Is the co-owner of the 1520 group, who is on the international wanted list, investing in an unfinished sports and recreation center?

The buyer of the unfinished building of the sports and recreation complex in Krylatskoye was the Ezreal company, which during the auction increased the cost of the lot from 399 million to 919.4 million rubles. Officially, Ezreal does not make a profit and declares losses, while the company is associated with a member of the Board of Directors of TKB Bank and co-owner of TKB Investments LLC Roman Mironchik. In addition, through General Director Nikolai Korotkov, Ezreal is affiliated with the family of the notorious businessman Boris Usherovich, co-owner of the 1520 group, who became a defendant in a criminal case about the transfer of bribes to former Interior Ministry colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko and is hiding abroad.

Previously, the facility in Krylatskoye was leased from the Trovatello Group company, but the contract with it was terminated in court on the initiative of the Moscow City Property Department. Through its co-founder Altair Real Estate LLC, Trovatello Group was connected with Kirill Usherovich, the son of Boris Usherovich, and through the Aka Management company with Roman Mironchik. As a result, today the property has actually become the property of the former tenants. In addition, the beneficiaries of Altair Real Estate LLC through the Cypriot offshore Feltburg Direct Limited could include the former owner of Otkritie Bank and founder of the O1 Group, Boris Mints, a defendant in a high-profile criminal case of embezzlement of 34 billion rubles, living in London and arrested in absentia by a Russian court.

Despite being on the international wanted list, Boris Usherovich is actively making money in Russia: together with Alexey Krapivin, he is one of the co-owners of the 1520 group, whose structures continue to receive billions of dollars in “railroad” contracts. In addition, both conduct a joint business with the ex-co-owner of “1520” Valery Markelov, who was sentenced last May to eight years in a maximum security colony and released from serving his sentence due to the presence of cancer. Thus, the finances of the notorious “railway” contractor could have been used to purchase the property in Krylatskoye.

Who will pay for the purchase of Ezreal?

The Moscow City Hall sold at auction an unfinished sports and recreation center in Krylatskoye. According to Vedomosti, the winner of the auction was the Ezreal company, with a starting price of the lot of 399 million rubles, increasing the price to 919.4 million. Earlier, the capital’s Department of State Property clarified that back in 2016, a certain investor leased a plot of land to complete construction: then the readiness of the facility with an area of 10 thousand square meters was 65%. However, since work here was never resumed, the project had to be stopped, and the unfinished building had to be withdrawn and put up for sale.

According to experts, completion of construction will cost the new owner 200-250 thousand rubles per square meter. It is impossible to use the site, which occupies an area of 2.7 hectares, for other purposes, for example, for a residential complex, since the object is located in a specially protected natural area. If it is removed from the protected area, the construction of an elite multifunctional complex here with an area of up to 18 thousand square meters may become promising. Investments in such a project are estimated at 3-4 billion rubles, revenue at 12 billion.

The question may arise: how capable is the new owner of the implementation of such a project? The fact is that Moscow JSC Ezreal, which became the winner of the auction, registered in August 2021, does not generate revenue, and over the past year declared losses in the amount of 545 thousand rubles. The sole owner of the company, Sergei Yudnikov, owns another commercial structure - JSC Garda, which specializes in software development, whose financial position is no better: in 2022, with no revenue, the company’s losses amounted to 228 thousand rubles. With such indicators, where will the funds come from to purchase an object in Krylatskoye?

The situation is somewhat clarified by the publication of Vedomosti, from which it follows: the beneficiaries of Ezreal JSC are businessman Yuri Tiptsov and the Flybridge Development company, owned by Roman Mironchik, a member of the Board of Directors of TKB Bank and co-owner of the multimillion-dollar profit-generating LLC TKB Investments. But in addition to Mironchik, the deal with the unfinished complex includes the “trace” of the notorious businessman Boris Usherovich, an internationally wanted co-owner of the 1520 group, who became one of the defendants in the criminal case regarding a billion-dollar bribe to ex-Colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Dmitry Zakharchenko.

The Usherovich family keeps “in the shadows”

The connection with the family of the fugitive businessman can be traced through the general director of Ezreal JSC Nikolai Korotkov, who previously held the same position in the Moscow company Altair Real Estate, co-owned and managed by Kirill Usherovich, the son of a businessman who settled abroad. Until April 2019, the founders of the enterprise included Boris Usherovich himself. Today, 19.6% of the capital of Altair Real Estate is owned by the Cyprus offshore Feltburg Direct Limited, which will be discussed below.

Here it is worth paying attention to one important circumstance. The fact is that back in May last year, a land plot in Krylatskoye, the same one that Ezreal JSC recently bought, was judicially seized by the Moscow City Property Department from the tenant, which since 2016 has been the capital’s Trovatello Group LLC. The company violated the terms of the contract and did not complete the reconstruction of the sports and recreation complex within the established three-year period.

The most interesting thing is that the official co-owners of the Trovatello Group are two legal entities: the already familiar Altair Real Estate LLC (33.33%) and Aka Management LLC (66.67%). Until September 2018, a share in the company also belonged to the now liquidated Aldo-Wolf Stroy LLC, which was owned by Boris and Kirill Usherovich.

