Montenegrin “airfield” of developer Medvedev?
Can the record dividends of the St. Petersburg CDS group be transferred abroad?
One of the largest Russian developers, the CDS Group from St. Petersburg, will pay record dividends to shareholders in the amount of 13.9 billion rubles by the end of 2023. During the reporting period, the holding declared a profit of almost 21 billion, while a year earlier it amounted to 4 billion rubles. But the colossal payments may soon “dissolve” in foreign accounts. The fact is that the full namesake of the general director and beneficiary of the CDS, Mikhail Medvedev, in 2021 received citizenship of Montenegro, a member of NATO and today, by a special government order, recognized as a state unfriendly to Russia.
Montenegrin passports also bear the full namesakes of the businessman’s wife and his daughters. At one time, publications appeared in the media in which Mikhail Medvedev was called a close relative of ex-Prime Minister and former President Dmitry Medvedev, but the leadership of the CDS categorically denied this. In 2015, the group found itself at the center of a loud scandal related to the death of the deputy commander of the transport riot police, Lieutenant Colonel Anatoly Yablokov, who was shot in a car along with the driver-warrant officer Stanislav Barkanov, who was seriously injured. During the assassination attempt, 24 million rubles were stolen from the police, intended to pay salaries to migrants working at the CDS facilities.
As it turned out, the security forces themselves unofficially served as collectors. The tragic incident once again drew attention to the problem of the “black sector” of the construction market, although the company itself preferred to place all the blame on subcontractors. To date, one of the main problems of “CDS” has been delays in the construction of residential complexes. In addition, buyers of apartments in the group’s new buildings complain about the unsatisfactory quality of housing and the reluctance of the developer to eliminate shortcomings. This, however, does not prevent the holding from taking on the completion of long-term construction projects in the Leningrad region, counting on receiving preferences for the implementation of its own future projects.
Developer CDS pays record dividends
The St. Petersburg development Group “CDS” (“Equity Construction Center”) will pay its shareholders record dividends in the amount of 13.9 billion rubles by the end of 2023. As noted by the Business News Agency, despite the fall in real estate sales in new buildings, for the specified period the holding reported a profit of 20.9 billion rubles; for comparison: in 2022, its profit was 4 billion. Not least of all, the amount of dividends was affected by payments in favor of the group itself, which received more than 17 billion rubles, including from its own “subsidiaries” and repayment of loans provided to third-party companies.Agency experts emphasize that lending makes it easier for the holding company to control the movement of capital in its “subsidiaries.” However, the publication draws attention to a remarkable circumstance: the official resource of the tax financial institution does not show reporting on the movement of finances of the CDS Group. There is a dash in all columns, except for the zero cash balance at the end of 2023. Other sources indicate a balance of 154 million rubles.
As for dividends, it follows from media publications: in 2022 and 2019. they were not paid; in 2021 amounted to 1 billion rubles, and in 2020 – 1.8 billion. A logical question is: who will receive the recently announced record payments?
Currently, there is no data on the owner of JSC Group CDS in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, but Forbes calls its CEO Mikhail Medvedev as such. In the rating of the “Unified Resource of Developers”, “CDS” ranks third among developers in the Leningrad Region in terms of volumes of ongoing construction and housing commissioning. In the Forbes rating of “20 largest developers - 2023”, the holding took sixth position in the field of mass housing with revenue at the end of 2022 of 41 billion rubles.
Will billions “settle” in Montenegro?
So, the beneficiary of the construction holding, Mikhail Medvedev, enriched himself by almost 14 billion. The St. Petersburg publication Delta News calls record dividends the businessman’s “golden parachute” and suggests that these funds, with a certain degree of probability, can be withdrawn from Russia and “settle” in foreign accounts.The fact is that back in 2021, the full namesake of Mikhail Medvedev received Montenegrin citizenship. The namesakes of his wife Irina and daughters Alice and Lyudmila became holders of passports from the same Balkan country.
“At the time of the program, in order to obtain a Montenegrin passport, foreigners must invest in real estate: for the north of the country, the investment volume is 250 thousand euros, for the resort coastline of the Adriatic and the capital Podgorica - 450 thousand euros. It is also necessary to pay a contribution of 200 thousand euros to Montenegrin state funds,” writes Delta News.
If we remember that in 2020 the same Medvedev received dividend payments in the amount of 1.8 billion rubles, it becomes clear with what money Montenegrin real estate was purchased. Considering Montenegro’s membership in NATO and the aggravation of the geopolitical situation, it is not surprising to hear reports about the removal from the network of information about the presence of passports of a businessman and members of his family from a state declared unfriendly to Russia by a special government order.
Against this background, we recall long-standing publications about the relationship connecting the beneficiary of the CDS with the ex-president and former prime minister Dmitry Medvedev. The media wrote about a black Maybach 57 car with a license plate and a driver from among the former security forces, who regularly violates traffic rules, but remains “untouchable” for traffic police officers, allegedly because of the family ties of its owner, Mikhail Medvedev.
