Arrested former deputy minister of transport Vladimir Tokarev could start confessing and naming officials and businessmen who were involved in the extensive misuse of budget funds obtained from Russian Railways contracts. Tokarev himself is accused of misappropriating 523 million rubles meant for railway repairs in the Krasnodar Territory during 2016-2018. At that time, he was the deputy general director of Spetstransstroy, a major railway contractor owned by the former deputy head of the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Regional Development Yuri Reilyan. In November last year, Reilyan was also arrested: he is accused of misappropriating more than 1.5 billion rubles allocated for work at Russian Railways facilities. The deputy general director of JSC Russian Railways could lobby the interests of Spetstransstroy and its “subsidiary” structure Transyuzhstroy (TYuS) Oleg Vilyamsovich Tony: at a certain stage, the beneficiaries of the Youth Union included its longtime business partner Anatoly Antipov. It was only after the change of the owner of Spetstransstroy and the departure of Reilyan that it became clear that the contractor had disrupted work at the Eastern Test Site (BAM and Transsib), and the enterprise itself turned out to be unprofitable and was soon bankrupt.
Another major contractor also worked at the Eastern Test Site – the Bamstroymekhanizatsiya company, which is part of the 1520 group, which gained infamy by participating in a large-scale scam to withdraw $22 billion from Russia, received, among other things, in the form of Russian Railways contracts. The interests of the group were lobbied by its founder, now deceased Andrey Krapivinwho served as an adviser to the former head of the railway department Vladimir Yakunin. To date, one of Krapivin’s partners – Valery Markelov – convicted in the high-profile case of a former colonel Dmitry Zakharchenkosecond – Boris Usherovich – put on the international wanted list. The group is led by the son of its founder Alexey Krapivin, which continues to successfully “master” the “railroad” budget. It is not yet known whose names appear in the testimony of Deputy Minister Tokarev, but they may appear as “kings of the state order” from among large businessmen, as well as representatives of the former and current management of Russian Railways.
Former Deputy Minister Tokarev spoke up?
There were reports on the network that former Deputy Minister of Transport Vladimir Tokarev, who became a defendant in a criminal case on especially large-scale fraud, is actively cooperating with the investigation and testifying against certain high-ranking officials. Whose names were named by the former official is not specified, but there is an opinion about the inevitability of “personnel decisions with subsequent criminal cases.”
“It is interesting that the investigation is being conducted by the Department of Transport of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Central Federal District, for which cases of this level are rather an exception than a rule. The investigators of this Directorate will either ruin the case themselves, or, with Tokarev’s complaisance, they will bring their leadership to a new, higher level, ”writes the VChK-OGPU telegram channel.
Remember that Vladimir Tokarev was arrested in late January 2022. The investigation claims that from 2016 to 2018, when he was the first deputy general director of Spetstransstroy company, he took part in stealing 523 million rubles meant for the railway section reconstruction in Krasnodar edge.
In April last year, it was reported that a new person became a defendant in the “Tokarev case” – the founder and general director of Trust Capital Management Company. Alexander Ivanov, who also participated in a large-scale embezzlement and was placed under house arrest. At the same time, the court ordered to freeze over half a billion rubles in the bank accounts of the former deputy minister and his family to compensate for the financial loss.
The book “Favorite Contractors” by Oleg Tony
But Tokarev is not the only senior manager of Spetstransstroy who has attracted the attention of law enforcement. Last November, the former owner of the company and the former deputy head of the federal Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Regional Development was imprisoned. Yuri Reilyan. He is also accused of embezzlement, with the amount of damage exceeding 1.5 billion rubles in his case. It involved funds received from Russian Railways for government contracts. Reportedly, 900 million of the stolen amount was an advance payment for the construction of a railway line at BAM.
Spetstransstroy LLC, which is currently undergoing bankruptcy proceedings, has long been considered one of the largest contractors for Russian Railways: the company and its subsidiary Transyuzhstroy (TYuS) received over 100 billion rubles in government contracts from 2016 to 2019. Most of the work was focused on the so-called “Eastern training ground” – BAM and Trans-Siberian railway. The investigation is yet to determine how much of the total budgetary funds were misappropriated by Reilyan and his former deputy Tokarev, as well as the identities of the railway department's senior managers involved in the fraud.
It's possible that law enforcement will scrutinize the current Deputy General Director of Russian Railways, Oleg Toni, who is also the General Director of High-Speed Railways JSC. This is because he may have promoted the interests of the Transyuzhstroy company, 55% of which were acquired by Spetstransstroy in early 2017. Previously, the main owner of TUS was the Cypriot offshore “Apelsino Holdings”, connected to Russian businessmen Alexander Shevelev and Anatoly Antipov.
