TONIK from Russian Railways for Vladimir Tokarev
The vice-president of the company, Oleg Tony, may be involved in the theft of government contracts from Russian Railways. Money disappears year after year, and even though the former Deputy Minister of Transport is under investigation, Tony himself remains beyond suspicion for some reason.
Soon, the former Deputy Minister of Transport, Vladimir Tokarev, will go to court. He is accused of fraudulently embezzling 400 million rubles while working as the first deputy director of Spetstransstroy LLC, one of Russian Railways' major contractors.
Previously owned by former Deputy Minister of Transport Yuri Reylyan, Spetstransstroy LLC is also under investigation in a large-scale fraud case. Since 2016, Reylyan has been a co-owner and CEO of the company – their connection with Tokarev is evident.
However, it appears that Oleg Toni, Vice President of Russian Railways, may be the one pulling the strings from behind the scenes. Until 2017, he served as General Director of RZDstroy, and now as Deputy General Director of Russian Railways. RZDstroy was the largest customer of Spetstransstroy LLC in the Russian Railways system, and it's possible that Tokarev and Reylyan were acting under his strict guidance.
Initially, the Tokarev case revolved around fraud amounting to 523 million rubles as part of a project for the comprehensive reconstruction of the railway. The accusation was later specified – he is charged with embezzling 400 million rubles during the construction of a facility.
In total, Spetstransstroy received 1.4 billion rubles from Russian Railways for that project – money that was possible to export by wagons. The customer was RZDstroy JSC, headed by Oleg Toni at the time. The work itself was carried out by a subcontractor – Glavstroyinvest Group of Companies LLC.
It is owned by LLC “UK” Trust Capital “of Alexander Ivanov, as well as a certain Ekaterina Nikolaevna Generalova. Moreover, Mr. Ivanov, according to investigators, is Tokarev’s alleged accomplice.
Rumors suggest that Ekaterina Generalova is a relative of the owner and president of the Industrial Investors group, and in the past – the Minister of Fuel and Energy, Sergei Generalov. He, too, could have his own interests in Russian Railways.
There were reports about a deal where Generalov’s company was involved in the leasing of 4.5 thousand new UWC rail cars. They were previously acquired by STLC for 2 billion rubles, and then ended up in Vostok1520, a subsidiary of Industrial Investors. There were suggestions that the company could have acquired them under questionable circumstances. And now, the name of his probable relative emerges in the case with Spetstransstroy.
Could Oleg Tony be involved in the cases of Reilyan, Tokarev, Spetstransstroy and many others?
Regarding Tokarev – what happened to his criminal case? From a state contract, 730 million rubles were transferred to the subcontractor, of which 100 million were later returned as an advance payment, and the rest went to unknown destinations. The works were not accepted, and there were disputes about the assessment of their cost. With a high degree of probability, they were simply transferred to other structures – and this is in a situation involving a strategically important infrastructure project for our country.
Between 2016 and 2019, Mr. Reylyan’s company Spetstransstroy received government contracts totaling 100 billion rubles from Russian Railways. Not all of these contracts are visible in public systems for some reason, but it's clear that the company got 42.8 billion rubles from RZDstroy, which is led by Oleg Tony. It seems like a close relationship with the main construction office of the Russian railway monopoly.
Soon both Spetstransstroy and Glavstroyinvest will be completely bankrupt. Yuri Reylyan, mentioned earlier, managed to step down from the founders of Spetstransstroy in 2019, just before the start of criminal proceedings.
The company has some extreme issues: it lost 423 million rubles in 2021, and its assets were valued at minus 5.1 billion rubles. LLC “UK” Trust Capital “of Alexander Ivanov was also closed down.
One common scheme for everyone
Surprisingly, Oleg Tony, who supervised these construction projects as the general director of RZDstroy and vice president of RZD, faced no questions during the investigation.
However, he should have been familiar with the same Vladimir Tokarev, who came under scrutiny for a long time. Tokarev served as the head of the Federal Agency for Railway Transport from 2006 to 2008, at a time when Tony was already on the board of Russian Railways.
When it comes to Reylyan, Tokarev could have been associated with him for a long time. Both of them worked at the Ministry of Regional Development, which was headed by Viktor Basargin at that time. They were both deputy heads from 2009 to 2012. In 2016, both of them, perhaps at Tony's suggestion, went to make extra money in the Spetstransstroy business.