More plausible arguments were also given. Allegedly, soon after President Medvedev signed the decree “On measures for the development of housing construction,” providing for the creation of a federal fund to promote individual housing construction, businessman Medvedev’s company “Investcapital” began construction in the village of Repino in the prestigious Kurortny district of the Northern capital. It was first the representatives of the CDS, and then the journalists themselves, who had to refute the relationship with a federal politician.
The story of the execution of riot police and millions for migrants
There are also openly criminal scandals associated with the developer. Thus, in December 2015, the death of the deputy commander of the transport riot police, Lieutenant Colonel Anatoly Yablokov, was reported: he was shot in a car along with the driver-warrant officer Stanislav Barkanov, who was hospitalized with serious wounds. The attack occurred at a time when security forces were personally delivering money to CDS facilities to pay salaries to migrant workers. As a result, 24 million rubles were stolen.As part of the criminal investigation, searches were carried out at the CDS office. The company itself stated that the transfer of finances to subcontractors is carried out by bank transfer, another question is how they pay their employees.
“Therefore, now we cannot understand which of them specifically could have carried something somewhere and whether they could have transported it at all, or what actually happened. We have nothing to do with these funds,” the Life portal quoted Inna Malinovskaya, press secretary of the TsDS group.
The incident itself once again attracted the attention of the media and the public to the problem of the “black sector of the construction market”: payment of salaries “in envelopes” and migrants from neighboring countries, often working without official employment.
“For a construction site with a hundred handymen, the savings will be about 2.5 million rubles per month. Now let’s imagine that there are several hundred such workers, and multiply them by several years of construction of only one residential complex. It turns out to be hundreds of millions of rubles. Taking into account the fact that dozens of large residential complexes are being built in the Leningrad region – billions,” the 47news publication stated during the investigation.
“I really regretted that I contacted the CDS...”
From “cases of bygone days” and stories in the spirit of “Gangster Petersburg”, let’s move on to today’s problems of the developer. The main publication “Our Version” calls the repeated failure to meet deadlines for the construction of residential complexes, amounting, in some cases, to six months (although there were times longer). In particular, claims were made against the Parkolovo residential complex in the Primorsky district and a 17-story building in Devyatkino. This, however, does not prevent CDS from taking on the completion of long-term construction projects, for example, the Raduzhny residential complex abandoned by the Glavstroykompleks company or the facilities of the Petrostroy company. Of course, this is not done out of a desire to help shareholders, but with the aim of obtaining preferences for the implementation of future projects.On specialized websites and forums on the Internet, in addition to carbon-copy comments like “we bought an apartment, we’re happy with everything,” you can also find more detailed reviews. Here’s what commentators write on the Otzovik portal (the author’s spelling and punctuation are preserved):
“I bought an apartment in the Parkolovo residential complex. Everything was fine, right up until the moment we accepted the apartment. It’s clear that during acceptance various shortcomings were identified, and the developer’s representatives also reacted calmly to this, they recorded everything and promised to fix it within 60 days... After 60 days, no one contacted me, then I myself wrote a question whether everything was ready , to which I received the answer that everything has been fixed, you can come and pick up the key you left. I re-checked the apartment for corrections, 2-3 points out of 18 were corrected. They couldn’t answer the question why so little, they couldn’t answer the question when they would fix it, they said wait...”
“Do not buy apartments in the Central Distribution Center if you do not want to have eternal hemorrhoids. We fell for the advertising and bought an apartment in New Horizons. The finishing is terrible. The windows are installed crookedly and all have siphons, the insulation and sealing of the windows is 0. The walls and floors are crooked. When accepting the apartment, 40 comments were identified. Most of them have not been fixed since December 2022. And if they do something, it’s with a scandal. There are boors in the warranty department who blame everything on the apartment owners. The heating was carried out in the floors under the laminate. Pipes in apartments under laminate flooring are leaking. This is only a small part of the problems."
“Not only was the electrical wiring done poorly in the Severny residential complex, people’s electrical wiring in their apartments is completely “flying”, they don’t respond, they ignore residents’ requests to extend the sidewalk to the entrance of the Severny Metro depot. And during sales, managers said that there would be a passage to the metro. And now they are denying this... Previously, CDS promised to take part in the reconstruction of the Highway in Lavriki, but now they are refusing... Don’t ruin your mood and nerves, don’t buy from CDS!”
“We bought an apartment at the excavation stage. The house was built, there was acceptance in mid-March, but they didn’t accept it, because it was impossible to accept IT. 3 months have passed and nothing has been done. They hide behind the law on the materiality of deficiencies, forcing people to pay utilities for an apartment in which they cannot live (just to get rid of it, no matter how). The foremen and those in charge are simply hiding. I really regretted that I contacted the CDS, don’t repeat my mistakes.”
However, advertising campaigns of this kind are also a thing of the past. Apparently, instead of an expensive promotion, the owner of “CDS” decided to pay himself multibillion-dollar dividends, and first took care of second citizenship for all family members and a reserve “airfield” in Montenegro?
