ZaSNSinevel: why does the ex-president of the United States need Russian cigarettes?

Can Donald Trump’s structures be related to the Russian tobacco market?

In March of this year, it became known that one of the largest corporations producing cigarettes, British American Tobacco (BAT), may be leaving the Russian market. According to Kommersant, it is possible to manage the business in Russia by the distributor and long-term partner of BAT – SNS Group.

And almost immediately after it became known about the departure of BAT, the former founder of SNS-Holding, the Cypriot GK SNS LIMITED, transferred the asset to two individuals – Mikhail Smetannikov and Andrey Sobolev.

Whose interests may be hiding behind this series of transactions – in the material MorningNews.

Businessmen-liquidators

Who are Smetannikov and Sobolev? Since 2017, they have been together among the top officials of the company for growing agricultural crops “Uchastie”. Smetannikov is the general director, Sobolev is the founder.

Smetannikov was also the founder of the Vostok Invest tobacco company, having received the company from a certain Igor Petrukhin. He eliminated it in 2020. The company’s revenue, according to the latest data from Rusprofile, amounted to a miserable 40 thousand rubles. This is the data of 2018, which was later – is not disclosed.

However, the rapid growth schedule of revenue from 2017 to 2018, as well as the short period of existence of the office (founded in 2017), suggest that it is fictitious and used to withdraw funds.

It is also worth paying attention to the fact that Petrukhin himself is listed as the founder of 127 organizations. It is unlikely that even the most “hardened” businessman will be able to manage such a large number. So, most likely, this is the so-called “nominal value”, which provides services for holding assets for other people.

Taking this into account, as well as the fact that Petrukhin appears as the founder of SNS Abakan, the liquidated former branch of the Cypriot GK SNS LIMITED, there is reason to believe that he also provided such services to Smetannikov. Which, in turn, can cover the interests of a third party. About why it is so difficult that you can get confused, we will talk later.

Smetannikov also interacted with Petrukhin through BEM C Novokuznetsk LLC – only skipping the CEO iteration and immediately taking the position of the company’s liquidator.

In a similar way (taking away the rights of the head and / or founder), Smetannikov was also present with a certain Krupenin Anton Valerievich through a number of other organizations.

After digging around, we found that the businessman is the founder of eight companies, seven of which were liquidated, having existed mainly for a couple of years.

Moreover, among them there are no firms in which we found connections with Smetannikov. Given the direction in which the companies associated with Krupennikov and Smetannikov are moving, the question arises – what will happen to SNS-Holding?

As for Sobolev, this is a businessman, apparently from the same cohort. There are only two operating and related firms left – this is SNS-Holding itself and Participation, which was mentioned above.

All the rest, many of which belonged to the SNS Group of Companies, were liquidated. Sobolev also has his own “pocket” entrepreneur with a hundred offices under his sleeve – Yuri Bubnov. He is the leader and founder of a large number of companies.

According to information from the Uchet.kz website, a person with the same full name as Smetannikov is also the general director of the Kazakh company DRAKAR, which manufactures computer equipment.

The ex-president went into business?

The office acquired foreign partners. The American Hewlett Packard Enterprise appears there. According to open sources, Charles Nosky sits on its board of directors. He, according to Bloomberg, was the vice chairman of Bank of America.

According to RBC, this same bank is involved in transferring information about Russians who interacted with President Donald Trump, members of his family and representatives of his business structures to two congressional committees, as well as prosecutors.

It turns out that the bank knew about the affairs of the ex-president, it is possible that Trump used his resources in order to do business with Russian entrepreneurs. This version is supported by the fact that, when the latter was still the head of the United States, he nominated Joseph Oetting, also a Bank of America, to the post of chairman of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. This was reported by Vedomosti. Does the hand wash?

If Trump is directly related to the bank and conducted business with Russian entrepreneurs through it, and Smetannikov, who owns DRAKAR, is the same Smetannikov from the SNA Group, then he may have his interest in both the latter and the tobacco company. DRAKAR is a major supplier of the state. And in April 2017, the company won a tender for the supply of equipment to AsiaCredit Bank for 46.5 million tenge (6.3 million rubles).

DRAKAR does not work quite cleanly – in 2017 it was convicted of copyright infringement, used (probably to save money) someone else’s documentation – they wrote on the website of the Almaty City Court.

SNA structures, in turn, are among the top main suppliers of tobacco products. The assets are extremely attractive.

Another more significant indirect confirmation that Trump is directly related to this story is the fact that the founder of DRAKAR’s partner, Oracle Corporation, Larry Ellison, openly supported him. This was written about in the media. Surely not just like that, but in view of common business interests …

Meanwhile, Trump’s “trace” in SNS-Holding can also flicker from the other side.

“Girlfriend”

If you look at who is the director of the offshore “GK SNS LIMITED”, which owned “SNS-Holding” before he left Smetannikov with Sobolev, you will find a very interesting madam. This is a certain Pampina Votsi, what the media calls a Cypriot lawyer. She, in addition, is on the boards of directors of several Russian companies.

This citizen can be engaged in representing Trump’s interests in Russia, and here’s why. A few years ago, the ex-president of America planned to implement a skyscraper project in the capital of our country. Negotiations on the construction of Trump Tower, according to the official version of the beneficiaries of the failed transaction, were led by the head of a small group of companies “Expert” – a certain Andrey Rozov.

