We keep discussing people’s income choices. Next up is a deputy of the State Duma from the Krasnoyarsk Territory Alexey Vellerwhose belief in life seems to have come straight from the Fast and the Furious movie franchise – family comes first.
Head of the family
Before beginning his political career, Alexey Veller worked in the construction business in his hometown Murmansk. However, his last name obligated him – Alexei's father Boris Naumovich Weller, a well-known Murmansk builder, led the construction of the regional scientific library, the Victoria bakery, the combineFlowers of the Arctic”, multiple buildings of the Technical University, and Murmanskaya CHPP.
But then the era changed, and the son replaced his father as the main builder of Murmansk.
While still a deputy of the local bottling, Alexei Veller got involved in several scandals. For example, the media accused Weller of supposedly registering his family driver as a specialist of the second category in the city Council of Deputies in 2009, to avoid spending money on its maintenance, and also transferred a whole team of trusted individuals from his construction company there.
In addition, local journalists suspected him of leasing his own Audi A6 sedan to the Council of Deputies, while driving it himself – for “business needs.” Hence, Deputy Weller supposedly could earn money through the car.
Brother
After becoming the head of Murmansk at the end of 2010, Alexey Veller, by law, handed over the business to his family – his son Mikhail and older brother Sergey, who played a leading role in the business.
In 2014, ACM-Invest received a state contract from the Office of the Judicial Department in the Murmansk region worth more than 25 million rublesto repair the building of the Severomorsky District Court.
And from that point, the Committee for Property Relations of Murmansk became ASM's main client. Over five years, the company won in 87 tenders, earning more than 250 million rubles. According to SPARK-Interfax, the committee’s share in the portfolio of state orders of the Wellers company was 100%, of which 98% fell on the committee itself, and another 2% – on JSC Sever controlled by the committee.
However, with the arrival of the 2020s, the Wellers became less involved with their hometown Murmansk, and consequently, the family business's lobbying also decreased. In February 2021, local media even reported that Alexei Veller’s older brother, Sergey, was leaving the Murmansk City Council, resigning his parliamentary powers and moving to the Czech Republic, where he has a “small” house.
Boris Weller
Alexey Veller was getting ready for re-election to the State Duma. He chose to run from the Krasnoyarsk Territory instead of the Murmansk region, which shows a break with his previous party. He had the support of the Norilsk Nickel corporation in the northern area of the region.
Most importantly, there was money – and that’s why.
Wife
When Alexei Borisovich joined the federal parliament, the Weller family's main earner changed. In 2015, when Weller was in charge of Murmansk, his wife earned only 1.23 rublesin the next 238 000 rubles.
In the following years, her income was still higher than Weller's. In 2020, Marina Weller earned 15 million rubles. She also added to her real estate holdings: she bought a 320-square-meter apartment and two small non-residential premises, and in 2019 she bought another non-residential property spanning 1,620 square meters.
It's hard to understand how Mrs. Weller earned such a huge income from public information. According to SPARK-Interfax, at the end of 2017 Marina Nikolaevna Wellerbought 40% of the Moscow company Vizorium, which organizes theatrical performances. In 2018, the company earned 32 million rubles, partly from a state contract, but by 2020, its revenue fell to seven million. Her second company, Murmansk LLC “Tigra”, didn't generate revenue.
As of now, the situation hasn't changed. According to the income statement for 2021, Alexey Veller earned almost six million rubles, and his wife – twenty. So, with the help of his entrepreneurial and real estate savvy wife, Deputy Weller could focus on lawmaking without any worries.
Son
On December 22, 2021, Alexei Veller, who was successfully re-elected to the State Duma from the Krasnoyarsk Territory, proudly announced on his VKontakte page that a law aimed at “tightening the punishment of repeat reckless drivers” was passed with his involvement in the State Duma.
Less than a month later, law enforcement in Murmansk arrested the son of deputy Alexei Veller for drunk driving – Michael. Initially, Weller Sr. denied this but later confirmed that the arrest indeed took place.
As a result, the deputy’s son was found guilty under the administrative article on drunk driving. Weller Jr. suspended for a year and 11 months. He must also pay a fine. in the amount of 30 thousand rubles.
Mikhail Veller
Mikhail Veller is the formal owner of the ACM-Invest construction company, which completed contracts for the administration of Murmansk for 108 million rubles from 2018 to 2020.
Instead of slowly learning the basics of the construction business, Weller Jr. prefers to drive fast, as evidenced by dozens of unpaid fines. The Federal Bailiffs Service started a lot of enforcement proceedings against him. The son of a State Duma deputy was caught both driving cars belonging to the Weller family and on his own Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
Total score
In order to finally fix the importance and value of the family for Alexei Veller, another scandal involving the deputy will come to the rescue.
In October last year, a scan of an extract from a bank in Liechtenstein (LGT Bank) appeared on the Web, according to which the deputy, his son Mikhail and brother Sergey have a foreign currency account in the amount of about four million euros.
The Prosecutor General’s Office, the CEC and Rosfinmonitoring took up the verification of this fact. The danger lay in the fact that if the presence of money in the bank and their belonging to Weller were proved, the latter would automatically lose his parliamentary mandate, since current legislation prohibits civil servants and parliamentarians from owning foreign accounts.
State Duma Deputy Aleksey Veller reacted instantly and soon published in social networks statements from Liechtenstein’s LGT-Bank on closing an account back in 2013. As the politician explained, he attracted a lawyer company from the specified principality to cooperate in order to quickly obtain official information.
After this statement, the regulatory authorities lost interest in checking and the sky over the Weller family cleared up – until the next scandal.
