Irina Taimurova (Razgonova), the half-sister of former Interior Ministry Colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko, who was found to have almost 9 billion rubles in various currencies during a search, can avoid confiscation of apartments in long-term buildings on Vernadsky Avenue. This became clear at the trial in the Nikulinsky Court of Moscow, which is considering the claim of the Prosecutor General’s Office against the ex-silovik and his four relatives about the seizure of property worth almost 50 million rubles to the state.
Among the property that the supervisory agency asks to turn into state revenue are two apartments in the residential complex “Academ Palace” in the prestigious district of the capital on Vernadsky Avenue (each with an area of more than 100 square meters) and two parking spaces. Their half-sister, a security officer, bought them at the stage of excavation in houses, which, however, were never built.
It is rather about the right to claim housing, the construction of which was carried out by United Construction Company JSC (USC), the process of declaring it bankrupt for several years has been going on in the Arbitration Court of the capital.
As it turned out, serious passions boil within it, of which Irina Taimurova became a participant, who bore the name Razgonova before marriage.
It was because of her participation in the dispute in the capital’s arbitration that the prosecutor at the meeting of the Nikulinsky Court of Moscow on June 6 asked to postpone the hearing.
Right to apartments
Valeria Tunikova, a lawyer representing Taimurova, who also defends Colonel Zakharchenko himself, explained that the Moscow Arbitration Court refused to include her principal in the register of creditors’ claims. “In accordance with the ruling of the court, Taimurova was denied on the grounds that the fact of payment (for apartments) under the equity agreement was not confirmed. Thus, the question arises as to whether (Taimurova) has the right to claim these objects at all, ”the lawyer noted.
She said that Taymurova challenged the decision in the Court of Appeal, the meeting of which is scheduled for June 15.
Valeria Tunikova told Business FM that the half-sister of Colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko paid for the apartments under construction and two parking spaces for them back in 2006. “We asked for supporting documents, they came. But the court considered them insufficient to confirm the payment, ”she said.
According to her, the arbitration proceedings have been going on for several years. Initially, the court included her trustee in the register of creditors’ claims. The appeal overpowered the decision, but it was canceled by the cassation, sending the issue for a new consideration to the court of first instance by the same judge. The second time she had already refused Taimurova, explained Tunikova.
“It is interesting that a representative of the Moscow prosecutor’s office spoke at the meeting of this court, who objected to the inclusion of Taimurova in the register of creditors. Although here, at the meeting of the Nikulinsky court, the prosecutor is already asking to take away these rights of claims. We did not understand this plot and the position of the prosecutor’s office a little. If you ask to turn something into state revenue, then you recognize (for a person) the right to claim, ”the lawyer was perplexed.
long-term construction
The construction of a residential complex on Vernadsky Avenue was started in 2005. The investor and developer of the project was the United Construction Company (USC), which was supposed to build 170.4 thousand square meters of housing for 538 apartments in three buildings. The project has been postponed several times, most recently until June 2018.
In 2016, Moskomstroyinvest issued an official statement in which it stated that the developer was not seeking to complete the construction of the facility, and therefore the committee could apply to the arbitration court with a statement on the liquidation of the company.
In addition to Dmitry Zakharchenko and Irina Taimurova, there are also three defendants in the suit of the Prosecutor General’s Office in the Nikulinsky Court of Moscow: this is the father of the ex-colonel Viktor Zakharchenko, his former official wife Yana Saratovtseva and the former civil wife Marina Semynina. As a third party on the part of the defendant, the court involved the last wife of Viktor Zakharchenko, Elena Zakharchenko (formerly Sevostyanenko).
Lawsuits of the Prosecutor General’s Office
It is interesting that it was in the non-residential apartment of Irina Taimurova, who had the surname Razgonova before her marriage, that the security forces in the fall of 2016 on Lomonosovsky Prospekt found almost 9 billion rubles in different currencies. In 2017, together with other property, the Nikulinsky Court of Moscow turned them into state revenue.
And in 2019, the same court, on another lawsuit filed by the Prosecutor General’s Office, confiscated property worth 484 million rubles from the ex-colonel, his wives (official and civil) as state revenue.
Now, the supervisory authority asks to confiscate from the defendants, in addition to unbuilt apartments and parking spaces, a pair of cufflinks, a collectible coin, as well as a number of jewelry: earrings, pendants, bracelets, rings, chains, as well as elite Swiss watches from Ulysse Nardin, Cvstos Challenge and Rolex.
Jewelry was confiscated from the former women of Colonel Zakharchenko and, according to the prosecutor’s office, were purchased with the corruption proceeds of the security official.
The latter has already been twice convicted of bribery and received a total of 16 years in prison with a fine of 0.5 billion rubles.
An appeal against the latest verdict in the last case has not yet been considered. The next hearing in the Moscow City Court is scheduled for June 8.
The process in the Nikulinsky court will continue on July 3. It is led by Judge Olga Kazakova, who is also hearing a lawsuit from the Prosecutor General’s Office on the seizure of bitcoins worth about $24 million from another ex-silovik, the former head of the investigative department of the committee for the Tverskoy district of Moscow, Marat Tambiev.