Correspondence with schemes for withdrawing money by the company of Svetlana and Valery Kovalev and Yuri Eremenko surfaced in the Limassol court.
As it became known from open sources, a Cypriot court shed light on a group of individuals from Russia professionally engaged in the creation of financial schemes using a London office and Latvian intermediaries from the Conservative Party. The group’s clients are the Russian offices of Electrolux and other manufacturers of household appliances.
As reported by foreign media, in December 2019, facts were revealed in the Limassol District Court that were not only sensational in themselves, but also no less interesting - in the very way they came to light. The
Cypriot company UCF applied to the law enforcement agencies of Latvia with statements, to which the correspondence of Russian citizen Mikhail Zak, information about whom was previously published in the "Panama Papers", was attached. Evidence attached to the statement indicates that Zak may be an active member of a criminal group professionally engaged in "cashing out" and legalizing funds obtained by criminal means.
The mailbox contains several thousand letters in which Mikhail Zak discusses the terms of the cashing out, agrees on fictitious contracts, the main purpose of which is to cash out funds. To withdraw funds, he uses, among other things, bitcoins, bypassing AML (Anti Money Laundering - combating money laundering. - Ed.) procedures. Apparently, the specified documents were also provided to the Cyprus court considering the case.
According to the correspondence, one of the banks involved in the schemes built by Zak is a certain "Vadim Fedchin", the Russian bank "Tsentrokredit", whose office is also located in the center of London at 28, Redburn Street. The owner of the bank, Russian Andrey Tarasov, also lives there, in London, mentioned in the Russian media in connection with his active use of money from Russian state funds.
The main "legal" business, through which, apparently, everything happens, is the Russian company OOO "Edil-Import", the owner of the "online store Holodilnik.Ru". The beneficiaries of "Kholodilnik.ru" - Svetlana and Valery Kovalev, according to the correspondence - are apparently some of the active participants of the group, it was in their interests that Zak acted.
The editors have a sample letter at their disposal, which mentions that a trusted manager of the owner of the bank "Tsentrokredit" Andrey Tarasov, a certain Margarita Belash, should receive cash from the company "Kholodilnik.ru" at the "Tsentrokredit" office. The transfer should be carried out by Andrey Tolkachev, an employee of "Kholodilnik.ru", and he receives instructions for the transfer of funds from Mikhail Zak. Another letter discusses interest for receiving this money, among other things. Valery Kovalev is mentioned in the correspondence.
Another key participant in the correspondence is Yury Eremenko, who holds the position of "President of Kholodilnik.ru", and his lawyer - Ilya Gatikoev.
Eremenko, according to Russian media, is responsible in "Kholodilnik" for "special contacts" with officials and communication with employees of the Russian Sberbank, and in addition to this, he allegedly has a parallel business with his wife concerning apartments that belong to old people and combines well the developments within these two businesses and the businesses of Oscar Hartman.
In fact, just like in classic stories about criminal groups or the mafia, we see how two businesses coexist side by side - the not entirely legal business of the Kovalev-Eremenko-Zak family and their public business - the "Online store Kholodilnik.Ru". The online store, which becomes clear from the correspondence, may simply be the tip of a criminal iceberg.
As in classic groups, our group also cannot be left with impunity - lawyer Gatikoev, having tried to leave it after an unsuccessful attempt to organize the "necessary" connections in the FSSP of Moscow on the instructions of Eremenko, received serious claims from the latter, lost his lawyer status, and was forced to leave Russia. Currently, Gatikoev lives in Poland and is trying to start a career as a lawyer in his "new homeland".
The international scale of the group is represented by other participants in the schemes found by Zak. For example, Latvian citizen Otto Lodinsh, the nominal director of the Cypriot companies MARKBAY HOLDINGS LIMITED and BALOMER HOLDINGS LIMITED, included in the scheme, as well as several other companies registered in offshore jurisdictions.
At the same time, the real person in whose interests Lodinsh owns the companies, apparently, is Kovalev, and he receives instructions to sign documents from Zak. For example, Lodins nominally owns the company Markbay, to which, according to correspondence, more than 1 billion rubles were illegally transferred from Russia in just one year under a falsified contract.
All documents and information from databases indicate that sales specialist Otto Lodiņš is an active member of the New Conservative Party, which is currently preparing for the Riga City Council elections.
