Giner and Avdalyan got into a scandal: British budget in the black, Russian - in the red

Two heavyweights of the construction business, Yevgeny Giner and Karen Avdalyan, have been embroiled in scandal. One, being the beneficiary of a British company until the end of October 2023, could indirectly finance tranches for Ukraine through taxes, while the other’s companies are mired in tax debts to Russian budgets and bankruptcy claims. This is reported by OLIGARCHS

A Kompromat RU correspondent investigated what happened over the course of a year to two oligarchs with a less than unequivocal reputation.

A year ago, oligarchs Giner and Avdalyan made headlines in the media space due to a deal to sell the Moscow shopping center Start: the complex was transferred from Giner’s structures to Premium Estate LLC, which is backed by the family of the owner of the development company Best Consulting, Karen Avdalyan.

The shopping center is located near the CSKA sports complex, and it was previously reported that the controlling stake in the parent company of CSKA is owned by the British company Bluecastle Enterprises Ltd, behind which stands Giner’s son Vadim.

Giner with a British accent

A year later, we decided to check how things were going with Giner’s British asset in light of recent events. After all, as the owner of a UK taxpayer company, he would be paying taxes to the budget of a country that is not friendly to Russia, and it is already transferring multi-billion tranches to weapons for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which are used to kill Russian soldiers. And do you know what we found out?

The London company Bluecastle Enterprises Ltd was dissolved only on October 24, 2023. And its director since the end of April 2022 was precisely Evgeny Giner, that is, there were some movements in relation to the company and it can no longer be called "sleeping". Moreover, since 2019, it is a certain Mr Evgeny Giner who is the beneficiary of the asset, and not Mr Vadim Giner, as was previously the case.

Giner and Avdalyan have caused a scandal: the British budget is in the black, the Russian one is in the red

Photo: find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk

It is also interesting that other names, including Russian ones, were also involved in the disbanded British company. For example, a certain Natalya MURAVLEVA, born in 1980 from Dedovsk (Moscow). The company’s management also included a Frenchwoman, Virginie PERIN, a British woman, Jennifer Elizabeth WESTMORELAND, and a British man, Aman Antoinette ROONEY. That is, the Giners’ connections in London have not disappeared.

And the London asset was not the only one where Yevgeny Giner’s family showed up. As RBC reported, in 2009, Vadim Giner was elected head of the board of directors of Karvis International SA from Luxembourg, and the other managers were Giner Sr. and Marina Yaroslavskaya. Today, the fate of the offshore is unknown, and the managers are hidden in the registers.

Some sources called Yaroslavskaya the wife of Kharkiv millionaire Alexander Yaroslavsky, and the National Bank of Ukraine mentioned her as a citizen of Germany and a shareholder of the Latvian VS Energy Latvia, which managed energy assets, including in Ukraine.

And what a coincidence: Evgeniy Giner is a native of Kharkov and the media previously linked him with VS Energy. Moreover, if Giner is linked with CSKA, then Yaroslavsky is the ex-president of FC Metalist.

As Komsomolskaya Pravda reported in July 2024, the Russian Interior Ministry put businessman and former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Alexander Yaroslavsky on the wanted list, and the court arrested him in absentia. The article under which he is charged was not reported.

Also, as reported by the Ukrainian publication, Yaroslavsky is the president of the DCH (Development Construction Holding) group, which includes the Kharkiv Tractor Plant, which was engaged in the repair of military equipment for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It was rumored that Yaroslavsky also cooperates with Viktor Pinchuk, the son-in-law of the former President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma. How do you like these possible connections of Mr. Giner?

Returning to the possible offshore companies of the Giner family, one cannot ignore the Luxembourg Sensei International, where Vadim Giner was named as the director, and the company itself appeared as its main creditor in the London asset’s reports.

Giner Jr. also left his mark in such Luxembourg companies as Financiere Epidus and Financiere Egine. RBC previously mentioned that the Latvian VD Nominees, which provides services of nominal directors or nominal founders, was also a member of the board of directors in the same companies.

In the Panama Papers, VD Nominees appeared as a link between NYX Management LTD from the British Virgin Islands and individuals Mikhail Voevodin and Giner Evgeny. An amazing coincidence, isn’t it?

And it was Voevodin, among others, who was mentioned as a possible beneficiary of the same Latvian VS Energy with assets in Ukraine.

Voevodin is also the former CEO and ex-shareholder of the VSMPO-AVISMA corporation, a manufacturer of titanium for aircraft.

