Hello everyone!
As you probably know, Alexei Navalny has been arrested. He will spend 30 days in a special detention facility for disliking Putin’s endless rule and not being afraid to say so publicly. Despite Alexei’s temporary absence, the Anti-Corruption Foundation continues its work as usual. And today we have joyful, excellent news for you in every respect.
We were right. We’re celebrating and tossing our hats in the air, while Navalny—whom we have, of course, already told everything—is making himself a celebratory cup of Doshirak (a popular instant noodle brand) in his cell.
Remember how a month ago we accused then-Deputy Prime Minister Khloponin of selling his Italian villa to Prokhorov at three times its real value? We spent several days digging through real estate websites to prove that the villa Prokhorov bought for €35.5 million was actually worth around €10 million. Just by comparing listings.
We won’t need to do that anymore. We now have the contract for Khloponin’s purchase of this villa in 2008. It answers every question, including the main one: exactly how much Prokhorov overpaid for the official’s villa.
Please welcome, making his debut on our channel, investigations department staffer Nikita Kulachenkov. Nikita will tell you everything and explain it all:
We probably won’t retell the whole story in detail from the beginning—if you’ve forgotten it, read our previous post.
Here’s the situation in brief.
Now that you’ve read the summary, here are the visuals to refresh your memory. This is the villa in question.
Skeptics might say that the original version of our investigation had a weak point. Like, how do we know? Maybe this villa really is worth 2.5 billion rubles. Maybe it’s some ultra-exclusive project, or the area is super prestigious, or the aura is just right—who knows.
Back then, we told the skeptics to relax, because we were confident in our estimate. As a reminder, after studying the market, we valued it at €10 million.
Now, though, we suggest forgetting all our tricks with analyzing the luxury real estate market and simply looking at the document that puts everything in its proper place and removes any subjectivity from our investigation altogether.
We received this document the day before yesterday. And as you may already have guessed, it is once again a sale and purchase agreement. But not the one between Prokhorov and Khloponin—another one. The contract under which Khloponin bought this villa in 2008.
No more suspense. Here is the price Khloponin paid for the villa that he later sold to Prokhorov for €35.5 million.
Eleven million euros!!! 3.25 times less.
You can probably hear us popping champagne bottles, while the DLRE—the Department of Luxury Real Estate Evaluation—lines up for an accuracy bonus (~~of course, we don’t actually have such a department, but it would be pretty great if we did~~).
That €11 million price was in 2008—that is, before all the crises in Europe and everything else, at the very peak of the market. Since then, prices have only fallen. In 2016 alone, for example, Forte dei Marmi recorded a 13% annual drop in prices. Russians, who had previously bought up half the town, are gradually leaving, and the society pages no longer contain a trace of the once-legendary “Fortochka” (a Russian nickname for Forte dei Marmi).
Yes, Khloponin did, of course, renovate the villa. He renovated and rebuilt it extensively. But we can say with complete confidence that no renovation in the world could have cost €25 million. There is nothing Khloponin could have done there that would have tripled the villa’s value against the backdrop of a collapsing local real estate market.
So where did that €25 million price difference come from? How can it be explained, other than as a bribe?
Khloponin has only one option: to claim that he lined the entire interior of the house with diamonds and the skin of white crocodiles—but we doubt he’ll manage to convince anyone.
And here, for posterity, are full copies of the two sale and purchase agreements: the 2008 one, for €11 million, and the 2017 one, for €35 million. We generously removed some truly personal data, such as passport scans and marriage certificates.
In conclusion, we want to say this: the Khloponin-Prokhorov deal has all the hallmarks of a bribe. There is an oligarch, there is an official overseeing an area in which that oligarch has interests, and there is an asset purchased at a price inflated threefold. For a real investigation—and possibly a criminal case—only one thing is missing: any desire on the Russian side—the prosecutor’s office, the FSB, Putin, anyone at all—to do something about it. These people, who work for us and are paid with our taxes, will invent any excuse not to notice this very simple and very unambiguous example of corruption. We, of course, will prepare and send complaints to every jurisdiction and authority we can.
While Navalny is under arrest (even though, it seems, Prokhorov and Khloponin are the ones who should be arrested), the best support you can give is to spread this investigation and the video as widely as possible. And of course, you can also help here by making a donation to the ACF.
Thank you. And greetings to all of you from Navalny.