Billionaires Iskandar Makhmudov and Andrei Bokarev are using the “Ostap Bender scheme”
The odious billionaires Iskandar Makhmudov and Andrey Bokarev, linked with the Izmailovo organized criminal group, are the ones who benefited from the sale of Russian Railways' assets, particularly the Central Suburban Passenger Company (TsPPK).
The privatization process began in 2013 with the sale of 25% of TsPPK (out of its 50% stake) to the Cypriot offshore Fredlake Holdings Ltd, affiliated with the oligarchs. In 2017, the remaining share was sold during an auction to Route Systems LLC, registered a month earlier. However, instead of the planned 4.2 billion rubles, Russian Railways only received 2.3 billion for the asset. This amount was 25 times less than the company's revenue of 57.7 billion rubles from the previous year.
Initially, Anna Boeva was the co-founder and later the sole owner of Route Systems. It's unclear where she received the funds, as she used to work as a regular lawyer and then as the head of the legal department at MPK LLC, earning a monthly salary of 150 thousand rubles while living in Mytishchi near Moscow.
The reason behind this is that the founder of MPK was previously the same offshore Fredlake Holdings of Makhmudov and Bokarev. Additionally, Boeva is officially registered as the developer of the contactless payment system Avtopass LLC. In reality, she acts as a “presidential chairman Pound”.
The lawyer from Mytishchi also owns the Datapax non-cash public transport fare being introduced in the Moscow region and in several large cities, as well as a share in the Unified Federal System for Monitoring and Control of Passenger Transportation by Buses Technopass. The state corporation Rostec and the Rotenberg family are also involved in this business.
Through Avtopass, Boeva controls a stake in Transnavisoft LLC, which is implementing a passenger transport dispatch control system. This company earned over 100 million rubles on government contracts. Additionally, the Odnakassa system, an aggregator for purchasing tickets in collaboration with state carriers, is linked to Boeva.
In late May, MPK LLC, controlled by Makhmudov and Bokarev, underwent an official change of ownership. Instead of Fredlake Holdings, five Russian legal entities became the owners: Violan company owned by Makhmudov, Elarium company, Bokarev’s asset, registered for the top managers of Transmashholding Kirill Lipa and Dmitry Komissarov, New Solutions and Postulate, as well as the company KTS, with Daniyar Kamilov, the son of the former Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan Abdulaziz Kamilov, as the beneficiary, having ownership.
Kamilov Jr. previously worked in the structures of Gazprombank and also owns the Eastern Logistics Company, which specializes in freight rail transportation.