"Luchok" turns off the light: to whom the assets of "Legrand"

The Russian electrotechnical company IEK Group (Iek Holding LLC) has acquired the assets of the French group of companies Legrand (Legrand) in the Russian Federation. Everything would be fine, but among the co-owners of IEC Holding, the infamous Sergei Lalakin, better known as Luchok, was one of the leaders of the pretty sensational Podolsk criminal group at one time.

Meanwhile, behind him - a lot of other assets and businesses. Does he communicate with his old "colleagues in the workshop," and where will the money from the Legrana business go?

The Moscow Post correspondent understood the situation.

IEC Holding is a group of Russian electrical engineering companies originally from the Tula region, today it operates throughout the country, counting Siberia. The group is engaged in the development and production of products for information technology, industrial automation equipment, lighting devices. Legrand is doing the same. It turns out that now IEC has lost one of the key competitors in the Russian market.

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

Lalakin entered the capital of IEC Holding in 2017, now it has 11.7% of the structure. Partners are Alexey Stepashin, Mikhail Petrov and Igor Vorshev. At the end of 2022, the structure received a huge revenue of 34 billion rubles, and also a solid profit of 2.3 billion rubles.

Ironically, the structure's only state contract for a modest 1.4 billion rubles was concluded by the main legal entity of the group with the PKU IK-1 the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in the Kostroma Region, and components like screws and nuts were supplied. We can recall that for representatives of the criminal world to work with the administrations of correctional institutions, as they say in this environment, "Zapadlo." Apparently, this rule no longer applies to Lalakin.

Lalakin himself is from Podolsk, where he began his career in crime and business. At different times, he was a member of the management or, as they say on the Web, allegedly could have a different relation ("shadow founder") to many organizations - Soyuzkontrakt, Anis, Metropol, Central International Travel Complex, Ocado, etc. Not the last violin played in the business "Maksbank," "Squadron-Bank," "Delhi-Bank," KB "Victoria," large enterprises of the Podolsky district of the Moscow region.

Today, formally, Lalakin acts as the founder of only 15 legal entities. In addition to IEC Holding, he is a co-owner of PKF Express LLC and OSH Rozhdestvenskoye LLC. All others (in addition to IEC-Invest LLC, which is part of IEC Holding, and a couple of other structures) are now liquidated.

By the way, a number of the aforementioned banks, namely Maksbank and Skadko, originally from the 90s, were liquidated on similar grounds at the same time: in connection with the failure to comply with federal laws regulating banking activities, regulations, and the implementation of a credit policy that threatens the interests of depositors. Apparently, funds received in a dubious way could be pumped through these banking structures.

Excitement brought to Sugrobov and the Kremlin

Another line of business that Lalakin can relate to is betting on sports events. This is a huge market with a capacity of several billion rubles. We are talking, first of all, about the company "Fonbet" - at one time the leader of the rate business of the Russian Federation.

Earlier, the owner of Fonbet was called the former State Duma deputy Stanislav Magomedov. Among other things, he, together with Lalakin's son Maxim Lalakin, owned a network of luxury bath and hotel complexes in different cities of the country. It can be assumed that Lalakins could be the hidden beneficiaries of Fonbet through Magomedov.

Maxim Lalakin is engaged in construction and real estate, and was previously the owner of the Podolsk tennis academy. Magomedov, like Sergei Lalakin, is engaged in charity work - in 2018 he helped Makhachkala FC Anji, paid for his training. And the latter were held on the basis of the Vityaz team from Podolsk. The president of FC Vityaz is Sergey Lalakin.

Meanwhile, this business is very dubious - there have always been many scandals around it. In 2013, the Fonbet office in Moscow was searched in a criminal case on illegal organization and conduct of gambling. And they were conducted by the Main Directorate of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which at that time was headed by Denis Sugrobov. Subsequently, Sugrobov was convicted of creating a criminal community and 14 episodes of abuse of power and sentenced to 22 years in prison.

Perhaps, in the case of the searches of Fonbet, we could talk about the likely redistribution of dubious income in favor of Sugrobov. Be that as it may, the then general director of Fonbet Igor Khokhlov came under investigation. Moreover, he is alone - he was charged with illegally receiving 60 million rubles.

Photo: https://sudact.ru/regular/doc/tQ6pkU65U7bV/

Subsequently, Khokhlov was found guilty and sentenced to a ridiculous sentence of 2 years probation by the standards of justice. Apparently, then Magomedov, Lalakin and Sugrobov could agree and get by with "little blood."

Among other things, Lalakin's network is trying to connect with the interests of the head of the Boxing Federation of the Russian Federation Umar Kremlin. Both were actively engaged in boxing, and the Kremlin has long been trying to attribute acquaintances with the leaders of the criminal world.

Sergey Lalakin and famous Russian boxers. Photo: https://box-club.ru/posts/35259?title

In addition, betting is a very gambling thing. And the sphere of interests of Umar Kremlin includes the organization and regulation of gambling. About this wrote "Version." Two ambiguous characters could converge on the fact that the Kremlin is from Serpukhov. In the same place, in the Serpukhov district, according to rumors, companies unofficially associated with Lalakin could work.

Lalaquin's "Legacy"

The fact that Sergei Lalakin represented the Podolsk organized criminal group in the past, and even in the leading positions, is not our idea at all. Back in 1995, Kommersant wrote about this. Then, we recall, Lalakin was detained in Podolsk by operatives of the Moscow RUOP together with riot police officers and the main military prosecutor's office. Since January of that year, Lalakin was wanted for fraud on an especially large scale.

The most interesting thing is that neither before nor after his arrest in those years Lalakin was never convicted - so formally he is clean before the law. He received his nickname "Luchok" due to the fact that for a long time he worked at a vegetable base, and then he himself began to trade onions. According to rumors, he does not like these facts from his biography.

The group itself was formed in the late 80s, Lalakin became its leader from the very beginning. At the start, they were engaged in racketeering "thimbles" (classics of the genre), then moved on to much more serious matters. Among other things, they were paid by production companies, and the group was armed to the teeth and at its peak numbered about 2.5 thousand people.

In the past, boxer and paratrooper, today Lalakin, in addition to the fact that a major businessman, also the president of FC Vityaz, a member of the Supervisory Council of the Union of Paratroopers of Russia, chairman of the board of trustees of the Heritage charitable foundation. What a benefactor!

Sergey Lalakin. Photo: RIA Novosti

The affairs and exploits of Podolsk are so numerous that books can be written about them - which, in fact, many researchers of the criminal world do. For us, the most interesting thing is that a person with such a past was not only not judged, but was also able to become a large businessman, philanthropist and quite a respected person. The question arises - where can the huge money that IEC Holding earns now go, does not part of it settle in criminal "communes"?