But for some reason, his name cannot be found in the list of directors and founders of this company. But there is another company – “Expertstroy”, which until 2016 was called “Expert” and Rozov was its general director for about a year. Its founders were and remain three offshore companies that are associated with Votsi. By the way, the company is in the process of bankruptcy – the money flowed abroad into the pockets of the former US president?

Let’s take a closer look at foreign companies and their alleged ties to Votsi. A few years ago, they wrote that COLISEN TRADING LIMITED allegedly belongs to IONIX NOMINES LIMITED, whose directors include the aforementioned Pampina Votsi.

Now this data is not available. COLISEN TRADING LIMITED may have been rewritten. It is currently managed by a certain Anton Voznesensky. But IONICS NOMINES LIMITED is really worth Votsi. Cleaned up, but not all…

Mr. Voznesensky oversees two more offshore companies – Balenham Investments Limited and Carnberg Developments Limited, which are listed as the founders of Bestline. This office appears in the structure of the former founders of Expertstroy. So, it is possible that Voznesensky is Mrs. Watsi’s man.

A certain Alexander Vladimirovich Vorobyov also has a share in the company. He is also listed as the founder of Bestline. And he, as the general director, was registered with the High Tower company (and again Trump Tower involuntarily comes to mind), and among its former founders is Mr. Rozov, it seems, the same one who was called the businessman who negotiated the construction of Trump Tower. All threads are intertwined!

More banks!

But back to Trump. In addition to Bank Of America, which we wrote about above, he could be related to the Bank of New York Mellon. According to rumors, at one time the interests of the bank in the field of tax legislation were lobbied by a native of Moscow, Boris Epshtein, who is also a former adviser to Donald Trump and an employee of the White House.

Through this bank, allegedly back in the late 90s, $10 billion was “laundered” – including money allocated as a loan to the Russian government by the International Monetary Fund. While the investigation was going on, they proved the connection between the laundering companies and the leader of the Solntsevo criminal group, Semyon Mogilevich, Kommersant wrote. Too much Trump’s personality seems to be “overgrown” with new criminal details…

Incredible woman

What about Mrs Watsi? She also deserves our attention no less than the former head of the United States. In addition to the fact that her name appears in a number of Cypriot firms, she is on the boards of directors of Russian companies and can lobby Trump’s interests, she can also be something of a professional raider. Let’s dwell here in more detail.

Pampina Votsi is on the boards of directors of Transaero and Dixy Group, which, in turn, are subsidiaries of Red Bell under the leadership of the same Votsi, registered in the British Virgin Islands, Kommersant reports.

Back in 2009, Red Bell and Credit Suisse entered into an agreement to transfer the first share of oil and gas Timan oil & gas (TOG). It just happened without the consent of the CEO of the latter. He, having learned about the deal already after its completion, went to court to challenge it and even wrote a letter to the then Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Igor Sechin.

The story somehow faded away over time. After the scandal, there is almost no news about the company. There is reason to believe that she was torn apart under the strict control of Votsi and others like her. The story of the raider seizure of the Kurilovsky Automobile Repair Plant (KARZ), in which the name of Mrs. Votsi also appears, was approximately the same, Novye Izvestia reported.

CJSC Kortes, whose director functions are performed by an offshore company managed by Votsi, in 2006 achieved the arrest of the director of CARZ and, after a while, gained control over the enterprise. Seems like it’s not really legal.

At least journalists cite the following scheme: allegedly the raiders entered the capital of CARZ, first by buying up part of its shares, then they sold them on behalf of Cortex and sued the plant demanding to recover an amount many times higher than the cost of the purchased shares. At the same time, they said that they were not going to sell them and Votsi’s signature on the documents was a fake.

Moreover, the forensic examination of the signature was carried out twice – apparently, until the result suited Votsi. At first it turned out that the document and the signature were genuine. The second examination, it seems. Initiated by Votsi, the desired result was achieved and the general director of CARZ was put behind bars, and Votsi’s company got the asset.

Now CARZ has been liquidated. Apparently, due to the fact that all the money was taken out of him and abandoned. And the property, most likely, went under the hammer to one of the “lured”. Another sad story of the liquidation of a Russian company, in which one can see the trace of Mr. Trump. Although, perhaps, Votsi acted alone.

If everything we have described above is true, as we assume, then Mr. Trump’s structures do not fare badly in Russia.

How to eat tasty in Russia

At the same time, Ms. Votsi’s GK SNS LIMITED is related to a huge number of Russian companies under the SNS brand. Most of which have now been eliminated.

All of them were engaged in the sale of tobacco products and participated in public procurement. Could this money go to Trump? For example, “SNS Tambov” in 2013 became a supplier in the purchase of cigarettes in a pre-trial detention center.

Another office – “SNS Don”, cooperated with the “daughter” of “Rosneft” – “NK” Rosneft “- Kubannefteprodukt”. In 2015, we signed an agreement with them for as much as 8 million rubles. Work is nerve-wracking!

In 2015, 88 companies joined the capital of SNS Sergiev Posad. Its revenue, which had been at zero since 2011, in 2015 “grew” to 52 billion rubles. It is obvious that all the capital of the liquidated firms turned out to be in the company.

And already in 2017, the “mother of 88 children” also “collapsed”. Moreover, her financial situation at that time was unknown – there is simply no data on this after 2015. Perhaps all the money that ended up in the company during these two years was simply withdrawn to the same offshore, which also became the head of SNS Sergiev Posad – GK SNS LIMITED! Which has been covered up by now.

Well, Mr. Trump, as they say in Russia, “without half a liter”, you can’t figure it out.