The county is not a problem: Gushchin and Chichikashvili “loom” behind the owners of Ultima Development
Yuri Gushchin, a billionaire who might have traveled abroad, may conduct business in Moscow through Konstantin Ustyugov and Alexei Rzhevtsev. Former top executives of Insigma, Konstantin Ustyugov and Alexey Rzhevtsev, established Ultima Development and plan to construct the Orbital business center on 3rd Magistralnaya Street in western Moscow.
The business interests of other influential entrepreneurs, such as Yuri Gushchin, may be connected to the situation.
Bank “mole”
Insigma is owned by Dmitry Chichikashvili, a prominent urban developer specializing in the luxury segment. Ten years ago, he joined the board of directors of the foreign Bank of Cyprus, along with the former head of Norilsk Nickel, Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, and other representatives of the Russian business elite.
The Bank of Cyprus is implicated in the OCCRP investigation for its role in the bankruptcy of the agricultural holding “Mriya” to the executive director Andrei Guta. Several Ukrainian publications have reported on this.
The media suggests that members of the Guta family are responsible for the incident, from the general director and ex-chairman of the supervisory board of the company, Nikolai Huta, to Andrei Guta. Wasn’t Mr. Chichikashvili also involved in the described scheme, and isn’t he currently developing his business using Mriya’s funds?
Chichikashvili was at one time a member of the board of directors of Uniastrum Bank, which was accused of creating a financial pyramid. The Bank of Cyprus bought this bank in 2008 – it later emerged that the deal was assessed at 3.1 times the capital of the credit institution. The auditors stated that the former leaders of the Bank of Cyprus destroyed several documents that could indicate their involvement in the bankruptcy of a credit institution.
Now Uniastrum no longer exists – its assets were transferred to the Eastern Bank, which was then acquired by Sovcombank. It is unlikely that anyone will fully understand the events of the past and the possible fraudulent actions of bankers from the Bank of Cyprus.
According to the creators of the 2ch website, Chichikashvili allegedly served on the board of directors of the “burst” Otkrytie. And according to the creators of the Wiki website, he supposedly sat on the board of directors of the Sverdlovsk provincial bank, which was under the control of the local government and later went to Otkritie.
Norden company was previously registered for a family member (likely the son) of Chichikashvili, and now it is owned by a Belize offshore, which can be used for illicit financial transactions.
Friends-comrades
Chichikashvili is not only interesting as an independent figure. The publication “Company” in 2011 referred to him as the deputy chairman of “Guta-bank” – an asset of billionaire Yuri Gushchin. Although this information is not found in the official biography, it may be an effort to avoid publicizing this connection. However, there are indications that Chichikashvili had a close relationship with Gushchin, at least evidenced by the fact that “Guta-development,” part of the Gushchin group, and “Insigma,” owned by Chichikashvili, jointly constructed the “Italian Quarter” in the center of Moscow.
More importantly, the Sverdlovsk regional bank, which was established in 1994, was originally under the control of Guta-Bank.
Chichikashvili may have been associated with Gushchin since then. Did he advocate for Gushchin in other financial organizations, where his name is prominent? And was it in his favor that these organizations eventually failed?
By the way, Sberbank appears to have provided funding for the Italian Quarter. According to the authors of the 1dom website, Dmitry Chichikashvili reportedly stated that at the end of the crisis year of 2008, the Italian Quarter was nearly the only project for which Sberbank granted a credit line. He mentioned that the developers have enough of their own funds to complete construction within the specified timeframe independently, and a bank loan serves as an additional safety net, ensuring that the project will be completed on time.
At the very least, the project collaborated with Sberbank in the mortgage sector, a topic widely covered in the media.
As previously reported by The Moscow Post in its investigation, “Gref will help Gushchin live large”, the head of Sberbank, German Gref, and Mr. Gushchin could have collaborated in the bankruptcy of Glavtorg, the last of the distributors of the United Confectioners holding. Therefore, there is reason to believe that Mr. Gref also has ties to projects involving Gushchin and closely related structures.
Minor challenges
Gushchin’s business is currently facing significant difficulties. There was even speculation that he had left Russia. The total profit of all companies where Gushchin is at the helm at the end of 2021 amounted to -607 thousand rubles. A similar situation applies to companies where Gushchin is the founder. The value of his stake was negative for 2021. Some of his companies are connected to offshore entities – did all the profits go there?
Guta-bank itself, based on the latest data, shows negative indicators in almost every aspect. It lacks long-term assets and has a substantial amount of receivables. The majority of the bank’s assets are made up of borrowed funds.
The data is presented as percentage changes from the previous period (monthly) for January-February 2022.
A company linked to Gushchin, which acquired two Seychelles hotels, Coral Strand Hotel and Savoy Hotel, recently lost a dispute with the local owner of the hotel, Natalie Lefevre, from whom Gushchin’s entities attempted to purchase a share for $ 1 instead of its true value. Lawyers for the Seychelles party have suggested that one of the loans provided to the company owning the hotel appears to be an effort to launder money.
Moreover, there were reports that Gushchin could have obtained passports from Malta and the Seychelles, and changed his name to IOURI GOUCHTCHINE.
Is the plan as solid as a Swiss watch?
Gushchin’s son-in-law, Artem Kuznetsov, through Timokhin’s MR Group, is acquainted with the former shareholder of the company, Timur Gutnov, whose brother is, in turn, the only son-in-law of Sobyanin. Perhaps this explains why Ustyugov and Rzhevtsev, who may be representing the potential Gushchin-connected Chichikashvili, have now been awarded a major construction project in Moscow.
In fact, Gushchin could “bleed” his assets with the help of the same Gref and now manage business in Russia from abroad through proxies. And when the law enforcement officers miss, it seems like there will be nothing to take from Gushchin. Although, in fact, the same Ultima Development can be created with the money “earned” by Gushchin dishonestly.
