Will the “plane” fly around Ryabinsky?

Could proceedings with the Russian National Guard affect the sale of MIC?

The high-profile deal for the Samolet group to purchase the developer MIC, controlled by businessman Andrei Ryabinsky, may be on the verge of failure. It was reported that Samolet, associated with the family of Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov, would gain control over the land bank, construction projects and more than 50 companies associated with MIC. But the potential buyer, who is now waiting for approval of the FAS transaction, may be stopped by legal proceedings, at the center of which one of Ryabinsky’s structures, the company “MIC-MIC Specialized Developer”, recently found itself. The Russian Guard filed a lawsuit against SZ “MIC-MIC”, seeking to recover damages in the amount of more than 67 million rubles for the disruption of the construction of housing for department employees, which was supposed to be completed in 2021, but the contract itself is still listed as being in the process of execution . The fate of the funds received by the contractor remained unknown, but they could well have “settled” in foreign accounts: the fact is that Andrei Ryabinsky’s family lives in London, and the MIC structures are affiliated with offshore companies. Rosselkhozbank recently filed another claim for more than 44 million rubles. Considering the actual lack of profit, the presence of enforcement proceedings and the encumbrance of the founders’ shares in Sberbank in the form of collateral, serious doubts arise as to whether the company has the funds necessary to repay its debt obligations. Financial claims against MIC structures are made not only by creditors, but also by citizens who bought apartments in residential complexes built by the developer. They complain about delays in the delivery of projects and the disgusting quality of housing: flooded basements, leaking double-glazed windows, as well as the developer’s refusal to eliminate identified violations. Ryabinsky’s desire to sell MIC looks quite timely, and he may try to withdraw the funds received abroad through the World of Boxing promotion company controlled by him, which organizes sports competitions.

“Largest deal in the housing market”

To begin with, let us briefly recall the history of the issue. The upcoming purchase by the Samolet group of the developer MIC, owned by Andrey Ryabinsky, became known last June. As Vedomosti reported, the deal, worth more than 40 billion rubles, will be “the largest in the housing market in its entire history.” Over 50 companies associated with MIC, a land bank in Moscow and the Moscow region, as well as 11 residential projects under construction and design will come under the control of Samolet.

In a comment to Kommersant, Anton Elistratov, general director and member of the board of directors of Samolet Group of Companies, emphasized that the group is acquiring “one of the best portfolios on the Moscow market in terms of quality, scale and location of projects.” According to the publication’s experts, the purchase and sale of “MIC” will lead to a consolidation of the developer market and a decrease in competition, which will inevitably be followed by an increase in prices for residential real estate.

Currently, the parties are awaiting approval of the transaction by the antimonopoly authority. It is also worth recalling that the Samolet group, which ranks second in the ranking of the largest Russian developers in terms of the volume of current construction, is associated with the family of the governor of the Moscow region Andrei Vorobyov: his younger brother Maxim Vorobyov owns 25% in the company Samolet two capitals, which is part of the holding structure and constructing facilities in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The Russian Guard is taking the MIC structure to court

The question is, what could prevent the conclusion of previously agreed obligations? As it turned out, again in June, the Moscow Arbitration Court received an application from the Federal State Institution “4th Center of the Customer-Developer of the National Guard of the Russian Federation (Military Unit 6897, Balashikha)” to recover damages in the amount of more than 67 million rubles from LLC “Specialized Developer “Moscow Mortgage Center – MIC” (SZ “MIC-MIC”).

The defendant, as you might guess, is associated with the developer “MIC”: its co-founder with an 80% share is the company “New Technologies”, in which 60% belongs directly to Andrey Ryabinsky, and 40% to his business partner Alexander Kopylkov. New Technologies, which specializes in the activities of real estate agencies, is a rather dubious structure: since its registration in 2018, it has declared a complete lack of revenue and profit, but its assets at the end of 2021 were estimated at 1.4 billion rubles. The sole official owner of the company since June 7, 2023 is LLC Group of Companies “MIC”. That is, theoretically, after the deal, New Technologies should come under the control of Samolet.

