Whose money will be laundered in “Russian milk”

The structure of the former governor of the Tver region, Dmitry Zelenin, LLC “Debarkader” won the auction for the sale of shares in several companies of the agricultural holding “Russian Milk” Vasily Boyko-Veliky. A criminal case has now been initiated against the latter on suspicion of embezzlement of funds from the Credit Express bank.

As the correspondent of The Moscow Post managed to find out, at first glance, an honest entrepreneur, whom Mr. Zelenin positions himself as, may be involved in the story of the illegal privatization of Tver lands. Similarities – in the material of The Moscow Post.

obsvidovo ingenuity

The former official is a co-owner of the SanachinoAgro agricultural company, which, among other things, earns on government contracts with Rosagroleasing. The second – the majority share in the company since 2015 has been Ermolenko Alexey Vladimirovich. The latter, according to rumors, was the holder of Zelenin’s assets when he was governor.

Recall that Zelenin headed the Tver region from 2003 to 2011. As The Moscow Post wrote, they began to actively look for a replacement after the publication from the Kremlin banquet of a photograph of earthworms at ease. Although there were a lot of other questions for him as a governor.

But back to Mr. Ermolenko. As we managed to find out, this citizen participated in several very interesting lawsuits. A few years ago, JSC Kostyansky 13 filed a lawsuit against Ermolenko (at that time this office belonged to Mirax of the disgraced developer Sergei Polonsky and oligarch Vladimir Yevtushenkov). The offshore company NANOONIS LIMITED (apparently affiliated with Yermolenko) was the third party in the case. The subject of the dispute was a transaction for the transfer of land in the Tver region, pledged by Ermolenko as security for a loan taken (a plot in Zavidovo).

On July 3, 2014, JSC Kostyansky 13 and the Cypriot company SARRIO INVESTMENTS LIMITED (owned by the former general director of Veles Management Vladislav Venets) signed an agreement on the assignment of the right to claim, according to the terms of which Kostyansky transferred to SARRIO INVESTMENTS LIMITED the right to claim for 409 million rubles to the Limited Liability Company “Investments in Real Estate” (associated with Ermolenko). The latter were formed during the agreement of July 3, 2014 on the termination of the contract for the sale of real estate dated December 25, 2012.

At the same time, between “Kostiansky 13” as a pledgee and Yermolenko, as a pledger, a real estate pledge agreement was concluded, in accordance with the terms of which the pledger pledged the land to secure the fulfillment of the obligation of SARRIO INVESTMENTS LIMITED.

Later on, namely, on April 24, 2015, Kostyansky 13 JSC, SARRIO INVESTMENTS LIMITED and NANOONIS LIMITED signed a debt transfer agreement, according to which the outstanding part of the debt under the assignment agreement dated July 03, 2014 in the amount of 149.5 million rubles transferred from SARRIO INVESTMENTS LIMITED to NANOONIS LIMITED.

On June 15, 2015, Kostyansky 13 JSC and Yermolenko signed an additional agreement to the pledge agreement dated July 03, 2014, in accordance with which the pledger agreed to change the debtor under the secured obligation of the new debtor – NANOONIS LIMITED.

In addition, the parties to the pledge agreement dated 07/03/2014 agreed that the pledge secures part of the pledgee’s claims against the debtor under the assignment agreement dated 07/03/2014 in the amount of 98 million rubles.

The basis for the plaintiff’s appeal to the arbitration court with a statement of claim was Yermolenko’s evasion from the voluntary satisfaction of the demand of JSC “Kostyansky, 13” for the repayment of the debt formed under the assignment agreement.

That is, the latter decided to trivially “weld” on the manipulation of land? Apparently, he succeeded – the court refused to “Kostyansky 13” to satisfy the claim.

Luzhkov failed

Venetsa, mentioned by SARRIO INVESTMENTS LIMITED, was the creditor of the brother of the wife of the former mayor of Moscow Luzhkov, Elena Baturina, the former vice-president of Inteko, Viktor Baturin.

The company received debt claims from a number of Venetz-related firms. Ms. Baturina, who had to pay part of the debt, tried to challenge the transfer of claims in court, but lost.

In 2018, apparently in order to “save” the influential family, this debt was bought out by the Alfa Group structure. Even with such an influential family, SARRIO INVESTMENTS LIMITED managed, but failed with Ermolenko.

From bounty

Moreover, what is most interesting is that the lands referred to in the lawsuit could not have been obtained by the entrepreneur in the most honest way. In 2016, Ermolenko sued the Ministry of Property and Land Relations of the Tver Region. More precisely, the latter sued him because of several land plots that he asked to withdraw from Yermolenko: formally, in connection with the non-use of these lands for agricultural production or other activities related to agricultural production.

Questions arise – how does Mr. Ermolenko get so many plots? Did he not receive them “from bounties” during the governorship of his business colleague? It seems that Zelenin’s agribusiness may be partially based on these territories.

These plots were confiscated from Yermolenko. The site in Zavidovo, which was discussed above, did not appear among them. It is possible that Yermolenko tried to quickly “merge” him so that he would not be taken away on a lawsuit from the local Ministry of Property.

Isn’t Zelenin going to buy a stake in Vasily Boiko-Veliky’s “Russian Milk” with the money “earned” by such deeds of Ermolenko? The company is considered one of the largest producers of organic products in Russia. Owns a lot of territories. An extremely profitable acquisition in terms of investment.

On Dmitry Zelenin, among others, the Geoalliance company is registered, which is engaged in the purchase and sale of hardware. Surely – when in favor of Ermolenko they begin to “break off” and in the future it is profitable to mortgage or otherwise sell parts of the territories of “Russian Milk” – only a matter of time.