Fortunately, most people don’t need the basics explained to them. - A public official running a business in the very sector where he controls budget funds is impossible and unacceptable. There can be no exceptions. - A public official secretly running a business in the very sector where he controls budget funds is a conflict of interest and grounds for justified suspicions of corruption that must be investigated. - A public official who lies publicly and uses scams like a sham divorce to retain control of a business in the very sector where he controls budget funds is a corrupt official and a figure acting against the public interest. His activities must be openly investigated as a criminal matter. These are elementary truths understood and shared by any normal person who wants Russia to become a normal, law-based European state. However, before moving on to further reflection on Deputy Mayor and fraudster M.S. Liksutov, I still wanted to have a brief explanatory talk with those who, out of ignorance, stubbornness (or unwillingness to use Google), keep repeating the City Hall propagandists’ nonsense: “He’s rich, why would he steal,” or “He’s a successful businessman, he didn’t make his money from the state, and now you’re attacking him,” or “He just got around a stupid law.” The climax of this defense of Liksutov and his beaver collar is the comparison between Liksutov and Bloomberg. Look, another billionaire who ran a city well. Comparison
of one of the most outstanding politicians and businessmen of our time, who built a multibillion-dollar business through his own intelligence and effort, took a symbolic salary of one dollar at New York City Hall, and invested $650 million of his own money in the city’s development with
a crook in a beaver collar, who made his fortune through schemes involving Russian Railways (RZD), takes a salary from us worth several million rubles a year, and continues doing business off the public budget while hiding it from Muscovites and arranging a sham divorce, shows a fundamental failure to understand what is going on. Let’s simply understand what: a) “Liksutov’s fortune,” b) Aeroexpress, owned by his “former” wife, and c) a conflict of interest actually are. “Liksutov’s fortune” is the sum of money and assets he earned through “interaction” with the state and state-owned companies. Let’s use the polite word “interaction,” although the key phrase in Wikipedia’s entry on Liksutov’s money — “At that time, Liksutov and Glinka’s business partner became Rustam Aksyonenko, son of Russian Transport Minister Nikolai Aksyonenko” — tells us what kind of interaction it really was. Remarkably, Liksutov, Glinka, and the son of the then head of Russian Railways received more favorable terms and tariffs for transporting coal from Kuzbass. Another part of “Liksutov’s business” is Transmashholding. Pieces of the Soviet machine-building empire that supply equipment to whom? That’s right: Russian Railways. So all of “Liksutov’s business” has always existed alongside the state, state money, and state companies. Above all, Russian Railways. You can read more here about what “doing business with Russian Railways” means. “Aeroexpress” is a monopoly company that transports passengers to the airports of Moscow and several other cities. It was created by Russian Railways and “businessmen close to Russian Railways.” The chairman of Aeroexpress’s board of directors is Gennady Verkhovykh, a Russian Railways official. Its rolling stock is leased from Russian Railways, and so on and so forth. Train operations and access to convenient time slots depend on Russian Railways, which can prioritize ordinary suburban commuter trains — or Aeroexpress. Aeroexpress’s business can exist only under three basic conditions: - goodwill from Russian Railways management - goodwill from the authorities (above all, Moscow City Hall) - massive traffic jams on the roads out of Moscow, driving people out of taxis and private cars and onto Aeroexpress. Sobyanin provides the last of these in full. I have a very positive view of Aeroexpress and use it all the time myself. It would be needed even without traffic jams. But let’s be honest: it is a monopoly suburban rail service whose boom (and not-insignificant ticket prices) is tied to total paralysis on Leningradskoye Highway and Kashirskoye Highway. “Conflict of interest” — (from the federal law “On Combating Corruption”): Article 10. Conflict of interest in state and municipal service 1. For the purposes of this Federal Law, a conflict of interest in state or municipal service is understood as a situation in which the personal interest (direct or indirect) of a state or municipal employee affects or may affect the proper performance of his official duties, and in which a contradiction arises or may arise between the personal interest of the state or municipal employee and the rights and lawful interests of citizens, organizations, society, or the state, capable of causing harm to the rights and lawful interests of citizens, organizations, society, or the state. ... Article 11. Procedure for preventing and resolving conflicts of interest in state and municipal service 1. A state or municipal employee is obliged to take measures to prevent any possibility of a conflict of interest. ... 6. If a state or municipal employee owns securities, shares (equity interests, units in the authorized capital of organizations), he is obliged, for the purpose of preventing a conflict of interest, to transfer the securities, shares (equity interests, units in the authorized capital of organizations) belonging to him into trust management in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation. http://www.rg.ru/2008/12/30/korrupcia-fz-dok.html That’s all. We even made a chart under the working title “Life of Pi.”
