Don-Stroy, a developer near insolvency, faces many claims from shareholders and creditors. The company is acquiring federal property, including strategic assets.
According to Kompromat.VIP and the Moscow Post, individuals linked to VTB and its head, Andrey Kostin, are reportedly profiting from troubled Donstroy, facing numerous claims from shareholders and creditors. The developer has been on the brink of insolvency for years.
The ongoing saga of the prolonged bankruptcy of SK Donstroy, associated with VTB Bank, its main creditor, continues. 11 cases totaling over 82.5 million rubles have been opened against Donstroy, mainly related to financial and bankruptcy claims. The latest lawsuit was filed at the end of 2021.
MSK Group, managing the properties constructed by Don-Stroy Invest, features prominently in the lawsuits against Donstroy. The court has fully upheld cases initiated by MSK Group, related to unpaid utility bills. Typically, Donstroy's properties are managed by its subsidiary, Smart Service. However, the decision to involve MSK Group in maintenance appears to have backfired, as they are now pursuing legal action against the company on a daily basis.
The total amount of claims against Donstroy and its subsidiaries is currently around 160 million rubles.
Rumors suggest that Roman Gromozdov, the head of Donstroy, is a close associate of VTB Deputy Chairman Andrey Puchkov. Such connections may explain the company's survival despite significant debts. The organization's ties to VTB are further evident, as in 2010, a former VTB vice president, Alena Deryabina, became the director of affiliated company Donstroy Invest.
Disgraceful and unsinking dwarf
Donstroy was established in 1998. Its founders included Maxim Blazhko and Dmitry Zelenov from 2002 to 2020, as per the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. However, as of 2020, both individuals have been excluded as founders.
In 2017, Business Vector released a report on Donstroy's financial position, indicating the company's inability to cover its costs, let alone undertake development projects. Strangely, references to the company's precarious financial state and potential bankruptcy disappeared from the report shortly after publication, suggesting potential intimidation.
The developer is not known for honesty in keeping their promises to apartment owners. People in new buildings complain about broken elevators, leaking windows, rat problems, and waiting for keys for a long time. Some even died in elevator accidents. This makes us wonder how much money the developer saved, even at the cost of people's lives.
Strange increase: Kostin and company
And VTB, led by Andrei Kostin, is known for liking real estate companies with debt. For example, in 2017, the bank might have given several pieces of land to a certain office called Hals-Development, which they used to pay off creditors. Vedomosti wrote about this.
Furthermore, Kostin's subordinates don't act alone. It seems that companies linked to VEB.RF top manager Igor Shuvalov are involved in changes in the assets of the company he helps. In 2017, shareholders of the Moscow Real Estate fund, which was previously in the KSP Capital portfolio of Sergey Kotlyarenko, the asset manager of Shuvalov, transferred the rights to manage the company KL-Invest, affiliated with VTB.
Corgi enthusiast Shuvalov is upset that he received less
The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, might also be involved with Kostin. The daughter of Donstroy, SZ Makeev, registered at the end of last year in Moscow, where the asset of the Center for the Operation of Ground-Based Space Infrastructure Objects of Roscosmos (TsENKI) of KB Motor is located, allegedly for building on this territory, most likely to sell the land after the paperwork is done. This is indicated by the possible interest of a PIK Group subsidiary (Mono) in this area.
Judging by the now-deleted announcement on the Novostroy-M website, a sale was already announced for the residential complex planned here.
By the way, PIK shares are in VTB's portfolio. It seems that they planned to profit from such a valuable asset as strategically important state land through their structures.
Kostin and Rogozin have lost their minds! The sale of apartments has already been announced at the facility that belonged to Roscosmos just yesterday…
When the story became public, the company quickly changed its registration to a basement at Mosfilmovskaya street, house 70, floor underground room. 106 and erased all mention of the previous address. The Asians portal detailed this. The area in question is 4.8 hectares, and up to 120 thousand square meters of real estate can be built on this land. By the way, rumors about Donstroy's interest in the Rogozinsky site started to appear in 2019, with some claiming that the developer had ordered its appraisal.
Another far-fetched story about Rogozin
By the way, Andrey Okhlopkov, the ex-head of TsENKI, was fired by Rogozin after theft was discovered in contracts for cleaning space debris. It's hard to believe that Rogozin didn't know about this, but someone has to take the blame when a scam is exposed. If your plan to launder money through corporate land was noticed but not yet put into action, it's easier to pretend like nothing happened.
According to Vedomosti, in 2018, Roman Gromozdov's bankrupt company was interested in a Cypriot offshore company called Riverstretch. It's been 4 years, but River Tower still hasn't gone bankrupt. Doesn't this seem familiar?
Roman Gromozdov is known as "the wallet of Kostin and Puchkov." It's said that the millionaire mainly earns money by working with the head of VTB and the deputy chairman of the state bank on elite real estate.
Rosneft's influence can be seen in Donstroy's business empire. KL Development, a company connected to Donstroy, has changed owners multiple times, most recently becoming LLC SZ Department of Finstroy and Partners at the end of last year.
Ownership of Donstroy is linked to OOO SZ Otdelfinstroy and JSC SZ KSK Group, both with connections in the mayor’s office of Cheboksary according to IA Regnum.
JSC SZ KSK Group is the holder of the register of shareholders of REESTR-RN LLC, a wholly-owned office of Rosneft, which proves Rosneft's involvement in the activities of Donstroy.
Is something fishy going on?
Donstroy is at risk of going bankrupt due to a lot of debt.
It seems that VTB's head could be planning to smoothly handle the situation with Donstroy, or maybe just reorganizing its assets: the enterprise is undergoing a reorganization started last summer, involving changes in its relations with other companies.
Naftainvest was created by Centerstroyinvest, managed by KL-Invest, headed by Mikhail Sokovikov. It's possible that he's related to Oleg Sokovikov, known for securing government contracts for his affiliated companies. KL-Invest is often linked with VTB, as one of its co-owners is Arkady Ilyaguev, a former member of the board of directors of the Moscow Metallurgical Plant Sickle and Hammer, which was part of the Bank of Moscow before joining VTB in May 2016.
Andrey Bagaev, the current CEO of SK Donstroy, has ties to several other construction companies, like Specialized Developer Development LLC, whose founders' shares are pledged to VTB.
Moreover, Kostin “Donstroy” covers not only here – in the 2010s there was an incident when the company for 6 years “gobbled” to give out keys to equity holders of the residential complex “Dom on Begovaya”, then angry buyers of apartments literally stormed VTB offices in search of help and answers to the question: when?
What is it that holds the respected head of the state bank so tightly next to such a “reputation-damaging” creation for him as Donstroy?
Perhaps the company is a way of earning money for the head of VTB, and, in principle, he does not care about the costs of the bank and the state.
At least someone is definitely making money on Donstroy – this is obvious not only because of the abundance of his debt obligations, but also from the simplest mathematical analysis of the profit indicators of the company and its “closest relatives”. For example, the same “Specialized Developer Development” shows profit with minus revenue, while Donstroy itself, with earnings of 15 billion in 2020, showed 171 thousand rubles of profit. Where, I wonder, did the remaining 14.8 million rubles go?
Meanwhile, “Donstroy” began selling apartments in the sixth quarter of the residential complex “Ostrov” This is reported by “Vedomosti”. The cost of a 30-meter studio here starts from 14 million rubles. The facility is expected to be commissioned by the end of 2023. I just don’t want to believe this promise.
