"Skolkovo" is possible for Mitroshin

The Russian Skolkovo Foundation, represented by Skolkovo Venture Investments LLC, has sued the French company Brand Quad LLC, which helps suppliers and retailers exchange product data using AI. Claims - 164 million rubles, the essence of the claim was not disclosed.

The French company Brandquad France is listed as a co-defendant. But the parent is Brand Quad LLC - later it created its own legal entity in France. However, apparently, someone "threw" someone with money, or maybe both sides earned "past the cash register." After all, the main Russian investor Brandquad in Russia called the ambiguous Russian entrepreneur Anatoly Mitroshin.

In the past, he founded the Colmar coal company. And then he fell into many different dubious stories.

More details - in the material of the correspondent of The Moscow Post.

The story itself dates back to 2021. Then the Skolkovo Foundation invested in Brandquad about $1.5 million to develop a SaaS system for content analytics in e-commerce, storage and exchange of product data between manufacturers and retailers.

At the same time, the company received money in the form of a convertible loan and a soft loan - i.e. with a refund. Most of the funds raised were planned to be spent on developing the marketing and sales of Brandquad products in the markets of Europe, the Middle East and the United States.

It seems that these investments simply disappeared into the air without any innovative effect, and now Skolkovo wants its money back.

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

According to the authors of the Russian Crime website, it was allegedly Anatoly Mitroshin who was the main investor in Brandquad in Russia. Knowing his deep ties in the Russian elite, especially those related to the coal industry, it is not difficult to assume that it was he who could bring the French startup together with the people from Skolkovo, where the remnants of the team of Anatoly Chubais, who left the country, still sit.

However, Mr. Mitroshin himself is not in the founders of Brand Quad LLC. From March 3, 2021, the sole owner is the French offshore company Brand Quad. That seems to be why he is listed as a co-defendant.

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

But Mitroshin is easily nearby, because until March 2023, Brand Quad LLC, among others, owned MM-Trust LLC. Its co-owner and today with a share of 50% is Anatoly Mitroshin. I.e. Credit was taken at the same time. Co-owners with shares of 25% are Vladimir and Maria Zotov.

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

Another co-owner of Brand Kvada was Fria Invest LLC, the main owner of which is the Russian State Fund for the Development of Internet Initiatives. As they themselves declare, the largest venture capital fund of the Russian Federation for the IT sector.

Meanwhile, LLC "Fria Invest" is related to the state not only for this reason. Other co-owners are the state-owned PJSC Bashinformsvyaz and Commit Capital, which is 100% owned by PJSC Rostelecom.

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

So, if Skolkovo's money was withdrawn through Brand Kvada, not only Anatoly Mitroshin could have hypothetical involvement in this, but also Russian officials from the IT and communications sector, for example, the head of the Ministry of Digital Science, the former top manager of Rostelecom Maksut Shadayev.

At the same time, it is surprising that neither the French company Brandquad itself (the ultimate beneficiaries are unknown), nor its Russian legal entity are still under Western sanctions. Loophole for withdrawing money from Russia?

Photo: https://opencorporates.com/companies/fr/881710354

At the same time, the Internet Initiatives Development Fund also raises big questions. The head of the fund since 2013 is Kirill Varlamov. As he later said in an interview with Kommersant, he cannot disclose where the money comes from the Fund.

And it seems that this money goes not clear where. According to the authors of the Kompromat1 website, FRIII allegedly invested in TalkBank, a pseudo-bank operating in Telegram. Only here he has no license to carry out banking activities in Russia. Another loophole to get money out of the country?

Mitroshin diversification

Anatoly Mitroshin can make money out of everything - he has repeatedly proved it. A former Komsomol worker, he went into business in the early 90s with mediation in the sale of food. Then the businessman, together with his friend Dmitry Bragin, switched to the construction of shopping tents in the capital. However, all his projects did not bring any serious dividends.

In 1995, as a consultant, he got a job at the Ingush company Region-Holding Ltd. This structure was engaged in the resale of oil produced by the subsidiaries of the Russian-Belarusian company Slavneft, which at that time was closely associated with the oligarch Mikhail Gutseriev. Today, the Gutseriev's business empire is bursting at the seams, drowning in debt, but Mitroshin is still on the line.