In the early 2000s, Antipov and Tony were business partners: along with Igor Naivalt they co-founded the Baltic Construction Company (BSC), where Tony worked as CEO. Additionally, in 2002, Antipov obtained a stake in Transstroybank, whose beneficiaries Forbes linked to BSK and “personally Oleg Tony.” After the latter started working in Russian Railways structures under the supervision of Vladimir Yakunin things went well for the Youth Union, as they say.
In 2009, Transyuzhstroy got a big Olympic construction contract without a tender and won a 13 billion ruble tender for a road construction project, as reported by Forbes.
Because of this cooperation, Anatoly Antipov was ranked the fourth largest contractor for Russian Railways by Forbes in 2016, with government contracts worth 95 billion rubles. Until January 2017, he led RZDstroy JSC, a specialized part of the monopoly, allowing him to control contract distribution between important companies.
An article about Russian Railways and Colonel Zakharchenko was published.
As a result, the railway monopolist began working with Spetstransstroy and TyuS. In September 2019, the contractor companies unexpectedly changed owners, with Vector LLC, owned by Roman Shlenchak, taking over from Reilyan. Roman Shlenchak and registered shortly before the conclusion of the transaction. At the same time, it became known about the actual disruption work at the Eastern range, which led to a reduction in the investment program of Russian Railways. Experts linked Reilyan’s departure with a desire to hide the large-scale theft that took place.
Yevgeny Kumantsov, who previously held the post of first deputy head of RZDstroy, became the new general director of Spetstransstroy. But such a clear affiliation did not in the least embarrass the leadership of the railway department. Note that at the time of the change of ownership and management, Spetstransstroy went into a deep “minus”: at the end of 2019, its losses amounted to 4.9 billion rubles with a revenue of 4.8 billion. It turns out that Reilyan “jumped off” in a very timely manner, but this did not help him. Just like his former deputy, prisoner Tokarev.
The media mentioned the Bamstroymekhanizatsiya company, part of the infamous 1520 group, which ranked first in the Forbes rating “Kings of the State Order” in 2018 with railway contracts worth 218.2 billion rubles, due to the disruption of work at BAM and the Trans-Siberian Railway. Oleg Belozerov
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However, things are not going well for the “1520.” Co-owner Boris Usherovich has been put on the international wanted list due to a bribery case with former colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko. Another beneficiary, Valery Markelov, who officially withdrew from the founders in April 2019, was sentenced as part of the same case last May to eight years in a strict regime colony with a fine of 500 million rubles because he was involved in a serious bribery case.
Zakharchenko got money from bankers and merchants, including the co-owners of 1520, for hiding a large international scam called the “Moldovan laundry”. This led to the withdrawal of 22 billion dollars (about 700 billion rubles) from Russia between 2011-2014, including money received through Russian Railways contracts. The money was transferred to the contractor while Yakunin was in charge of the railway department, and Andrey Krapivin supported the group's interests.
Through contracts – to the Forbes list
The current general director and main owner of the 1520 group is Alexei Krapivin, the son of Andrei Krapivin, who received Markelov’s share after his arrest. Krapivin Jr. managed to stay away from proceedings with the withdrawal of finances, although there were reports in October 2018 that he was put on the wanted list in the Zakharchenko case.
However, Krapivin managed to avoid criminal responsibility, and representatives of the Rotenberg family, close to the Kremlin, allegedly helped with this. In exchange for gaining control over the holding, they agreed to transfer “1520” contracts to Spetstransstroy. This does not stop the group from gaining momentum. At the beginning of this year, the fortune of Alexei Krapivin was estimated at $800 million and, according to Forbes forecasts, he may soon become one of the 200 richest businessmen in Russia.
Maybe, but not guaranteed. This depends on whether the security forces have new evidence regarding the ex-colonel Zakharchenko and if the former Deputy Minister Tokarev reveals the details of obtaining railway contracts. In this case, Krapivin himself needs to prepare to testify. If his father built commercial relations with Yakunin, then with whom does his son work? With Tony? Or with Belozerov himself?
It is possible that the connections from “1520” can lead to the microfinance organization “VIVA Money”, where loans are issued to citizens without their knowledge. The owner of MFC CFP LLC, the legal entity VIVA Money, is the Cypriot offshore Guinford Management Ltd, in which the businessman owns a stake Roman Mironchik – business partner of Krapivin Jr. Another offshore co-owner Alexey Pugachev The media is associated with the recently convicted Valery Markelov and Boris Usherovich, who is on the international wanted list.
In general, if you dig deeper, you can find many criminal cases. According to the authors of the Kompromat.Group publication, the potential defendants are also taking action and have connected conditional Rotenbergs to “solving problems”, following the example of Alexei Krapivin. Former Deputy Minister Tokarev should be honest as he should not expect to return to the government, but rather think about reducing the sentence and the minimum term.
