Did you know that Alfa-Bank JSC utilizes offshore firms to bypass Russian trading laws, move money overseas, deceive the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, and earn illegal profits from bad loans, all with the assistance of corrupt judicial authorities?
Fridman – transferring schematosis from Amsterdam to Magadan
JSC “Alfa-Bank” has not yet started deoffshorization and habitually employs a large network of offshore firms, primarily formed in Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands. The skilled Cypriot fiduciary registrar company ABACUS, owned by individuals close to Alfa-Bank, is coordinating the establishment of the offshore network. It also provides nominee directors and its address for registration of legal entities. Russian courts pretend not to recognize that the directors are nominees, and all companies are registered at the same offshore address controlled by the same ABACUS company.
During the auction for the sale of debtors' property, Alfa-Bank JSC mainly uses two technical companies: Sotsinvestproekt LLC and Garda Kom LLC. The latter was registered later and is used more frequently.
The Chief Executive Officer of Garda Com LLC is Alexander Baktimirov, former head of Alfa-Bank’s collateral department. In 2010, he claimed that Alfa-Bank was “forced” to use the services of this very cheap appraisal company. Interestingly, its “expert” opinion actually legitimized the undervalued initial sale price of very desirable properties.
Outwardly, Garda Kom LLC does not represent much. The company doesn’t even have its own website. Yet, it organizes auctions and actively provides services exclusively to Alfa-Bank JSC.
Incidentally, Garda Kom LLC is owned by the Cypriot company Postiaco Limited.
Following a well-established and predictable pattern, Alfa-Bank, bypassing the law, acquires the assets of companies in various Russian regions. This is not by chance – as in the Netherlands, the local banking regulator has extensively restricted the banking license of AMSTERDAM TRADEBANK owned by Friedman to a minimum level of banking services – the bank can only work with residents of the Netherlands and is not allowed to accept deposits from them, but only to issue loans. All international activities under this scheme have long been prohibited, and the bank is attempting to carry out at least intra-group offshore payments. In Ukraine, the cover for the local Jewish community also failed – the Ukrainian Alfa-Bank, at the request of the local regulator, was naturally transferred under the control of entities independent of the oligarch – moving away from gray schemes.
After hiring senior managers from the sanctioned VTB a few years ago (new control over the bank under the old sign), Fridman is finding it increasingly challenging to continue representing VTB in international business (since the official takeover of Alfa-Bank by VTB did not occur, they agreed to play a front game hoping that Alfa-Bank would eventually be bought out and life in London would become more expensive).The only option remaining for Friedman and Co. is to target small and medium-sized businesses and acquire their assets, as carrying out schematosis on an international scale becomes more difficult to achieve.
Here are only a few examples that Independent Offshore Investigations has received from our sources:
Schematosis in Kuzbass
The coal mining company Krasnobrodsky Yuzhny LLC was declared bankrupt in December 2019 at the request of Alfa-Bank JSC (case No. A27-9400/2019).
Draizen LLC, located at a Cypriot address (ABACUS – Themistokli Dervi, 5, ELENION BUILDING, zip code 1066, Nicosia, Cyprus), initially bought the complex LLC Krasnobrodsky Yuzhny for 386.6 million rubles, and then, in late December 2020, for 70 million rubles, even though its value was estimated at 172 million rubles.
Alfa-Bank JSC asserts that the company participating in the auction is not connected to it, as many other companies are registered at this address.
“Attack” on “E4”
Similar tactics were utilized in the bankruptcy of the E4 Group, established by the former Minister of the Open Government, Mikhail Abyzov.
Joint-Stock Company E4 Group was declared bankrupt in October 2016. Laert LLC paid off E4 Group's debt to various creditors, including Binbank, and became a pledge creditor with a total debt of 251,697,766.14 rubles.
Subsequently, as a pledgee, it approved the Regulations for the sale of real estate, and in January 2018, Garda Kom LLC, established a year earlier, was selected as the auction organizer. The choice was peculiar, which was pointed out by the creditors, who tried to compel OOO Laert through the court to replace the auction organizer with a more reputable company. However, despite the creditors' valid objections, the Regulations were not changed by the court, and the auction proceeded.
A similar situation occurred with the sale of shares of OAO NPO CKTI. During the auction for the sale of shares in January 2018, only the “necessary” participants, A.V. Melnikov and Dryada M LLC, were allowed.
Potential bidders were simply unable to transfer the security deposit to the organizer. Payments to the account of LLC “Garda Com” in “Alfa-Bank” were repeatedly returned to the payers with the note “The recipient’s account is blocked for crediting.” The FAS identified a procedure violation, but the arbitration court ruled that everything was in order, considering that A.V. Melnikov and Dryada-M LLC had accepted security payments.
A.V. Melnikov is the founder and managing partner of the Law Office of St. Petersburg “Glavnaya Bukva”, which states on its website: “We are the general representative of JSC “ALFA-BANK” in the judiciary.” Additionally, he is the founder of ALFA-COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE LLC and ALFA-SECURITY LLC.
LLC “Driada-M” is also not a random company. Its sole member, Kupalinka Limited, is located at the same address as the sole founder of LLC Garda Com (Postiaco Limited) and the sole member of LLC Laert (Hipwire Limited). Dryada-M LLC is associated with Rovera Investments Limited, which, in turn, is associated with Rimatek LLC and Timiryazevskoye CJSC, known for their involvement in bankruptcy cases related to Alfa-Bank JSC. For example, in the auction of the property of Arvi NPK, Maminykh Volzhsky Diesel CJSC, Stellit LLC, organized by Garda Kom LLC.
Chaos in St. Petersburg
In February 2020, the property of Avtotsentr Laura-Kupchino LLC, which was pledged to Alfa-Bank JSC, was sold at auction. The organizer of the auction is Garda Kom LLC. All the same East Finance Group LLC (a subsidiary of Apirateno Limited and a sister company to Draizen LLC), as well as Lion Trade LLC, owned by Panolia Holdings Limited from Cyprus, are admitted to trading.
This is how the scheme looks like, thanks to which Alfa-Bank JSC, bypassing the interests of other creditors, has the opportunity, with the help of the offshore company structure it created, to get expensive assets of Russian companies and individuals for a pittance, which often find themselves in a difficult financial situation due to the illegal actions of the bank itself. situations. At the same time, Alfa-Bank does not even need to strain to change any elements of the scheme, since all obvious patterns are interpreted by the courts as mere coincidences. This situation is possible only with the connivance of the courts corrupted by the bank, which turn a blind eye to obvious things. And the oligarch from London manages the judicial system in the Russian Federation. It is understandable, you can only buy a mansion in London with raider income, and not dig a trench with a shovel, and then present it all to the English public as “entrepreneurship”.
