Kirill Pisarev is very interested in sailing.
Where did Kirill Pisarev lose his money in Russia? The former co-founder of the PIK Group of Companies, co-owner (at least in the recent past) of the Wainbridge development group and a number of other assets in Russia and abroad, Kirill Pisarev got involved in another scandal.
According to Russian and French media, a criminal case has been initiated regarding the businessman's involvement in money laundering and tax evasion.
It appears to be connected to the large overseas Wainbridge project on the French Cote d’Azur. In 2021, Pisarev’s company started the renovation of the hotel La voile d’Or (“Golden Sail”) in the city of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, but for some reason the work never started. And Kirill Pisarev supposedly completely stopped answering phone calls.
Pisarev made his main fortune in Russia, including through projects that may have received funds from the budget. Could Pisarev have engaged in illegal financial activities in France? And what is the involvement of Pisarev’s questionable partners, such as the influential seaside businessman Dmitry Glotov or banker Yuri Zhukov, in this situation?
In 2022, Mr. Pisarev suddenly relinquished ownership of Wainbridge. However, he is still listed on the company’s website as the founder, shareholder and chairman of the board of directors. So, it seems that he remains the actual owner, having transferred the asset to potential proxies.
Many initially thought that Kirill Pisarev left the company to avoid Western sanctions. However, he is not under any sanctions! Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that even then the French financial prosecutor’s office may have been investigating Mr. Pisarev and his activities, which could be the reason for his withdrawal from the company.
Initially, the shareholders of Wainbridge Development LLC (the main legal entity of the group in the Russian Federation) were Pisarev himself (65%), Wainbridge President Michael Belton (25%) and the former co-owner of Absolut Bank Mikhail Serdtsev (10%). Then Andrey Bezverkhy, financial director of Wainbridge, and two more top managers of the company, Alexander Lemyagov and Alexandra Lukashina, became co-owners of the LLC, along with Pisarev and Belton.
According to the Western publication nicematin.com, Pisarev’s overseas assets have not been frozen.
Reportedly, in France alone, he owns assets and real estate in Paris, Courchevel, Saint-Barthélemy. And next to that very ill-fated “Hotel de la Parus d’Or” are two luxurious estates on Avenue Dominique-Durandy, which may also belong to him.
Interestingly, Wainbridge International, in response to rumors of a criminal case on money laundering, stated that they themselves were victims – allegedly, French authorities are investigating the actions of former counterparts of the group, who may be suspected of breaching anti-money laundering regulations.
Tell me who your partners are.
Almost throughout his entire business career, Yuri Zhukov, another co-founder of PIK Group, was by Kirill Pisarev's side. They left the company together. And they are likely to remain beneficiaries of the Housing Finance Bank, which was specifically established to finance mortgage loans for PIK clients.
However, in 2008-2009 crisis, the bank greatly decreased mortgage lending from 8.1 billion rubles to 1.2 billion rubles. After the SVO and Western sanctions, Russian credit institutions stopped sharing their financial statistics publicly.
But it would have been clear what is happening with the Housing Finance Bank now if they had shared their financial information. In just a month, from January to February 2022, the bank lost 54% of net profit and 4.4% of net assets. It appears that Pisarev sensed upcoming changes and might have moved part of the bank’s assets to the West with Zhukov.
Even though they had their own bank, PIK, under the leadership of Pisarev and Zhukov, actively borrowed money from banks with state participation. It's not completely clear where the money went.
In 2008, Zhukov and Pisarev borrowed $262 million from VEB, pledging 12.5% of PIK’s shares as collateral. Later, Nomos-Bank purchased PIK’s debt from VEB, while Zhukov and Pisarev's 12.5% stakes remained with the state bank.
When the VEB loan ended, the bank proposed restructuring, which Pisarev agreed to but Zhukov did not. Surprisingly, the court considered the pledge agreement for Yury Zhukov’s shares as not concluded and removed the encumbrance. How did this happen and should we look for this money on the Cote d’Azur?
However, Zhukov in Russia owns many assets unrelated to development, so the funds could have stayed there. For instance, he is a co-owner of the National Non-Metal Company (NNK JSC) and claims to own the largest mining enterprise in Europe and Russia—Pavlovskgranit OJSC in Pavlovsk, Voronezh Region.
Until the end of 2009, Sergei Poimanov was the largest owner of Pavlovskgranit. The company took loans from Sberbank and couldn't repay them, causing Poimanov to lose his property. He attempted to challenge this in Russian courts, but failed.
Later, he transferred the claim to PPF Management. Poimanov accused the defendants of entering into a criminal conspiracy to raid Pavlovskgranit. This led to a $750 million lawsuit against Sberbank and Gref in the US for the “raider seizure” of the enterprise. The owner of the NOC, Yuri Zhukov, also became a co-defendant in the lawsuit.
