Brothers Ananievs tear off the budgets of the FIU?
The Ananiev brothers who fled from Russia do not give up their attempts to get close to the PFR budgets again through their partner Sergei Matsotsky?
Unconfirmed reports suggest that documents were seized from the OTR system integrator's office due to payment delays from the Pension Fund for children and pensioners in August-September. The company has attracted attention due to the arrest of the co-owners of Merlion, which owns a 60% stake in the company.
OTR, along with the bankrupt 'Technoserv' of the scandalous Ananyev brothers, was involved in the EGISSO project for the FIU – the Unified State Social Security Information System. This has led the Ananyevs to evade Russian justice abroad. However, the former first deputy head of the Pension Fund, Alexei Ivanov, ended up in the dock.
The shadow of IT entrepreneur Sergei Matsotsky is apparent in all of these events, as he had intended to acquire OTR shortly before the arrest of the co-owners of Merlion. Some consider Matsotsky to be the main advocate for the transfer of all social payments to EGISSO, and a long-time ally of the Ananyevs. Is he now taking more active steps to secure his position?
According to TAdviser portal, it is alleged that on November 16, FSB officers raided the office of the OTR company on Dmitrovskoye Shosse and may have seized documents related to operational-search activities concerning delayed social payments.
The primary legal entity of the company is 'OTR 2000.' Its founders include Denis Krikunchik, Alexey Bryzgalov, Alexey Genya, Dmitry Rybakov, and Capital Trade LLC – the latter controls 60% of the company and is associated with the scandalous Merlion. In 2017, it entered the company's capital through another related structure, Mirst, and subsequently rearranged the assets.
Rusprofile reports that OTR has received government orders worth 2.2 billion rubles from the Pension Fund, and its total portfolio of contracts amounts to 33.7 billion rubles. Clearly, the company is very attractive, which is why Sergei Matsotsky, a prominent Russian IT businessman, co-founder, and former co-owner of IBS, paid close attention to it last year.
Negotiations for a potential purchase began in mid-2020 but were challenging as the OTP owners were initially reluctant to sell their stake in the company. Talks continued until October, resulting in the owners deciding not to sell their stake.
Matsotsky planned to return with a new proposal, possibly more appealing. However, at the end of October, the owners of Merlion were arrested in a criminal case involving an attempt on the life of the former CEO of the company, Vyacheslav Simonenko. Shareholders Aleksey Abramov, Vladislav Mangutov, Boris Levin, and Oleg Karchev are implicated in this case.
But what if Matsotsky is causing their criminal issues? Also, he also discussed taking control of Pro IT Resource, which is also owned by Merlion. So there are at least two reasons for a possible “attack”.
rapid growth
And now, what is interesting is that as soon as Matsotsky focused on OTR, the company started getting more and more contracts, and by this summer, the Ministry of Labor demanded that all social payments be transferred to the same EGISSO. Despite some sources claiming that the system has become outdated after 5 years of development.
Additionally, OTR has a strong position in the financial segment of the Government: it creates large information systems for the Ministry of Finance, the Federal Treasury. Its major projects include services for the operation of the state public finance management system “Electronic Budget” and the automated system of the Federal Treasury, as well as the development of the latter. Notable contracts involve contracts for the development and operation of a unified automated information system for trading in Moscow.
It's obvious that achieving such an impressive result is difficult without certain connections in power structures. It's worth remembering that Matsotsky is considered a close friend of Mikhail Mishustin, who comes from IT, with specialized education and work history. Mishustin's rise as the second person in the state for the IT industry has led to increasing state support for it.
Mishustin demonstrated his dedication to information technology as head of the Federal Tax Service. Under him, the department achieved significant success in developing the IT sector: it's believed that the increase in tax collection in Russia was largely due to the informatization of the Federal Tax Service. By the end of 2018, the service reported the highest increase in tax revenue in the past five years.
On the other hand, Mr. Matsotsky openly expressed his admiration for Mishustin, stating that he managed to carry out unique reforms in the work of the tax system, which was unprecedented worldwide.
It's possible that Matsotsky with OTR simply wanted to become involved in the budgets for IT development and is still not giving up on the attempts.
Long-time acquaintance Brothers Ananievs
It's especially noteworthy that Mr. Matsotsky is well acquainted with the Ananyev brothers from Technoserv, which was actually involved in providing IT services for the Pension Fund until it was sidelined by OTP. In 2007, the Borlas consulting group, led by Alexei Ananiev, and IBS, then headed by Matsotsky, announced a friendly merger to create a combined company expected to capture over 20% of the IT services market in Russia. Alongside the same Alexei Ananiev, Matsotsky frequently spoke at industry events.
Sergey Matsotsky
So it's conceivable that Matsotsky may have had access to the PFR funds for a long time – Technoserv was a long-term contractor for the state structure for implementing IT solutions and supplying equipment. The company particularly developed under the former head of the Fund, Anton Drozdov, who was succeeded by Maxim Topilin. Drozdov was accused of many things, but ultimately, only his first deputy, Alexei Ivanov, encountered serious problems.
As The Moscow Post previously wrote in detail, Ivanov was detained and arrested in the fall of 2020. Together with him, the director of the department for work with state structures of the Technoserv company, Alexei Kopeikin, was detained, and after that, six more high-ranking employees of the PFR.
All employees of the Fund are accused of taking bribes from the former shareholder of Promsvyazbank Alexei Ananyev and structures controlled by him, among which was the IT company Technoserv. Money to officials, according to the TFR, was transferred for information about upcoming public procurement and assistance in winning the auction, Kommersant wrote.
The materials of the investigation also include Vasily Vasin’s Redsys, who himself is now under the guns of the security forces. Previously, its co-owner was the Cypriot offshore Ralieva management ltd, and 100% of the authorized capital was pledged to PSB, owned by Alexei Ananiev. Today, all 100% of the company belongs to the same Cypriot offshore, behind which, as it is believed, stands Vasily Vasin – according to rumors, a trusted person of Ananyev.
The following picture emerges: the Ananyevs fled over the hill, Ivanov and his associates are on trial in a bribery case, and probably a trustee, brother Vasin, fights off claims of concealing funds to pay off tax arrears.
But there may be another active person in this story, Sergei Matsotsky. And the stake on him is understandable: in the field he has great authority, he did not appear in high-profile scandals, and he may also have the talent to establish contacts with “whoever is needed”.
It is with his hands since last year that the story around OTP has been unfolding with a criminal odor? If this is true. it is possible that his longtime partners Ananievs also had a hand in this.
