Agalarov Investment

Oligarch Araz Agalarov peculiarly represents investing in road construction - he does not abandon attempts to withdraw more than 6 billion rubles from the state-owned Avtodor company. The founder of Crocus Group, a billionaire with an ambiguous reputation and a lover of earning extra money at budget construction sites, considered that he was underpaid during the construction of a section of the Central Ring Road in the Moscow Region. Although the court of first instance, not without reason, denied these claims, but Agalarov does not retreat.

Details - in the material of The Moscow Post.

Araz Agalarov managed to snatch billions at many budget construction sites, including for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, for which his company built stadiums in Kaliningrad and Rostov-on-Don. That's just for the state customer it came out sideways.

Earlier, the court refused Agalarov to recover 6.04 billion rubles, allegedly the cost of additional work, unjust enrichment, losses and compensation for some harm.

Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru

Photo: https://kad.arbitr.ru

The dispute was based on a long-term investment agreement from 2014 for the construction of a section of the Central Ring Road.

Moscow region (with subsequent operation on a paid basis). At the same time, the contract itself involved not only in a row, but also co-financing the contractor in the amount of 6.7 billion rubles in addition to financing. Ultimately, instead of investments, the contractor counted additional expenses to the budgetary institution, where he included not only the construction project that had risen in price, but also his certain losses, including from issuing a bank guarantee (!!!). The court materials noted that the amount of the claim even surpassed the amount of co-financing of the contractor established by the terms of the agreement. Chutzpah is the second happiness?

Photo: https://kad.arbitr.ru

Agalarov lost the dispute. The court noted that when performing work on the DIS, Crocus JSC did not coordinate with the state-owned company the production of any additional volumes of work, and also did not suspend the work. That is, the state customer is not obliged to pay for these works, no matter how much the oligarch wants.

It is also funny that, judging by the materials of the court, the project documentation also did not contain information about additional work, and therefore additional costs. Moreover, those works to which the plaintiff referred as additional, it turns out, were part of the basic project and were paid. Somehow smacks of an attempt at fraud, don't find it?

Photo: https://kad.arbitr.ru

But here it will be recalled to the place that in the criminal case of the ex-head of Avtodor Sergei Kelbach (later he was an adviser to the head of Russian Railways), businessman Aras Agalarov also appeared in Crocus International. Kelbach was suspected that he did not quite rightfully issue an additional advance to the contractor for 2 billion rubles. The Moscow Post then spoke in detail about the case.

Auditors also had complaints about the implementation of the road project.

As Kommersant reported, in 2016 Rostekhnadzor demanded that the general contractor for the construction of the Rostov-Arena stadium, Crocus International, be fined, as he found deviations from the project. There were also claims against the contractor from the Ministry of Construction of the Rostov Region.

In the same year, it became known that the Moscow Metro closes the Myakinino station indefinitely, as it threatens the safety of passengers. The investor in this project was Crocus Group.

Even earlier, a scandalous story involving an oligarch arose in the village of Voronino near Moscow, where Crocus International bought zemlitsa. It was rumored that for the construction of a cottage village for the elite, the villagers were asked to leave, but they refused, and the confrontation lasted several years.

And this is only a small fraction of scandals, where the oligarch managed to light up.

There are also offshore companies in the chain of empire, which the businessman does not disdain. For example, in Agalarov Estate LLC, a certain Silver Valley Consulting Corp, registered in the British Virgin Islands, has a 15.4% stake. Also, the offshore company, together with Crocus, was the owner of a couple more companies - Stroytsentr LLC and Investment and Construction Corporation LLC, which joined Agalarov Estate.

Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru/id/1094743

Among those who were called Agalarov's longtime "acquaintance" were Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, whose daughter was the wife of Agalarov's son for several years. The then governor of the Moscow region Boris Gromov and his team, as well as the now former mayor of Novosibirsk, now Senator Vladimir Gorodetsky, were on this list. And not so long ago, Sergei Chemezov was also the head of Rostec in the chain, which The Moscow Post has already talked about.

Perhaps it was Agalarov's strong lobby that, even after high-profile scandals, did not turn away state customers from him. The parent company, Crocus JSC, was the executor of more than 100 state contracts totaling over 63.9 billion rubles.

Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru/id/3948197

Has the road investment contract turned into an enrichment contract?

Maybe "high ties" raise the degree of self-confidence in Agalarov? Otherwise, how to explain the protracted dispute between Crocus JSC and the state-owned company Avtodor. On December 6, 2023, the court will hear a cassation appeal from the oligarch's company.

Returning to the topic of the current proceedings, no matter how such integrity came out "sideways" to Agalarov himself and how not to get into the millstones of justice to the oligarch himself.