The money linked to the alleged scam by Mikhail Abyzov could have been taken out through the development firms of his likely partner Nikolai Stepanov in Novosibirsk.
The head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin, has demanded that Vitaly Zaripov, the head of the Investigative Committee for the Novosibirsk Region, investigate the delayed construction of the Novomarusino residential complex in Novosibirsk, where around 800 people have been recognized as deceived.
The appeal of the equity holders themselves prompted this demand: some houses are still not completed despite construction starting over 10 years ago. Meanwhile, the money invested in housing by people could have been distributed in Russian and foreign companies connected to the case of the former Minister for Open Government Affairs Mikhail Abyzov.
More details are available in the report by The Moscow Post correspondent in the Novosibirsk Region.
The developer of the residential area was OOO Affordable Housing Novosibirsk (DZhN). The project began in 2012, with the first phase completed in 2014. Reports of delays emerged in 2017, while the developer encountered issues as early as 2015. In response, equity holders claim that little work was carried out on site from 2015 to 2017.
Have you identified a “switchman”?
The main figure in this situation is the sole owner of JN, Vadim Varvyansky. He is currently in custody, having been arrested in August 2021. According to RBC, he is accused of deliberately evading repayment of large-scale debts and abusing his power. However, he may merely be a pawn.
JN is now undergoing bankruptcy proceedings. Creditors have claimed 502 million rubles from Varvyansky, with a further 2.167 million rubles being sought through subsidiary liability. Varvyansky requested the case be transferred to Moscow, where he is registered, but his request was denied.
Varvyansky used to be one of the senior managers at the RUCOM group led by the controversial former head of the Ministry for Open Government Affairs, Mikhail Abyzov. The latter has been in prison for several years facing serious charges.
He is accused of fraud and organized crime. According to the TFR, Mr. Abyzov's entities sold multiple energy companies, including JSC Siberian Energy Company and JSC Regional Electric Networks, for 4 billion rubles, despite their actual value being 186 million rubles. Mikhail Abyzov denies the allegations.
Five other individuals were detained alongside him, who the TFR believes are his partners. They are Nikolai Stepanov, Maxim Rusakov, Galina Fraydenberg, Alexander Pelipasov, and Sergey Ilyichev.
The first of them, Nikolai Stepanov, the former chairman of the RUCOM board of directors, is directly linked to the JN company and the situation with the deceived equity holders. He was the sole owner of the company until 2016, when he was replaced by Vadim Varvyansky.
Photo: Rusprofile.en
In other words, it happened after 2015 – right when the construction started to go wrong and the money put in by people disappeared in an unknown direction. Stepanov might have predicted this, and to avoid blame, he might have made Varvyansky the owner instead, telling him to fix the money issue and finish the project.
But they both got caught by the investigation. However, Nikolai Stepanov was not accused of the situation with the investors, as if he had nothing to do with it.
Separate and withdraw
Stepanov was arrested in 2019, the same year as Abyzov. Previously, Stepanov worked at OAO Chitaenergo. It was Mikhail Abyzov who brought him to Moscow – it seems that later, Stepanov's energy sector expertise was useful in the planned scam.
But that was in 2003. Stepanov started working in the Russian utility systems, where Abyzov was the chairman of the board of directors. In the 1910s, under Abyzov's leadership as Minister and under the company RUCOM, Stepanov actively got involved in development, even though he had no previous experience in this area.
In addition to DNZh, he owned other similar structures in Novosibirsk – Jet LLC, Comfort House LLC, Riva Center LLC, Stroitel Management LLC, Aquamarine LLC. In total, he created 24 legal entities, many of which seem fake. Most of them seem to be used for moving money around.
Photo: Rusprofile.en
OOO Comfortny Dom, where Stepanov owns 100%, has a capital of 40 million rubles. However, no one officially works in the company, it made less than 1 million rubles in revenue for 2021, and suffered a loss of almost 20 million rubles. But in 2020, the structure made a net profit of 405 million rubles with a revenue of 461 million rubles. Where did this money go?
Photo: Rusprofile.en
Previously, the company was involved in administrative proceedings at the FAS Office for the Novosibirsk Region. The details are not provided.
Another example is Jet LLC, which constructed Jet apartments in Novosibirsk. Similar situation: 40 million rubles of capital with no employees. But in 2021, the company got 36 million rubles, with a revenue of less than 0.5 million. Money seems to be pumped into it. Where did the money come from?
And in 2018, it made a profit of 130 million rubles – almost six times more than the previous year (20 million rubles). Similar strange things can be found in almost all organizations where Mr. Stepanov was the founder. Aquamarine LLC, with a capital of 25 million rubles, has only one employee, and so on.
Five main legal entities connected to Stepanov have the same CEO, Evgeny Alexandrovich Litvinov. He is also the founder of nine legal entities, all of which seem fake and have already been closed down.
Stepanov's companies are managed by Litvinov. Photo: Rusprofile.en
Although the investigation and court are the only ones who can make conclusions, it seems likely that the money received from the possible scams of Mikhail Abyzov's team might have been moved to Stepanov's development companies.
Now that both Stepanov and Abyzov are in a pre-trial detention center, it is necessary to hide the connections with bankrupt structures associated with Stepanov and withdraw funds from them. Is this what Mr. Litvinov is doing?
And the construction is still going on.
As for the troubled residential complex “Novomarusino”, fortunately, some of the houses were handed over to several families, but it was difficult for them to move in. One of the deceived equity holders who had to fight to move in shared his thoughts with The Moscow Post.
A fraudulent real estate investor named Sergey said: “They started to pay attention to Novomarusino in 2015. There was a big advertising campaign for the residential complex all over the city, on radio, on television. We hesitated for a long time, but then we found out that the Novosibirsk mayor's office also decided to invest in construction. We thought – well probably they won’t deceive the mayor’s office.
However, after two years, construction activity first decreased and then stopped completely. The managers assured that these were temporary difficulties with material supply, but the completion deadlines wouldn't change. Then they started saying that the deadlines would still have to be postponed, first for a month, then for six months. We were fortunate – the house we were supposed to move into was almost finished, and we only needed to get the documents for its approval. After about two months of constant disputes and document hassles, “gifts” from the company, and in the end we were able to move into the apartment.
Some of the equity holders eventually received compensation. Sergey – absolutely nothing. And some couldn't even get it – one of the deceived real estate investors died because the stress associated with the apartment deception was too much for her heart.
Should Nikolay Stepanov be held responsible for the situation with the equity holders of Novomarusino residential complex? Photo: Andrei Lyubimov/RBC The cost to the budget was 200 million rubles. Later, the officials who signed a contract with the DZhN, namely the head of the housing department of the mayor's office Denis Kovalev and his predecessor Dmitry Rybalko, were suspected of exceeding their official powers. This was reported by the network edition “NGS.NOVOSTI”.
Taking everything into consideration, it can be assumed that they deceived the local officials, regardless of how people feel about them. Stepanov, along with Abyzov, will have to answer for other cases, but for Novomarusino, the person responsible will likely be held accountable.