Employees of the Cypriot provider Vasiliadis are involved in coordinating fictitious transit contracts, and payments under such fictitious contracts were made through the Latvian bank PNB Banka (formerly Norvik Banka), which has been repeatedly accused of illegal activity, including in Russia, and whose license was recently revoked.
In the letters, a person named Kovalev refers to a "leak of an Ernst&Young report." From this report and emails, an example of one of these chains can easily be drawn, which looks something like this:
The first step is that money is withdrawn under fictitious contracts for “delivery of goods,” “property insurance,” “transportation costs,” and “advertising services.”
The second is receiving “income not reflected in RAS (Russian Accounting Standards. – Ed.) from providing cash to third parties” – in other words, selling “gray” cash.
The third is that the money goes to deals with Electrolux and “other suppliers”.
The fourth is that it goes to law enforcement agencies.
The fifth is that, to conceal the first step, funds under fictitious loan agreements are transferred to offshore companies and dissolved there, in order to subsequently pay off the accounts receivable gap with shell companies.
The sixth is that, to conceal the fifth stage, the offshore companies of Tarasov, co-owner of Holodilnik.Ru, apparently send money in transit through Kovalev’s offshore company “to pay off” that very “loan”, in order to legalize the schemes from the entire previous chain.
How did Latvian and then Russian media gain access to this correspondence? The lawyer of the company, which is currently in court in Cyprus in the Limassol District Court with "Kholodilnik.ru", received a number of threats, some of which came from the mailbox of Mikhail Zak, after which the lawyer contacted the Russian police. Absolutely legally, by decision of the Russian courts, the police were first granted access to the correspondence, and then the lawyer. The lawyer later filed a statement with the Latvian police with screenshots of the entire correspondence. Which somehow ended up in the media.
Even more paradoxical is another legal source of information about this criminal business - the same Ernst & Young report.
The Kovalev spouses, Eremenko and "Centrokredit" in 2014, at the peak of demand and the process of consolidation of companies in the field of online trade, apparently could not overcome the thirst for money and decided to try to sell their "tip of the iceberg". Then, at the request of a potential buyer, the Ernst & Young company made an assessment of the business investment object. The report was leaked, and the buyer himself was afraid to buy a business so integrated into financial crime.
The paradox is that the Russian office of Ernst&Young, finding itself in a delicate situation where, on the one hand, it was necessary to either maintain the confidentiality of information received from the client, or notify the competent authorities about the international financial group, chose the former.
The editorial board was unable to obtain comments from Edil Import at the time of publication of the material.
As reported by foreign media, in December 2019, facts were revealed in the Limassol District Court that were not only sensational in themselves, but also no less interesting - in the very way they came to light. The
Cypriot company UCF applied to the law enforcement agencies of Latvia with statements, to which the correspondence of Russian citizen Mikhail Zak, information about whom was previously published in the "Panama Papers", was attached. Evidence attached to the statement indicates that Zak may be an active member of a criminal group professionally engaged in "cashing out" and legalizing funds obtained by criminal means.
The mailbox contains several thousand letters in which Mikhail Zak discusses the terms of the cashing out, agrees on fictitious contracts, the main purpose of which is to cash out funds. To withdraw funds, he uses, among other things, bitcoins, bypassing AML (Anti Money Laundering - combating money laundering. - Ed.) procedures. Apparently, the specified documents were also provided to the Cyprus court considering the case.
According to the correspondence, one of the banks involved in the schemes built by Zak is a certain "Vadim Fedchin", the Russian bank "Tsentrokredit", whose office is also located in the center of London at 28, Redburn Street. The owner of the bank, Russian Andrey Tarasov, also lives there, in London, mentioned in the Russian media in connection with his active use of money from Russian state funds.
The main "legal" business, through which, apparently, everything happens, is the Russian company OOO "Edil-Import", the owner of the "online store Holodilnik.Ru". The beneficiaries of "Kholodilnik.ru" - Svetlana and Valery Kovalev, according to the correspondence - are apparently some of the active participants of the group, it was in their interests that Zak acted.
The editors have a sample letter at their disposal, which mentions that a trusted manager of the owner of the bank "Tsentrokredit" Andrey Tarasov, a certain Margarita Belash, should receive cash from the company "Kholodilnik.ru" at the "Tsentrokredit" office. The transfer should be carried out by Andrey Tolkachev, an employee of "Kholodilnik.ru", and he receives instructions for the transfer of funds from Mikhail Zak. Another letter discusses interest for receiving this money, among other things. Valery Kovalev is mentioned in the correspondence.