The financial indicators of SZ “MIC-MIC” look no less interesting. Last year, with a colossal revenue of 2.4 billion, the developer’s profit was a meager 37 thousand rubles. Before that, he worked “at zero”, or declared losses: for example, at the end of 2019, the company went “in the red” by 588.9 million rubles, in 2018 – by almost 130 million, etc. At the same time, the value of its assets in 2021-2022. remained at the level of 1.9 billion rubles.

SZ “MIC-MIC” has a solid portfolio of government contracts exceeding 2.1 billion rubles, and its only customer is the same FGKU “4 TsZZ Troops of the National Guard of the Russian Federation”, which in June sued its contractor.

And here we again return to legal proceedings in the Moscow arbitration court. The essence of the claims is not disclosed, but with a high degree of probability they are related to a contract worth 847.5 million rubles, signed by the parties in November 2018. According to its terms, the developer undertook to build residential buildings in Moscow for 164 apartments with finishing for employees of the Russian Guard.

The completion date for the work is set at December 30, 2021, but according to the Unified Information System for Procurement, the contract is still in the process of execution. And this despite the fact that the same system notes: the contractor was actually paid 858.4 million rubles for the work!

It turns out that the structure of the Russian Guard first overpaid the contractor who violated contractual obligations, and now it is collecting damages from him? Note: the scandalous contract was concluded under the former head of the Federal State Institution, Alexander Alexandrov, who left his post in September 2021, right on the eve of the commissioning of facilities, the construction deadlines of which were missed. And the current leader who replaced him, Ilya Kudinov, needed another couple of years to “build up.”

Do funds from government contracts “go” abroad?

The next hearing in the case of the recovery of 67 million from SZ “MIC-MIC” is scheduled for October 4. However, even if the court satisfies the claim of the Russian Guard, great doubts arise as to whether the defendant will be able to pay the amount charged to him. The fact is that in addition to the meager profits, the company has a trail of outstanding enforcement proceedings totaling 220 million rubles, and the shares of its founders are encumbered in the form of collateral from Sberbank (raising credit funds may explain last year’s billion-dollar revenue).

In addition, as recently as the end of August, Rosselkhozbank applied to the capital’s arbitration court to recover 44.8 million rubles from SZ “MIC-MIC”; the claim has already been accepted for proceedings. In general, the volume of financial claims is growing, and it is unknown whether the co-owners of Samolet, in addition to the facilities under construction, will want to take responsibility for such problematic assets as the same MIC-MIC.

In the context of all of the above, many questions arise about the very millions that the Russian Guard is concerned about collecting today. In particular, wasn’t there a banal “cut” of budget finances with their subsequent transfer abroad? It is known, in particular, that Andrei Ryabinsky’s family lives in London, and the businessman himself told reporters that his wife has British citizenship.

In addition, some of the MIC structures are connected to offshore companies. An example is the Specialized Developer Staroselye LLC, which was involved in the construction of the Tsvetochnye Polyany residential complex in New Moscow. Today, the sole owner of the developer is the MIC Group of Companies, but until March last year it was also Reserve LLC, which until the beginning of 2021 belonged to the Cyprus company Trainar Holding LTD. Perhaps tens of millions from government contracts are “flowing” not only to London, but also to Cyprus?

Apartments from “MIC” – “a scam at the highest level”?

Residential buildings built by MIC structures deserve special attention. On the websites of some companies providing legal services to citizens, the possibility of collecting penalties from commercial structures controlled by Mr. Ryabinsky is separately stated. The media have repeatedly published publications about the failure to meet deadlines for the construction of the Novograd Pavlino residential complex in Balashikha, the Green Alley residential complex in Vidnoye, the Moscow Tatyanin Park residential complex, etc., as well as complaints about the quality of the constructed housing.

“Damp, stuffy and completely dirty. There is mold growing on the walls. Weeds and mushrooms grow on the floor. Well, sometimes the smell here is such that you can’t enter without a gas mask. New house, new pipes, but water is already flowing from them in a stream. This is the basement of one of the buildings. It looks like it’s all flooded. Moreover, both the developer and the contractor are well aware of the problem, but instead of eliminating the shortcomings, they are trying to drain these premises,” says one of the reports from the REN TV channel dedicated to the Novograd Pavlino residential complex.