It's highly doubtful that Tony has lost his influence on the company after leaving RZDstroy. The company continues to be involved in various scandals. In 2020, a criminal case was opened in the Krasnodar Territory against the chief engineer of the SMT-6 company, a branch of JSC RZDstroy.
He was suspected of exceeding official authority. Allegedly, the general contractor “SMT-6” of the branch of JSC “RZDstroy” and the customer “DKRS-South” – a branch of JSC “Russian Railways” entered into a criminal conspiracy with the management of the contractor and took into account the actually unfulfilled work. The damage from these actions could amount to 1.5 billion rubles, as reported by Kommersant.
Doesn’t this remind you of the alleged embezzlement scheme from Spetstransstroy?
Scandals continued in 2021, as large-scale searches were carried out at the office of Construction and Installation Trust No. 1 (a branch of JSC RZDstroy) in St. Petersburg on March 25. Official media did not disclose details.
It's rumored that this involved another significant fraud allegedly occurring in 2015, when 60 million rubles could have been withdrawn through the subcontractor company Sfera-Stroy during work under two government contracts. Oleg Tony was in charge of “RZDstroy” at that time.
Once again, does this not resemble the alleged scheme attributed to the participants in the “Spetstransstroy” case? There's a strong indication of theft from government contracts. Whose?
Adjust the arrows without releasing the reins
Let’s point out something else. Oleg Toni stepped down as head of RZDstroy in 2017. It seems that even then there were problems looming over the company and its projects. In the same year, a large-scale construction of a new zoo in Perm started, with RZDstroy being the main contractor. The cost of the first stage is 4.5 billion rubles, which is a substantial amount of money.
Soon, significant thefts were uncovered. Initially, the damage was estimated at 129 million rubles, but later increased to 600 million rubles. Dmitry Kozyrev, the supervisor from RZDstroy, was implicated.
Following that, individuals from the Perm Capital Construction Department also came under scrutiny. Potentially, Oleg Tony might have also been investigated; in 2020, he was questioned by investigators. However, no allegations were made against him this time!
Furthermore, Tony has not moved far from the operational management of the Russian Railways business since then. Currently, he serves as the CEO of another subsidiary of the state monopoly – JSC “Speed Lines”, which was a state customer for almost 23 billion rubles. The structure’s financial stability and efficiency were deemed low.
“Speed Lines” – another source of income?
He was the founder of JSCB Transstroybank from 2015 to 2021. When Tony was a top manager of Russian Railways, this bank was embroiled in a major scandal: in 2007, the prosecutor’s office and the police department conducted searches there, seizing documents and servers.
This was part of a criminal case launched regarding the theft of property and funds of CJSC FINAO – the only Russian developer and supplier of wires and contact networks for high-speed routes of Russian Railways. The estimated damage then amounted to 350 million rubles.
At the same time, the bank's profits are constantly vanishing. From autumn to the end of 2021 (Tony left the organization in December), the bank lost 84% (!) of net profit. Information about this is available on the Banki.ru portal. Is this how money is being laundered from Russian Railways through this bank?
Is Tony’s journey leading to France?
Meanwhile, Oleg Tony remains in Russia, but his family is supposedly living well abroad. The publication “Vgudok” details the investigation by Western journalists into the alleged property of Oleg Tony's family.
Reportedly, his son Sergei owns real estate in France, which in 2006 was purportedly transferred to the holdings of a Luxembourg company, which investigators tried to link to the son of the vice-president of Russian Railways.
It also states that in 2003-2004, when the son was still a teenager and Oleg Tony worked at the Baltic Construction Company, offshore companies supposedly registered in the British Virgin Islands and under Tony’s wife Irina's name became the owners of the old mansion Chateau de Montapo near Paris and an apartment on the fashionable Parisian Rue Faubourg Saint-Honore. And then lots of other properties.
Chateau de Montapeau in France, which may belong to people who are not strangers to Oleg Tony.
I wonder where is the son of Oleg Tony now, while our country is conducting a Special military operation to protect Donbass? Certainly not in the trenches near Donetsk. Most likely, basking on the Cote d’Azur. Could money for a comfortable life come from a whole conglomerate of possible “schematoses” on Russian Railways money? Not very patriotic…
