects of Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, Transneft, Sibur Holding and many other giants of the Russian economy. According to the accounting documents of Podvodtruboprovodstroy, over 30 billion rubles passed through the company in 2012-2015.

In the same 2015, a Graff Diamonds boutique was opened in Limassol, managed by Equix Group Ltd, owned by Emil Gainulin and Rustem Magdeev. The latter is called the wallet of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, whose money Magdeev withdrew to Swiss banks through a boutique.

As for Gainulin, he did the same, only in the interests of the leadership of Gazprom. Through a number of Russian banks, as well as through the Russian subsidiary of the German Deutsche Bank, unaccounted billions of Podvodtruboprovodstroy flowed to the West.

Emil Gainulin could place money in a number of major foreign banks. In Cyprus, these were Bank of Cyprus, Hellenic Bank and RCB Bank, in Switzerland – UBS, Julius Baer and Credit Suisse, in Liechtenstein – LGT and Valartis. Also, Mr. Gainulin could use the services of the Singaporean banks BSI and Standard Chartered, and the CMB bank located in Monaco, as well as a number of credit institutions in Austria and the Baltic countries.

Gaynulin spent part of the funds on the purchase of expensive real estate in Cyprus, Thailand and the Cote d’Azur – in a place called Cap d’Ail. Investments in Cyprus provided him, who already has the citizenship of Azerbaijan and Russia, with the opportunity to receive the coveted “golden” passport of the island state. There, he and Magdeev opened the company Equix Group, in which Gainulin invested more than $ 100 million, which, according to rumors, he borrowed from his “boss” – a prominent Russian politician.

Everything was fine until 2017, when Gainulin and Magdeev did not share something. The parting of the partners turned out to be loud, the details became public, but the attention of the public focused on Magdeev, but Gainulin remained mostly in the shadows.

This story could be considered complete if it were not for an important question that has so far remained unanswered: did Gainulin dispose of hundreds of millions of dollars for personal interests, or was he just a confidant of some larger figure?

People who understand the topic believe that Podvodtruboprovodstroy could receive a significant part of Gazprom’s contracts through the company Stroygazmontazh, owned by the Rotenberg brothers. And this happened, apparently, with the active participation of the former general director of SGM Ruslan Goryukhin, as well as the former deputy head of the Gazkomplektservis company, Mikhail Opengeim. Considering that the Western sanctions against Russia greatly complicate the relations of the owners and managers of these structures with foreign banks, it is appropriate to assume that it is precisely their interests that someone “Mr. Emil Gaynulin.

But one should take into account the fact that law enforcement officers not only in Russia, but also in Cyprus, France, Switzerland and the USA could be seriously interested in the activities of Emil Gainulin. Times are difficult now, money, especially such as is available on the accounts of the former co-owner of the Cypriot boutique Graff Diamonds, is of interest to everyone.

In addition, the question remains – who exactly is the very “prominent Russian political figure” whose money Emil Gainulin withdrew from Russia through the Graff Diamonds boutique.