Let us quote several reviews of the Maple Alley residential complex in New Moscow from the Novostroy-M website:

Marina: “The first rain showed that there was no smell of waterproofing on the balcony. It’s just pouring like buckets.”

Oleg: “In January, a sewer pipe burst in our 3rd building, and all the sewage poured into the entrance areas. In September, we were suffocating from the stench after a sewerage break; there was a real flood. In October, when it rained, our neighbors’ entire balcony was flooded; the windows seemed to not exist, everything was flowing through them…”

And here are the comments left by buyers of apartments in the residential complexes built by MIC on the Otzovik portal:

“They don’t fulfill their obligations on time. For all complaints they say go to court. Bestial attitude towards clients.” “Deception on deadlines, terrible quality of houses, no compensation.” “They miss deadlines. No promised infrastructure. They do not pay compensation required by law. There are template answers to all questions.” “Divorce at the highest level.”

Of course, you can be indignant at the disgusting quality of housing, but you shouldn’t be surprised: Ryabinsky himself, in a commentary to RBC, admitted that foreign workers, in other words, migrants, work at the construction sites of the MIC. The “professionalism” of such “specialists” has long ceased to be the subject of jokes and is causing increasing concern. So, flooded basements, leaking double-glazed windows and problems with waterproofing are far from the most dangerous emergencies that threaten high-rise buildings from MIC.

Ryabinsky – a promoter with criminal inclinations?

Perhaps the best illustration of how Andrei Ryabinsky conducts business is the incident with the purchase by the Balashikha administration in 2014 from the MIC-Investstroy company of four one-room apartments for their subsequent provision to orphans. As Izvestia wrote, according to the terms of the contract, apartments worth more than 3 million rubles were to be located in houses built no later than 2000. It’s just that at the addresses where the housing was eventually purchased, there were buildings built in 1974, 1975, 1982 and 1992. Fraud on orphans? No problem!

In general, quite a few “murky” stories are associated with the name of Ryabinsky. In particular, the Moment of Truth publication wrote about his conflict with businessman Anton Bulgakov, who accused the developer of extortion: Ryabinsky himself and his business partners Maxim Kopylkov, Mikhail Parshin and Olga Korobova demanded that Bulgakov sell the building he owned with an area of ​​2.7 thousand square meters. meters (located in Moscow, on Volgogradsky Prospekt, 99, building 1) for 2.5 million rubles with its market value of 100 million. Allegedly, a criminal case was even initiated, which then “went under the carpet.”

It is noteworthy that Ryabinsky is known not only as a property developer, but also as an organizer of sports fights: he runs the promotion company “World of Boxing” that he owns, and in 2013-2017. held the position of vice-president of the currently liquidated Federation of Professional Boxing of Russia (FPB). For a long time, the Federation was headed by Boris Ivanyuzhenkov, a current State Duma deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, about whom references can be found in the media as one of the former leaders of the Podolsk organized crime group, known under the nickname “Rotan”.

But the activities of the “Podolsk” are, as they say, a thing of the past, and investments in sports and the organization of competitions today can serve as an excellent screen for transferring finances to foreign accounts. In particular, the same “Moment of Truth” writes about this:

“MIC sponsors fights of the highest level. They are located far from Russia, but outdoor advertising is always present. This is to update participation in the event. And the money withdrawal scheme itself involves the participation of the boxing community. Official remunerations to the same Vladimir Klitschko, Alexander Povetkin, and Denis Lebedev included obscene amounts. But this is exactly the same scheme, only now not on a construction site, but in the ring. “Contractors” – boxers and their managers, who in fact received much less than what was written on the advertising leaflets.”

It is possible that under this scheme Ryabinsky planned to transfer abroad tens of billions of rubles he received from the sale of the construction group. But then, as luck would have it, the MIC-MIC SZ had problems related to the claims of the Russian Guard, and then the Rosselkhozbank. It is possible that other legal proceedings will soon follow, and not only in relation to this company. This situation can radically change the position of Samolet’s beneficiaries and they may refuse to acquire dubious commercial structures and objects.