As you can see, Maxim Liksutov’s life as an official has continued from April 29, 2011, to the present day and shows signs of an ongoing conflict of interest, supplemented by a “period of public lying” and a “period of the divorce scam.” Well, what else is there to explain. I hope those who are voluntarily mistaken will be able to sort it out. It’s shameful to defend this swindler, even if you drink tea with him. So, are you ready to dig deeper? If so, let’s set off on a fascinating journey through Deputy Mayor Maxim Stanislavovich Liksutov’s offshore schemes. To begin with, let me remind you what Liksutov said (and reaffirmed again yesterday): that he owns no business assets, including abroad, and in fact never owned any offshore companies at all: "M. LIKSUTOV — I have never in my life had any offshore companies whatsoever; all my business was transparent, understandable, and I never hid what assets I owned, possessed" http://echo.msk.ru/programs/exit/877499-echo/ So, to start, let us turn to LLC “PK,” which Liksutov owned even before becoming an official, together with two other founders. LLC “MPK” owns 50% of OJSC “Central Suburban Passenger Company” (the largest suburban rail carrier; in the Moscow region it controls 80% of commuter trains, ownership confirmed), 100% of LLC “Regional Express” (higher-comfort commuter trains in the Moscow region, extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities), and 25% of OJSC “Moscow-Tver Suburban Passenger Company” (also commuter trains, operating in the Moscow, Tver, Novgorod, and Yaroslavl regions, ownership confirmed). Until October 23, 2012, the company’s list of owners looked like this:
30% — Offshore company VARIONT DEVELOPMENT INC. (British Virgin Islands) 30% — Maxim Stanislavovich Liksutov 40% — LLC “ITS Consulting” And on October 23, 2012, the company was moved offshore, and its sole owner became the Cypriot company FREDLAKE HOLDINGS LIMITED. One of the directors of FREDLAKE HOLDINGS LIMITED turned out to be Alexei Krivoruchko. Hmmmm... we’ve seen that surname somewhere before. Good heavens! Why, that’s the CEO of LLC “Aeroexpress,” owned by Liksutov’s ex-wife. What a coincidence.
It is worth dwelling on his biography in more detail: In 2006 — Chief expert and consultant in the department of regional and offset programs at FSUE ROSOBORONEXPORT, Moscow In 2006–2009 — Deputy General Director for Sales and Technical Service, Executive Sales Director, Vice President for Sales and Marketing, and Senior Vice President for Sales and Marketing at OJSC AvtoVAZ in Tolyatti. Since February 2010, he has been General Director of LLC Aeroexpress. Before that, he had never run his own business (except for owning 12.5% of some LLC “Hydro Avia Tekhnika,” for which there is no mention of any activity online); he had worked only as a hired employee. Here is what he says about joining Aeroexpress: "I was invited to this company by Maxim Liksutov, with whom I have been friends for many years. We began discussing my move when I was still working at AvtoVAZ" http://rbcdaily.ru/industry/562949983684419 Krivoruchko was also a board member of Liksutov’s Transgroup Invest AS.
In short, an ordinary hired manager (incidentally, the address he listed in the Cypriot register as his home address is a 16-story prefab apartment block in the Krylatskoye district). FREDLAKE HOLDINGS LIMITED, in turn, is owned by other Cypriot offshore companies: TOPFAIR PROPERTIES LIMITED (33%) and HALORITE HOLDINGS LIMITED (67%). The director of TOPFAIR PROPERTIES LIMITED is the same Alexei Krivoruchko, along with a certain Irina Zemenkova
And who is Irina Zemenkova? What kind of female oligarch is she? She is (SURPRISE) a member of the supervisory board of Transgroup Invest AS — the Estonian company owned by Liksutov’s ex-wife, which holds shares in Aeroexpress.
She was also on the board of directors of a restaurant owned by Liksutov’s EX-wife
and a furniture factory owned by Liksutov’s EX-wife.
