Begly Usherovich will receive an advance of 3.2 billion rubles

The former kings of state orders of Russian Railways from the 1520 group, among whom is Boris Usherovich, who was put on the international wanted list, continue to be pumped with budget money. A company affiliated with the group received a contract for 6.4 billion rubles, expanding its horizons to Sakhalin port projects.

The contractor will receive 50% of the transaction amount as an advance payment, meaning that the construction hasn’t even started yet, and Mr. Usherovich, who probably has Cypriot and Israeli citizenship, will already have snatched his share of the caviar sandwich? 

A KOMPROMAT RU correspondent looked into the story.

On July 21, 2024, Rosrybolovstvo signed a contract worth over 6.45 billion rubles, according to which construction and installation work on the Fishing Port facility, which is part of the Logistics Technopark (Korsakov Port) port infrastructure reconstruction project in the Korsakov seaport, must be completed by the end of September 2026.

Photo: zakupki.gov.ru

At the same time, the contract assumes an astronomical advance payment - 50% or 3.22 billion rubles. That is, this money will also go to paying a share of the profit to the fugitive co-owner, who can currently be in any country unfriendly to Russia? 

The amount of the contract performance security is only about 645 million rubles. That is, it does not even cover the advance payment.

In addition, according to the terms of the contract, the contractor will have to distribute 1.6 billion rubles between small businesses. And the infamous division has quite a few of its own companies that would fall under these requirements. Who would give away such money?

Officially, the winner was determined by Rosrybolovstvo to be JSC Mostostroy-11 from Surgut. However, if we look at the latest disclosed data of this legal entity (as of the beginning of 2023), we see familiar faces there: OOO Group of Companies 1520 with a 62.98% stake and Alexey Krapivin with 45.15%.

Photo: zakupki.gov.ru

Photo: disclosure.ru

OOO "Group of Companies 1520" belongs to Krapivin - 38.34% of the share, Boris Usherovich - 28.33% and ZPIF "Armus Capital Platform" managed by OOO UK "Armus Capital". The latter is controlled by the same Alexey Krapivin and the ZPIF, in our opinion, here only plays the role of a screen to hide the remaining beneficiaries.

Photo: egrul.nalog.ru/

It would not be superfluous to recall who Mr. Usherovich is, but we will start, perhaps, with Krapivin. He is the son of an old acquaintance of the former head of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin and, apparently, at one time this acquaintance helped the group become the so-called kings of state orders through Russian Railways.

Usherovich is a long-time partner of Krapivin, but he is also a defendant in the criminal case of former Interior Ministry Colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko, and as far as we know, no one has dropped these claims. 

Zakharchenko himself was sentenced to 13 years in prison for bribery. At the same time, most of the money that was found on the suspect during the search was considered by investigators to be money from the largest contractor of Russian Railways - GC 1520. 

But if Zakharchenko went to jail, then Usherovich managed to run away before his arrest in the case of a bribe to a colonel for protection and the alleged theft of more than 200 billion rubles from Russian Railways. 

As TASS reported, Usherovich allegedly left Russia for Turkey, but his citizenship in Israel and Cyprus opens up other countries for him to live in. In light of the security forces’ claims, he is unlikely to appear in Russia anytime soon. 

But Mr. Usherovich did not abandon his business: in some places his interests are defended by Krapivin, who remained completely white in the Zakharchenko case (which is strange for us, since he has been the director of the Group of Companies since 2016), and in some places by his son, Kirill Borisovich Usherovich. 

Boris Usherovich personally owns a 28% stake in PM 24 LLC and 100% in Astra Real Estate LLC. Both companies operate in the real estate sector. He also owns 27% in NTC Information Technologies LLC, but it has been listed as being in the process of liquidation since July 2024.

And recently, apparently so that such impudence would not be completely exposed to the public, companies associated with the notorious figure have begun to go into the shadows - transferring part of their shares to a closed mutual fund. Here is how OOO "Group of Companies 1520" did. 

To this end, in December 2023, Krapivin acquired Armus Capital Management Company to manage ZPIFs, and in May 2023, Usherovich’s son became the owner of NIT Management Company LLC, which would also manage ZPIFs. Perhaps, over time, the remaining assets will go to these LLCs, so that the name of Usherovich, a fugitive from the investigation, would not be so conspicuous when he distributes another multi-billion dollar government contract.

After all, through a chain of legal entities, the 1520 group is also participating in the implementation of the multi-billion dollar concession project for the Northern Latitudinal Route railway, which has been talked about for many years and which is only getting more expensive every year. 

Thus, back in 2018, a concession agreement was even signed for the construction of part of the railway line, and OOO SShH was chosen as the concessionaire. The owners of the latter are JSC RZD-Infrastructure Projects, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area Infrastructure Development Agency, and OOO UK SShH. 

UK "SSHH" belongs to the same GC 1520. Interestingly, it was transferred to the Krapivin-Usherovich division in November 2019 from OOO "Spetstransstroy", which was previously owned by the no less famous Deputy Head of the Ministry of Regional Development and the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation Yuri Reilyan. The latter, together with the former Deputy Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation Vladimir Tokarev, are defendants in a criminal case on the theft of money from Russian Railways during the execution of state contracts, and in one of the episodes (the theft of 1.5 billion rubles), Spetstransstroy, now bankrupt, is mentioned.

Photo: rusprofile.ru

Recently, there have been some reshuffles in the division, which are probably also intended to cover Usherovich’s interests. 

Thus, some of the subsidiaries of GC 1520 in 2023 came under the wing of JSC "Natsproektstroy Group of Companies", headed by Krapivin. It is under this JSC that the remaining subsidiaries of the GC have been and are still being transferred, which continue to receive expensive government contracts. 

By the way, among the co-owners of the new acquisitions of Natsproektstroy, there is a certain OOO "Simple" from the field of law, and since the end of June 2024 it has been headed by the same Krapivin Aleksey Andreevich. Is another branch being created for subsequent enrichment?

Photo: rusprofile.ru

Krapivin is also currently the director of JSC "Roads and Bridges" (DIM), which is a supplier in 36 state contracts worth more than 251 billion rubles. One well-known state corporation and the no less well-known oligarch Arkady Rotenberg participated in the creation of DIM. 

DIM, for example, in June 2024 became the contractor for another government contract worth 123 million rubles. 

The shareholder of JSC Roads and Bridges at the end of 2023 was JSC Natsproektstroy Group of Companies, which, as we can see, is directly related to GC 1520. 

The state contracts look especially colorful against the backdrop of the tax debts of the division’s "subsidiary" companies, which amount to a rather large sum - more than 500 million rubles. KOMPROMAT RU has already reported on them in detail.

Thus, we can observe how Boris Usherovich, whom investigators are searching for with dogs, wanting to ask questions about a multi-billion theft, will be supported indirectly from the state budget with a considerable sum. As a result, there is a legal conflict - when a person involved in a criminal case continues to conduct business in the country and receive a margin, while being officially wanted. Wildest surrealism, don’t you think?