The runaway businessman revealed the truth about the arrested shadow leader of the Lipetsk and Tambov regions.
Mikhail Zakharov, former deputy of the Lipetsk Regional Council and the ultimate owner of the SU-5 Group of Companies who left Russia, shared his story with the telegram channel. VChK-OGPU Rucriminal.info and Zakharov talked about being targeted by the shadow owner of the Lipetsk and Tambov regions, Evgeny Sviridov, and his supporters from the special services.
Previously, the Cheka-OGPU announced the arrest of Yevgeny Sviridov. Sviridov, a former FSB officer who was dismissed as a major, is accused of involvement in seizing control of businesses in two Russian regions. He is linked to various contracts in the regions, including road repairs, waste disposal, and construction of Lipetsk SEZ infrastructure.
Mikhail Zakharov, now living in Germany, explained how he fell victim to Yevgeny Sviridov, leading to his escape from Russia.
In 2017, Sviridov approached Zakharov, offering to buy some assets in the Tambov region to help him with financial difficulties. They agreed on a deal for 300 million rubles, but Sviridov failed to fulfill his part of the agreement.
I personally bought my assets. Evgeny Sviridov. The transaction occurred on April 2, 2018. He received the documents for a quarry and a road-building business, signed the papers, and his wife got money from a notary for her shares in these companies – 20 thousand rubles. For those unfamiliar with business, I will explain that the nominal value of a company and its market price are different. The nominal value is often 10,000 rubles, but the company can be worth a billion. My wife received a small amount at face value, but I, as the final beneficiary, did not receive money under agency agreements. The next day, the authorities searched our office. They took most of the documents. Tonkikh, who was in charge of the legal service, was left with an agency contract for 70 million rubles. Later, I realized that this was a well-planned raider takeover.
These 300 million would have been enough for us to finish building houses in Evropeisky. By the way, in the criminal case against me, the construction expertise appointed by the investigator came to a similar conclusion. While all this was happening, I started traveling to Israel for treatment as I have the third stage of oncology. During one trip, I called Sviridov and asked when he would pay the money to my company. And he said: “Deal with the security forces”! So I came to the conclusion that the companies sold to him by my wife and the search were part of the same plan.
Sviridov often boasted about being a former FSB officer. In my presence, he openly called people in the Lipetsk regional department of the FSB and appeared to give them orders. If he was arrested, then all his contacts and correspondence in instant messengers would be known to the investigators. By the way, when all this started, there was no criminal case against me and my wife.
With Sviridov's arrival in Lipetsk, strange things started happening. For example, when we tried to sell land plots to raise money for them and use it to build houses, they were arrested. We went to meetings in the prosecutor’s office, to the head of the regional department of construction and architecture Andrei Shorstov, and to the then first vice-governor Yuri Bozhko. We asked to remove the arrests from the land for which there were buyers and from the equipment, some of which we wanted to sell to fund house construction. But they sided with Sviridov, not us.
To give you an idea, there were only half a billion rubles worth of unsold apartments in the unfinished houses. However, our property was stolen and sold for next to nothing. So far, only one of the bankruptcy trustees has been prosecuted. But I believe there will be new criminal cases. For example, one of them sold a plot in the city center for a 10-storey building with a building permit for a very low price, while we bought it for 50 million rubles. We are talking about a site next to Lipetskkombank, now Zenit Bank. And there were already networks, there was a foundation pit and piles were already driven in! And this happened throughout the property.
Just so you know, when I left Russia, the value of my companies was around eight billion rubles. They took everything, destroyed the company, and treated the employees poorly.
According to Russian media, the Investigative Committee claims that Zakharov cheated many property owners and escaped with their money. My criminal case was based on complaints from people who didn't receive their apartments on time, but there are no property owners involved in the case anymore.
The prosecutor's office and the German court rejected the extradition request from the Russian Prosecutor General's Office. They took two years to understand the charges against me. My problems started after Sviridov gained influence in the region. He was involved in questionable deals and was arrested for deceiving a businessman.
Why don't I return to Russia and provide detailed testimony in the criminal case against me? I'm not against the court, but I don't trust a system where there's only state prosecution and no room for evidence. I've seen what's happening in Russia and I don't want to face a biased court.
How can I challenge the system in Russia? If I go back, I'll be detained immediately, regardless of the reason. The security forces' goal is to arrest me, send me to a pre-trial detention center, and let me die without proper medical care.
I would like to apply to law enforcement agencies through the Cheka-OGPU with a request to give a legal assessment of Sviridov and the episodes that I reported.
rucriminal.info