Well, well. And who owns TOPFAIR PROPERTIES LIMITED? It belongs to the Cypriot company CAPITALCARE LIMITED. What is this, another offshore company? But we need to keep looking. And here is the owner
Our old friend — old man Krivoruchko. So in the end, the owner of the offshore companies and the commuter rail businesses is, of course, not Liksutov at all, but Liksutov’s subordinate Alexei Krivoruchko. Usually offshore companies appoint local nominee owners/directors, but Liksutov decided to make his own man the nominee owner. Or are we supposed to believe the version in which Liksutov gave his entire business away to a former employee? FREDLAKE HOLDINGS LIMITED, TOPFAIR PROPERTIES LIMITED (continued), CAPITALCARE LIMITED, and TG RAIL LIMITED also share the same Cypriot nominee directors. TG RAIL LIMITED is a subsidiary of Transgroup Invest AS and was registered in 2007. Let us return to Beaver-Liksutov’s recent statement: "M. LIKSUTOV — I have never in my life had any offshore companies whatsoever; all my business was transparent, understandable, and I never hid what assets I owned, possessed" http://echo.msk.ru/programs/exit/877499-echo/ This is very funny, considering that in April 2013, a year after Liksutov’s interview, data on 100,000 offshore companies from the British Virgin Islands was leaked, and among them was SERMOLENT EQUITIES INC., whose owners are Sergey Glinka and Maksim Liksutov — names that exactly match the names of the founders of Transgroup Invest AS.
At the end of 2013, FREDLAKE HOLDINGS LIMITED changed its nominee founder, but the directors remained the same (including Krivoruchko and representatives of the other owners), so this was nothing more than an attempt to make the offshore scheme more complicated. And now to Liksutov’s main asset — CJSC Transmashholding. This is Russia’s largest company in transport engineering. It produces electric locomotives, diesel locomotives, freight and passenger railcars, metro cars, trams, and so on. Even Sobyanin advertises Transmashholding trams: After taking a ride on the new tram, the mayor noted that Moscow’s trams are already morally and physically obsolete, so the rolling stock needs to be modernized with something modern and comfortable. However, the capital’s mayor noted that Moscow has no ability to buy imported trams for two reasons. "They are too expensive and not suited to our track infrastructure," Sobyanin said. At the same time, Sobyanin said that Alstom together with Transmashholding had created a new tram prototype that is reasonably priced and comfortable for urban transport. http://www.mosgortrans.net/news/12902-nizkopolnye-tramvai-v-moskve.html http://dt.mos.ru/presscenter/news_department/detail/923836.html http://dt.mos.ru/presscenter/news_department/detail/827324.html http://www.rbcdaily.ru/market/562949983572685 Since 2007, 100% of Transmashholding has been owned by the Dutch company The Breakers Investments B.V. In May 2012, Liksutov stated that he had sold his stake in TMH: "Maxim Liksutov sold his stake in Transmashholding to the other shareholders of this CJSC — Iskander Makhmudov, Andrei Bokarev, and several other managers (they owned 50% minus 1 share in an unknown proportion), a person close to the company told Vedomosti. It was a cash deal, and he has no option to buy it back, the source claims. Liksutov and a person close to the CJSC’s shareholders confirmed this information." http://www.vedomosti.ru/companies/news/1750828/transportnik_bez_transporta Here is the shareholder structure as of December 31, 2011 (from the annual report for the Netherlands for 2011, p. 89)
25% — Russian Railways (RZD) 25% — Alstom Holdings (French engineering company) 13.26% — AMMONIS TRADING LIMITED (Cyprus) 13.26% — LATORIO HOLDINGS LIMITED (Cyprus) 13.26% — MAFRIDO TRADING LIMITED (Cyprus) 3.75% — SILASIO TRADING LIMITED (Cyprus) 6.47% — TEROMO INVESTMENTS LIMITED (Cyprus) And as of December 31, 2012 (from the annual report for the Netherlands for 2012, p. 84)
25% — Russian Railways (RZD) 25% — Alstom Holdings (French engineering company) 13.26% — AMMONIS TRADING LIMITED (Cyprus) 13.26% — LATORIO HOLDINGS LIMITED (Cyprus) 13.26% — MAFRIDO TRADING LIMITED (Cyprus) 3.75% — SILASIO TRADING LIMITED (Cyprus) 6.47% — TEROMO INVESTMENTS LIMITED (Cyprus) As we can see, there is no difference. So Maxim “I never in my life had offshore companies” Liksutov owned Transmashholding through a Cypriot offshore company, and he was supposed to have sold that stake. Let’s see who owns AMMONIS TRADING LIMITED, LATORIO HOLDINGS LIMITED, and MAFRIDO TRADING LIMITED, which together control 36.33% of Transmashholding (each offshore company holds 13.26%). The other offshore companies can be seen in the chart. (Extracts from the Cypriot commercial register; all the offshore companies can be viewed here): Founders of AMMONIS TRADING LIMITED: 12.8% — SERMOLENT EQUITIES INC. 75% — MAREDARO TRADING LIMITED Founders of LATORIO HOLDINGS LIMITED: 12.8% — SERMOLENT EQUITIES INC. 75% — PREVALO INVESTMENTS LIMITED Founders of MAFRIDO TRADING LIMITED: 12.8% — SERMOLENT