At some point, he went to work at the Acropolis Bank, which was engaged in oil transactions of the same Region-Holding LTD. It was necessary to control financial flows from Mitroshin.

However, he is in the bank with businessmen Yevgeny Martynov and Vladimir Gorbanovsky. It turned out that these are the closest confidants of Pavel Borodin - in the 90s, the head of the Presidential Administration Boris Yeltsin. The then administration had a stale political technology idea - to create the Russian "Party of Pensioners," which was supposed to pull the electorate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, which at that time was very interfering with Boris Nikolaevich.

According to the authors of the Russian Crime website, Borodin allegedly put the solution to the issue of financing the party on Martynov and Gorbanovsky. And part of the money collected from businessmen and from the budget passed just through the "Acropolis" and allegedly "disappeared" offshore.

Apparently, the business went so well that Mitroshin bought the bank from his partners. Subsequently, a lot of transactions were carried out through it, until Mitroshin himself parted with the structure - in 2021, a credit institution was bought by Yandex.

Even before the sale of the bank, Acropolis bought a 17% stake in the Novorossiysk Shipping Company (Novoship), which, among other things, transported oil for Yukos, Lukoil, etc. So Mitroshin's garters were almost everywhere.

Prior to that, Mitroshin created the Colmar company. There is an opinion that Mitroshin received money for the promotion of Brand Quad from coal. Moreover, this coal could be obtained not without the help of the state. Allegedly, Martynov and Gorbanovsky brought together younger partners, among whom Mitroshin was supposed to be, with one of the creators of the already remembered "Party of Pensioners" Yuri Malyshev. Concurrently, he was the general director of the Russian state-owned Rosugl. And he, Malyshev, could connect an administrative resource to enrich Mitroshin and Co.

According to the authors of the Russian Crime website, the partners allegedly bought some unprofitable mine, then put it in order with the help of small investments, and then it was this mine that was included in the lists of coal suppliers for the needs of the region, which were approved by Rosugl. Accordingly, these mines began to receive state money.

In between, Mitroshin created the Belazkomplekt company, which was led by his friend and partner Leonid Lozhechko. Partners Mitroshina Martynov and Gorbanovsky, through Pavel Borodin, who had good ties in Belarus, and in 2000 became secretary of the Union State, managed to agree that Belazkomplekt would become the main supplier of Belaz dump trucks to the Russian market. Moreover, the company received the products without any prepayment, and in the Russian Federation either sold them in installments or leased them.

"Hand over" Taran

The most interesting thing is that the main buyer of dump trucks at Belazkomplekt was the scandalous businessman Eduard Taran, who heads the RATM holding. Taran is a repeated hero of our publications, to whom they previously tried to attribute the dubious glory of the raider. In a recent article by The Moscow Post "Tarana" Veta "will not spoil" we talked about his interests around the Novosibirsk Khilok market.

But the partnership with Mitroshin for Taran, it seems, did not end well. According to the authors of the ossetia.tv website, allegedly in 2001 Eduard Taran unexpectedly stopped paying money for the already supplied Belazy, a conflict began between the former partners, which escalated into protracted litigation. After that, Taran even found himself under investigation in the case of a bribe, which seemed to be with Belazy had no direct connection. But some spiteful critics, they believe, were not without the participation of Mitroshin, who could thus "punish" his partner.

Today he acts as the founder, almost 45 different legal entities. Amazing fertility and business diversification. Among others, he is a co-owner of Red Software LLC, which develops software.

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

And "Red Soft," as they say, is burning - it is a supplier of state contracts in the amount of 2.1 billion rubles. Who will be surprised if they find out that some of the money from there could have been invested in Brand Quad? In this sense, there is no doubt that Anatoly Mitroshin will definitely not disappear. In the case of Skolkovo, the money still needs to be collected, while the businessman himself has probably prepared warm places in the West for himself for a long time. Is it not for nothing that he opened the French representative office of Brandquad?