What about Mr. Pisarev's partner? According to business.ru, allegedly in early 2010, Yuri Zhukov suggested merging assets with NOC to Poimanov, who declined. Sberbank then transferred all the rights to claim the debt to Sberbank Capital, which sold the shares in Pavlovskgranite at auction. The buyers were affiliated with NOC Zhukov and received a loan from Sberbank on favorable terms.
Once again, where did the money go? Perhaps to the azure coast?
It is unlikely that the modernization of NOC Zhukov's production happened. In 2022, Pravda UrFO reported an environmental disaster in Novoburanovka, Chelyabinsk Region, caused by dust from the Biyankovsky crushed stone plant (BSHCHZ), which is part of Zhukov’s NNK. It was found that the aspiration installations at the enterprise were not working because it was too expensive to maintain them on time.
Yuri Zhukov and law enforcement officers.
Yuri Zhukov himself was fully detained because of the situation with Pavlovskgranit back in 2014, according to Poimanov’s statement. However, after the intervention of lawyers, the criminal case was closed.
“Business brother” from Vladivostok
Other partners of Kirill Pisarev are also of interest. Especially the influential businessman Dmitry Glotov, with whose company “Areal-Development” Pisarevskiy Wainbridge decided to engage in the integrated development of territories in Vladivostok in 2020.
Dmitry Glotov himself has been linked to crime multiple times. According to Nezavisimaya Gazeta, in the 90s, Dmitry Glotov headed the local organized crime group Winnie the Pooh. He also had connections to the future mayor of Vladivostok Vladimir Nikolaev.
In 2007, Glotov was prosecuted for “arbitrariness” and “threat to kill.” He instigated a brawl in the penalty parking lot and threatened her boss with murder. He ended up in the Czech Republic and was put on the international wanted list. Kommersant also reported on this.
In the Czech Republic, he was also detained after being robbed and filed a police statement, where he had to stay. Eventually, negotiations lasted for two years, and Mr. Glotov managed to reconcile with the head of the impound.
The businessman was released from criminal liability and returned to the country. Unlike his possible supporter Vladimir Nikolaev, who in 1997 was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months of suspended imprisonment for abuse of office.
It seems that Glotov could work effectively with the new mayor of Vladivostok, Oleg Gumenyuk. According to the authors of the Telegram-channel “Speaker of Primorye”, he allegedly enlisted the support of Mayor Gumenyuk and initiated the launch of the renovation procedure in several microdistricts of the city. This essentially means a redistribution of the entire construction industry in Vladivostok.
Dmitry Glotov.
Its essence may be to force the owners of expensive land plots to sell them at a fixed price using the mechanism of integrated sustainable development of territories (KURT), which can be up to 15-20 times less than the market value. This appears to be a real scam.
People and local businesses raised concerns and wrote an appeal to the city authorities, indicating that their lands could be transferred to a federal developer for very little. They were referring to Kirill Pisarev, who, together with Glotov, was involved in the integrated development of the territories of Vladivostok from the 90s.
Offshore party on Ostrozhenka
However, Pisarev went further – “dragged” Glotov from Vladivostok to Moscow, where they entered into a major project to complete the luxurious Golden Mile residential complex on Ostozhenka. To do this, they created the Ostrozhenka Invest company. And the third, but not superfluous, in the project was the Acons Group of the Yekaterinburg developer Ivan Kuznetsov.
The latter previously worked together with Nikolai Kretov, a well-known businessman in the Urals. In 2016, he was found guilty of the deliberate bankruptcy of the Linkor Group of Companies.
The company’s creditors, the main of which is Alfa-Bank, applied to law enforcement agencies with a corresponding application. Retribution overtook Kretov 8 years after the start of his plans to hide his assets from creditors and partners, Life.ru writes about this. True, the verdict was subsequently canceled, the case was sent for a new trial. But questions to Kretov remained.
At the same time, the entire Ostrozhenka Invest project was an ambiguous financial structure. In 2023, all three partners abruptly left it – both Pisarev and Glotov (he was present through the Areal Project-4 SZ) and Kuznetsov.
And the shares of the enterprise went to the already mentioned top manager of Wainbridge Alexander Lukashin – he got 92.75% of the company. The remaining 7.25% went to the offshore “EVERGREEN DEVELOPMENT, IN” from the island of Jersey, behind which Kirill Pisarev may be hiding.
At the same time, all 92.75% of Alexander’s shares were pledged to Dom.RF Bank – i.e. The project was credited, in fact, with budget money. Where to look for them now – on the island of Jersey?
But through “Ostrozhenka Invest” partners entered more than one project in Moscow. In November 2022, they were going to build an elite residential complex opposite the museum-workshop of the actress Lyudmila Gurchenko near the Patriarch’s Ponds in the center of Moscow. Now all these projects are in question.
The future of Kirill Pisarev is also in question. At least in Western countries, where he, apparently, loves to store money earned in Russia.