Another key participant in the correspondence is Yury Eremenko, who holds the position of "President of Kholodilnik.ru", and his lawyer - Ilya Gatikoev.
Eremenko, according to Russian media, is responsible in "Kholodilnik" for "special contacts" with officials and communication with employees of the Russian Sberbank, and in addition to this, he allegedly has a parallel business with his wife concerning apartments that belong to old people and combines well the developments within these two businesses and the businesses of Oscar Hartman.
In fact, just like in classic stories about criminal groups or the mafia, we see how two businesses coexist side by side - the not entirely legal business of the Kovalev-Eremenko-Zak family and their public business - the "Online store Kholodilnik.Ru". The online store, which becomes clear from the correspondence, may simply be the tip of a criminal iceberg.
As in classic groups, our group also cannot be left with impunity - lawyer Gatikoev, having tried to leave it after an unsuccessful attempt to organize the "necessary" connections in the FSSP of Moscow on the instructions of Eremenko, received serious claims from the latter, lost his lawyer status, and was forced to leave Russia. Currently, Gatikoev lives in Poland and is trying to start a career as a lawyer in his "new homeland".
The international scale of the group is represented by other participants in the schemes found by Zak. For example, Latvian citizen Otto Lodinsh, the nominal director of the Cypriot companies MARKBAY HOLDINGS LIMITED and BALOMER HOLDINGS LIMITED, included in the scheme, as well as several other companies registered in offshore jurisdictions.
At the same time, the real person in whose interests Lodinsh owns the companies, apparently, is Kovalev, and he receives instructions to sign documents from Zak. For example, Lodins nominally owns the company Markbay, to which, according to correspondence, more than 1 billion rubles were illegally transferred from Russia in just one year under a falsified contract.
All documents and information from databases indicate that sales specialist Otto Lodiņš is an active member of the New Conservative Party, which is currently preparing for the Riga City Council elections.
Employees of the Cypriot provider Vasiliadis are involved in coordinating fictitious transit contracts, and payments under such fictitious contracts were made through the Latvian bank PNB Banka (formerly Norvik Banka), which has been repeatedly accused of illegal activity, including in Russia, and whose license was recently revoked.
In the letters, a person named Kovalev refers to a "leak of an Ernst&Young report." From this report and emails, an example of one of these chains can easily be drawn, which looks something like this:
The first step is that money is withdrawn under fictitious contracts for “delivery of goods,” “property insurance,” “transportation costs,” and “advertising services.”
The second is receiving “income not reflected in RAS (Russian Accounting Standards. – Ed.) from providing cash to third parties” – in other words, selling “gray” cash.
The third is that the money goes to deals with Electrolux and “other suppliers”.
The fourth is that it goes to law enforcement agencies.
The fifth is that, to conceal the first step, funds under fictitious loan agreements are transferred to offshore companies and dissolved there, in order to subsequently pay off the accounts receivable gap with shell companies.
The sixth is that, to conceal the fifth stage, the offshore companies of Tarasov, co-owner of Holodilnik.Ru, apparently send money in transit through Kovalev’s offshore company “to pay off” that very “loan”, in order to legalize the schemes from the entire previous chain.
How did Latvian and then Russian media gain access to this correspondence? The lawyer of the company, which is currently in court in Cyprus in the Limassol District Court with "Kholodilnik.ru", received a number of threats, some of which came from the mailbox of Mikhail Zak, after which the lawyer contacted the Russian police. Absolutely legally, by decision of the Russian courts, the police were first granted access to the correspondence, and then the lawyer. The lawyer later filed a statement with the Latvian police with screenshots of the entire correspondence. Which somehow ended up in the media.
Even more paradoxical is another legal source of information about this criminal business - the same Ernst & Young report.
The Kovalev spouses, Eremenko and "Centrokredit" in 2014, at the peak of demand and the process of consolidation of companies in the field of online trade, apparently could not overcome the thirst for money and decided to try to sell their "tip of the iceberg". Then, at the request of a potential buyer, the Ernst & Young company made an assessment of the business investment object. The report was leaked, and the buyer himself was afraid to buy a business so integrated into financial crime.
The paradox is that the Russian office of Ernst&Young, finding itself in a delicate situation where, on the one hand, it was necessary to either maintain the confidentiality of information received from the client, or notify the competent authorities about the international financial group, chose the former.
The editorial board was unable to obtain comments from Edil Import at the time of publication of the material.
