Sobyanin's all "Guta"

As reported by The Moscow Post, former President of "Guta" Artem Kuznetsov became a partner of MR Group on the Symphony 34 residential complex project. He owns 25% in LLC V-development, which owns the built-up area on 2nd Khutorskaya street, near Dmitrovskaya metro station. The remaining 75% belongs to his old friend Roman Timokhin, CEO of MR Group. Now they will deploy their activities under the probable supervision of local authorities in the person of Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and his Deputy Petr Biryukov.

Timokhin and Kuznetsov, apparently, have been friends for a long time. In particular, they are united by cooperation with the developer Level Group, controlled by Vadim Moshkovich. A year ago, Kuznetsov purchased 10% of the developer of a residential complex in Zhukovsky proezd, near Paveletskaya metro station. Timokhin also works with Level Group on a project of residential complex building on Dubininskaya street, also near Paveletsky Railway Station.

V-development has a subsidiary, Petrovskoe-Development LLC, whose financial indicators raise questions. The company, that was founded in September last year, has a negative profit: it has debts of 17 million!

In its turn, Petrovskoe-Development has four subsidiaries, where Timokhin has got shares under the encumbrance, these are - LLC "Geliyor", LLC "Expom", LLC "A+" and LLC SESK. All of them are in the process of being liquidated from April and May 2020.

Expom, by the way, also has negative revenue - minus 4.7 million rubles. Is the businessman going to "merge" unnecessary assets, simultaneously "cutting" a couple of millions?

Kuznetsov and Timokhin are connected by another project, D-development. Kuznetsov also acquired a 20% stake in it in February 2020. Notably, Anna Grishina is listed as the CEO of both companies. She also manages a certain A-development, 100% owned by Timokhin.

Strong team

In general, the partnership of two businessmen does not look sudden at all. Both have extensive connections and have been caught in "muddy" affairs more than once. For example, Artem Kuznetsov is considered a co-owner of the Guta Group. It controls Guta-Bank and the UniСonf holding, and also owns the Savoy hotels in Moscow and the Seychelles. Kuznetsov was the Group's President and Head of UniConf. But in 2017, he left company management positions.

However, this does not mean that he finally "broke" with Guta. After all, his father-in-law, Yuri Gushchin, is considered the founder and Chairman of the Group's Board of Directors. His personality is ambiguous. According to Rucompromat portal, allegedly, he is known by the nickname Yura Novosibirskiy in the criminal world, and he has four imprisonments and 22 years in prisons and camps. And having left prison as an authoritative convict, he found grandiose changes in the country.

It is rumored that Yuri Petrov, the Chief of President Boris Yeltsin's apparatus in 1991-1993, was involved in the success of Guta. After his retirement, he organized the Gosinkor company, which promoted the interests of Gushchin's asset.

In favour of this is the fact that Petrov's son for some time headed Guta-Bank. And Artem Kuznetsov was simultaneously First Deputy Chairman of Gosinkor and Chairman of the Board of the credit organization. So the bridges between the Kremlin and Guta have long been built.

Therefore, no one was particularly surprised when in 2017, Guta was given the building of the Shevaldyshevsky estate near the Kremlin for reconstruction. The decision was made by the capital's urban Planning and land Committee, headed personally by Sergei Sobyanin. This led to rumors that the current Mayor and businessmen are "on a friendly footing".

At the same time, according to Forbes, entrepreneurs were also connected with previous Mayor of the capital Yuri Luzhkov. In particular, the former Head of Moscow visited the Krasny Oktyabr factory, controlled by the family and discussed the possibility of building a new bridge over the Moskva river.

Kuznetsov successfully joined

In this case, it is doubly not surprising that Artem Kuznetsov joined MR Group. The fact is that for some time the holder of half of the holding's shares was Timur Gutnov, as reported by Vedomosti. In his turn, Timur Gutnov has a brother Ruslan, who is the former son-in-law of Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Housing and Public Utilities and Improvement Petr Biryukov. He is the only person of Yuri Luzhkov who has survived in the current administration. Did сonnections go further to Artem Kuznetsov?

In recent years, he was a member of the Board of Directors of Dom.RF Bank and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the RK Stroy company, which is engaged in the completion of the objects of the bankrupt developer SU-155. But there was a scandal.