EQUITIES INC. 75% — COMPATICO INVESTMENTS LIMITED Why, it’s that very same SERMOLENT EQUITIES INC. that surfaced in the BVI leak and at that time belonged to Liksutov! It is not hard to calculate that this gave him a 5.09% stake in TMH, with a market value of $560 million (experts value TMH at $10–12 billion). Now let’s look at MAREDARO TRADING LIMITED, PREVALO INVESTMENTS LIMITED, and COMPATICO INVESTMENTS LIMITED. In each of them, a 12.11% stake is owned by UTENTO HOLDINGS LIMITED — that amounts to 3.61% of TMH, with a market value of $400 million. It is interesting to trace the fate of this 12.11% stake in the three offshore companies. Until December 6, 2011, it was owned personally by Maxim Liksutov (MAREDARO, PREVALO, COMPATICO). On December 6, 2011, the stake was transferred to Tatyana Liksutova (MAREDARO, PREVALO, COMPATICO). And on September 4, 2012, it was transferred to UTENTO HOLDINGS LIMITED (MAREDARO, PREVALO, COMPATICO). Which means Liksutov was brazenly lying when he said in May 2012 that he had sold his stake in Transmashholding. So what exactly is UTENTO HOLDINGS LIMITED, to which the Liksutovs’ stake was reassigned? A week before the transfer of Liksutov’s stake to the offshore company, UTENTO’s owners became Martin Lechner and Kai-Christian Brockstedt. They are managing partners at Corecam AG, a company specializing in family asset management. On their website it says: "We offer comprehensive, individually-tailored services and solutions to affluent families and companies" (and in Russian: "We offer comprehensive, individually tailored services to wealthy families and companies") and "We place great importance on continued risk control so that future generations may benefit from long-term preservation of family assets" ("We place great importance on risk management and control so that future generations may benefit from the long-term preservation of family assets," source). Tatyana Liksutova did not actually sell the stake; she simply reassigned it, as confirmed by her 2012 income, which amounted to 2 million 280 thousand rubles, while the market value of the “sold” stake in TMH was $400 million. “Wealthy families” — that’s exactly the right phrase for officials from the Moscow city government.
As for Liksutov’s offshore company SERMOLENT EQUITIES INC. (a 5.09% stake in TMH), there is currently no proof either of its sale or of continued ownership. Because of the secrecy of the British Virgin Islands and the absence of new leaks, fresh data cannot be obtained. For the same reason, the other BVI offshore companies in the scheme are dead ends, and it is impossible to establish which of them are connected to Liksutov. Here the Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF) is powerless. Let us also note that until March 14, 2012, Maxim Liksutov sat on TMH’s board of directors
and on March 14 his seat was taken by Alexei Krivoruchko
Yes, the very same Krivoruchko to whom Liksutov assigned his commuter rail businesses. According to the list of affiliated persons as of December 31, 2013, he was re-elected on July 16, 2013, and still remains on the board of directors. This means that the shareholder who had delegated Liksutov, and then Krivoruchko, still owns a stake in Transmashholding. To sum up: all of the above data is confirmed by documents from open sources. ACF has them, and you can obtain them too. The documents show that - either Deputy Mayor Liksutov really did give away his multimillion-dollar business to his former subordinate Krivoruchko and to the director of his ex-wife’s restaurant, just as he earlier gave Aeroexpress shares to his ex-wife... - or Deputy Mayor Liksutov is lying to us and continues to control and own these assets, but through front owners and offshore companies. You can draw your own conclusion. The Anti-Corruption Foundation continues to demand the immediate resignation of Moscow Deputy Mayor Liksutov and an investigation into his activities. We demand that Mayor Sobyanin publicly answer our questions and the questions being asked of him by the media. We believe Muscovites have the right to receive detailed explanations from Liksutov, not text messages like “babe, I killed a cop” and “everything’s fine, I guarantee it” (references to widely known Russian meme-style phrases). We are sending the results of our investigation to Sobyanin, Putin, the Prosecutor General, and the anti-corruption commission. Of course, we understand that the conclusions of our investigation, in this offshore part, are based on analytical assumptions. We do not have the final piece of paper from the British Virgin Islands, and we have no way of obtaining it. But we are confident that our assumptions are grounded so seriously that the FSB, the Investigative Committee, the Prosecutor’s Office, and the Interior Ministry should concern themselves with finding that piece of paper. That’s the story. And it all started with a beaver collar. PS If you have any information about Liksutov’s machinations or about any companies involved in the scheme, write to us at fbk@fbk.info