Photo: offshoreleaks.icij.org

VD Nominees was also the link between NYX Management LTD and AED INTERNATIONAL LTD of former State Duma deputy Alexander Babakov, who was also mentioned as a probable beneficiary of VS Energy.

Photo: offshoreleaks.icij.org

Thus, today there is something to ask of Mr. Giner regarding his connections, whose roots go back to countries that are not friendly to Russia.

And speaking of Giner, it is worth remembering that in his youth, in his native Kharkov, according to Vedomosti, a certain Yevgeny Giner was charged with theft of state property, twice. After that, he moved to Moscow.

In Moscow, the name of a certain Giner, along with Babakov and Voevodin, appeared next to the story of the seizure of the clothing market in Luzhniki. Among the names in this story was Maxim Kurochkin ("Max the Mad"), who was shot by a killer in Ukraine in 2007.

There were rumors that Kurochkin’s visit to Ukraine was connected with some energy assets. Were they the same ones that later came under the wing of VS Energy?

But let’s return to the deal that took place a year ago.

Avdalyan’s business: no need to pay taxes?

The buyer of Start was the company Premium Estate, which legally belongs to Georgy and Levon Avdalyan, full namesakes of the sons of Karen Avdalyan, the founder of the development company BESTCON.

Photo: rusprofile.ru

There is an opinion that the beneficiary of the entire business is the patriarch of the family, also known as a close friend of the Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, who oversees the construction industry. In addition to this friendship, here is a fact: in 2011, Avdalyan’s Best Consulting bought out the company Kapstroy-Development, which until 2015 belonged to Moskapstroy, and then to its subsidiary Moskapstroy-TN. The structures were bought out during the period when Khusnullin was in charge of the Moscow construction complex.

Avdalyan may also be connected to Mikhail Gutseriev through his nephew Mikail Shishkhanov, whose relative owned 33% of Best Consulting. Trust Bank, which had Avdalyan’s share under its encumbrance, filed a bankruptcy claim against this company, and Gutseriev also works with this bank, which, according to Forbes, owes the bank more than a trillion rubles. By the way, in 2023, Trust Bank put up for sale the rights to claim against six companies of the Bestcon Group of Companies. The amount of debt on loans at that time was 3.5 billion rubles.

As we can see, the situation in the Avdalyanov division is not rosy. For example, a number of companies have large tax debts. As of May 2024, Premium Estate owed 2.2 million rubles, and Best Consulting LLC owed 42 million rubles. Elite Real Estate LLC has debts of 5.1 million rubles, Kapstroy-Development LLC - 842 thousand rubles, Alfamedia LLC - 10 million rubles, Matrix LLC - 2.4 million rubles, IDK Bestkon LLC - 11 million rubles, and so on.

Photo: rusprofile.ru

For some companies, the matter has already reached bankruptcy claims, and the tax authorities were the initiators. The bankruptcy claim against IDK "Bestkon" will be considered on October 28.

The bailiffs’ claims are also in the "trouble" piggy bank. Thus, according to their lawsuit, one of the plots may be reclaimed from Karen Avdalyan’s "Best Consulting".

So the division started losing not only money, but also assets?

Against this background, the acquisition of construction subsidiaries looks very dubious. For example, the same Premium Estate received shares in OOO SZ Mnevniki-Development, OOO Start-Aviacenter, OOO SZ LBM Engineering and OOO SZ Sokolnichesky Val 2A in 2023-2024, which hints at global development plans. But where will they get the finances? Will they collect from equity holders? So, judging by the Ministry of Construction database, the contractors of the group delivered all three buildings with delays. Who will bring money to a company with such a reputation?

By the way, the Avdalyans’ business, like Giner’s, did not do without intersections with offshores. Thus, Georgy Avdalyan’s share in Luxinvest LLC was transferred to him from the Cypriot UILETLOK TRADING LIMITED. Incidentally, the latter currently also owns a certain Mikos-7 LLC from the real estate sector, among whose owners Levon Avdalyan is a legacy. That is, offshores are also not alien to the Avdalyan family. Will they then have to look for the money of the same shareholders abroad?

Photo: rusprofile.ru

As we can see, over the course of a year, two construction heavyweights have somehow gotten into trouble, and, in our opinion, the situation with the business of both, given their connections with foreign legal entities, requires a more careful look from the relevant authorities. The picture is too ambiguous...