Thus, the Corporation announced the completion of 38 houses and received 7.8 billion rubles for this purpose. But it turned out that 13 houses have already been built and even put into operation, as Finansovaya Gazeta reported.

The question arose: where did the money go? At the same time, the completion of some objects was handled by the same RK Stroy, which in the best traditions of front offices constantly breaks deadlines and gives empty promises. At first, there was talk that the facilities would be completed by the end of 2018, then the deadline was shifted to 2019, and now it is 2020, but things are right where they started. Despite this, Kuznetsov is looking towards new projects, does't he? Where the money went - is another matter.

The fact that Mr. Kuznetsov was already involved in an unpleasant story with a possible withdrawal of money fuels the fire. According to the authors on the Russian Reporter portal, allegedly there is an official request in the Interpol database (reference number 7660/EC/75/95) of the German police about a citizen of the Russian Federation Artem Kuznetsov (01. 01. 1967 year of birth). According to it, he is suspected of "money laundering through personal accounts in German banks". However, there are no other details about the case.

Connect and conquer

Roman Timokhin is not so simple as well. MR Group, controlled by him and Viktor Labuzdko, is closely linked to scandalous businessmen, father and son Anatoly Kozeruk and Vadim Kozeruk. The fact is that MR Group is not engaged in development activities. They buy land, prepare documentation, conduct geodetic works, and then - transfer the territory to the developer.

And very often the Koseruks appear to be this developer. In addition, Kozeruk Jr. previously was on the Board of Directors of MR Group. Also, the co-founder of Trol ASP, controlled by Labuzdko, is the same Vadim Kozeruk. What an unexpected coincidence!

The four entrepreneurs have been together for a long time. So, through MR Group the Kozeruks get the most "delicious" land plots in Moscow. What is the interest of Timokhin and Labuzdko? It is rumoured that together with their partners-developers, they can withdraw the money through their company-pads.

MDI group, which controls almost the main asset of entrepreneurs and which is now in the process of liquidation, could be one of them. It looks very suspicious - zero revenue and a loss of 220 thousand rubles.

In addition, the Kozeruks are people with useful acquaintances. In particular, the eldest of the Duo allegedly leads a strong friendship with Sergei Sobyanin. They say that he became friends with him when he was a top Manager of the Gazprom Corporation. More precisely, he worked as an adviser to the Deputy CEO of the subsidiary of a gas monopoly - Gazprom Invest Yug (South). At that time, he worked closely with the KHMAO and the Tyumen region, where the current Mayor of the capital then "ruled".

That is, the Kozeruks could get acquainted with Sobyanin in those years.

At the same time, Anatoly Kozeruk got into a curious story - he was suspected of extorting 3 billion rubles from construction companies, as Izvestiya reported. The reason for initiating the case was the statement of Moscow builders: Nikolay Prikhodko and his son with the same name Nikolay Prikhodko, whose Remstroykompleks and Stroitekhnoservice companies performed contracts for Gazprom Invest Yug.

According to Prikhodko, the gas subsidiary "blocked" 3 billion rubles, which simply "evaporated". As proof, he even brought the audio from the conversations in the Gazprom Invest office. However, the case against Kozeruk freezed… And then, suddenly, the Prikhodko entrepreneurs themselves became suspects instead of him!

It turned out to be more expensive to contact people from Gazprom. By the way, the Kozeruks are not the only connection between MR Group and the gas monopoly.

Vice-Mayor Petr Biryukov, whose family member works in a development company, is also not far from the structures of Gazprom: he is on the Board of Directors of PJSC Moscow United Energy Company (MOEK), which is the unified heat supply organization in Russia.

And his previously mentioned former son-in-law Ruslan Gutnov is called the main owner of the TEN Group, which recently found an investor for the construction of the Gorod Kosino shopping centre in the East of the capital. At the same time, 50% of the development project belongs to the subsidiary of the monopolist, Gazprombank-Invest.

In light of all this, the Alliance of two influential businessmen Kuznetsov and Timokhin may have a strong impact on the development market of the capital. By combining their forces and connections, they can literally capture it. There are enough connections for everyone! And will the long-awaited "cut" begin then? It is not surprising if this is so: after all, every businessman, apparently, has experience in such matters.