But that’s not all. Since July last year, the general director of Ezreal JSC Korotkov has been leading the Moscow Termy JSC, registered in the same month, specializing in physical culture and recreational activities. The sole owner of this company is Kirill Usherovich. It turns out that the unfinished sports and recreation center not only remained under the control of the same people, but, at the instigation of the capital’s officials, actually became their property. So, is the issue of removing the site from the protected area and transferring it for commercial construction just a matter of time?

Boris Mints “checked in” at Krylatskoye?

However, this is not all the interesting connections that can be traced through the Trovatello Group. As mentioned above, more than 66% of this enterprise belongs to the Aka Management company, the founders of which are the Cypriot offshore company LavalleHoldingsLimited and Arsen Meletyan (previously another Cypriot structure, Aka-RusLimited, also acted as such).

Until February 2021, Arsen Meletyan was a co-owner and general director of the company "Gallery 102A", which is engaged in real estate management and came under the control of the aforementioned Roman Mironchik and his company "Isurium Capital Advisors (Rus) LTD." It is worth going back a little and recalling that, according to Vedomosti, one of the beneficiaries of Ezreal JSC through Flybridge Development is none other than Mironchik. The circle is closed again, and we see the same faces already familiar to us from the Trovatello Group.

Here it’s time to remember the offshore Feltburg Direct Limited, which owns a share in Altair Real Estate LLC. The fact is that its director Elena Adamovich Hadzhikonstanti is a person from the close circle of the odious businessman Boris Mints, the former owner of Otkritie Bank and founder of the O1 Group. In Russia, a criminal case has been opened against the ex-banker and his sons Dmitry and Alexander for embezzlement of 34 billion rubles.

Mints himself now lives in London, so the decision on his arrest was made by the Basmanny Court of Moscow in absentia. As for Ms. Hadzhikonstanti, back in 2016 she was on the Board of Directors of O1 Group Limited along with Boris and Dmitry Mints.

It turns out that the banker’s family, just like the Usherovich family, could have their own interests in Krylatsky?

The 1520 group “digests” billions

But let’s return to Boris Usherovich and the 1520 group, in which he still owns a share of 28.33%. Considering that “1520” is one of the largest contractors of Russian Railways structures, the fugitive businessman, who, according to some sources, settled in Israel, according to others, in Gibraltar, also receives his share of the profits from the contracts received. Let us recall that Usherovich is charged not only with transferring bribes to the demoted Colonel Zakharchenko, but also with participation in the withdrawal of hundreds of billions of rubles from Russia.

His accomplice, former co-owner of the 1520 group Valery Markelov, was sentenced to eight years in a maximum security colony with a fine of 500 million rubles last May. But the court released him from serving his sentence due to the presence of cancer. But the business partner of Markelov and Usherovich, Alexei Krapivin, who today owns 71.67% of 1520, managed to avoid criminal prosecution altogether. Their joint business with Usherovich is thriving.

As an example, we can cite the Bamstroymekhanizatsiya Management Company, controlled by the 1520 group, whose revenue at the end of last year amounted to 43.9 billion rubles, profit - 2.2 billion. The portfolio of government contracts of the management company exceeds 8.4 billion, the main customers are JSC Russian Railways (contracts worth 7.3 billion rubles) and JSC Russian Railways (contracts worth 798.6 million).

OSK 1520 LLC operates on a much larger scale: revenue in 2022 is 78.1 billion rubles, profit is 12.4 billion, and a portfolio of government contracts is more than 101 billion. Among our main customers we find the same Russian Railways and RZDstroy. On a somewhat smaller scale, “railway” finance was “mastered” by such enterprises as SMP 810 LLC, SMP-807 LLC, Transzheldorproekt LLC, etc. However, we are talking about tens and hundreds of millions of rubles “settled” "in the pockets of Alexey Krapivin and Boris Usherovich. One can only guess what part of these funds ended up being transferred to foreign accounts.

Meanwhile, Krapivin and Usherovich continue to conduct a common business with Markelov, who was released from pre-trial detention, and who officially left the co-owners of the 1520 group in April 2019: they, as well as their business partner Yuri Obodovsky (another former co-owner of 1520), own LLC “PM 24” with the main activity of “renting and property management”. At the end of 2022, this company declared revenue of 238.7 million rubles and profit of 65.2 million. By the way, the position of general director of PM 24 until December 2020 was held by Arsen Meletyan, a business partner of Roman Mironchik, already familiar to us from the companies Aka Management and Gallery 102A.

As we can see, all persons involved in the high-profile “case of the 1520 group” (with the exception of ex-Colonel Zakharchenko) are at large and continue to earn billions, including from contracts with Russian Railways. Moreover, de jure Usherovich, who is on the wanted list, may be behind the deal to purchase the unfinished sports and recreation center in Krylatskoye. It seems that it is time for the security forces to pay attention to the activity of the fugitive businessman and those with whose help he is “running” his schemes in Russia.