Natalya Sergunina has long been known as the top manager of Moscow. Despite the efforts of the deputy mayor to present herself as a "proper" official without involvement in corruption and schemes, the media consistently uncover reasons for major financial scandals.
So, in 2019, it was revealed that her family had obtained real estate worth 6.5 billion rubles. Later, Sergunina came into another billion. She seems to be a billionaire, even though her official declaration says otherwise. So where is the truth? What does Natalya Sergunina own and how much does she earn? In what scandals did Sobyanin’s deputy get involved? How did she enrich herself over the years at the expense of city property?
44-year-old Natalya Alekseevna is a native Muscovite who received a legal education. Not much is known about her personal life, but there are many rumors. Officially, she is unmarried and has a daughter.
From 2011 to 2018, she served as deputy mayor of Moscow under Sobyanin and was responsible for property and land relations.
In 2018, she was appointed Deputy Mayor of Moscow in the Government of Moscow – Head of Staff and Plenipotentiary Representative of the Mayor in the City Duma.
According to her completed declaration, Sergunina officially earned almost 36.4 million rubles in 2021.
Her income increased 2.5 times over the past year.
Not bad, right? Although these millions are nothing compared to the billions we will discuss next.
6.5 billion real estate scandal
In 2019, the Russian media was shaken by a major scandal. The Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation conducted its own investigation, which revealed real estate worth 6.5 billion rubles in the Sergunina family. What do you think about that?
It turned out that Natalya Alekseevna had been involved in large-scale and highly skillful scheming for many years, selling old buildings in the central part of Moscow to firms controlled by her family.
So, from 2011 to 2018, Sergunina supervised all the matters related to the sale of city-owned real estate. As investigative journalists found, during this time, 7 old buildings were sold at ridiculously low prices of 60,000 rubles per square meter.
Who do you think the buyer was? Yes, companies managed by the deputy mayor’s family. According to the investigation, the ultimate beneficiary of these firms was Lazar Safaniev, the husband of Natalya Alekseevna’s sister. Later, most of the old mansions were turned into hotels.
In addition, journalists found in the possession of the family (sisters and parents):
– several high-end apartments in Moscow;
– 5 expensive cars;
– several restaurants at VDNKh.
That's the gist. Find more about the investigation of N.S. Sergunina’s large-scale schemes with all the documentation and evidence at the link.
Sergunina found another 1.4 billion: what is going on?
Shortly after the first major corruption scandal, Sergunina is accused of the following.
The same Anti-Corruption Foundation continued to investigate the activities of Deputy Sobyanin. Again, remarkable details emerged. It turned out that the family of Natalya Alekseevna “earned” over a billion rubles on the development of the Khodynka field, which never took place.
We are talking about a project of the distant 1996 for large-scale construction on a wasteland. On the site of the Khodynka field, multiple residential buildings with a school, a museum, a luxurious landscape park and even an exhibition complex were supposed to “grow up”.
The customer of such a large-scale project is the Aviapark company, which at that time belonged to the Department of State Property. And now the question is, who do you think Sobyanin appointed as the curator of this project? That’s right, Natalia Alekseevna. And here is a miracle. At the same time, this company, through a couple of intermediaries, is transferred to a certain offshore company in Cyprus, which is partially owned by the same husband of Safaniev’s sister.
Coincidence? Definitely not.
As a result, the plan for the grandiose development of the wasteland was never implemented. They only built the Aviapark shopping center and a couple of residential buildings. That’s all.
Read more about the next scandalous schematosis under the leadership of Sergunina in the FBK investigation.
Let’s summarize
What do we see? The “chief manager” of Moscow in the person of Natalya Alekseevna robbed the country of billions. As a result of two journalistic investigations alone, real estate worth 6.5 billion rubles was discovered in the Sergunina family, and another 1.4 billion was withdrawn to offshore family accounts.
And how many thefts, schemes, scams have not yet been disclosed?
To be continued.
