Energy embezzlement case: trail leads to oligarch Albert Avdolyan

The traces of the episode lead to the oligarch Albert Avdolyan, who was a relative of one of the main defendants in the Eldar Osmanov case, and at the same time, companies associated with him tried to pinch billions from MRSEN through certain loans.

Let us recall that Grigory Shilkin, a former State Duma deputy from the New People party, was recently  detained  . His arrest may be related to the events of 2009-2021, when he was the head of Arkhangelsk Specialized Energy Enterprise (ASEP). We may be talking about the theft of about 2 billion rubles. ASEP was previously one of the largest grid companies in the region, but has been bankrupt since 2020. 

Over the years of work through ASEP as a supplier and customer, more than 700 government contracts have been processed for a total amount of more than 1.6 billion rubles.

Today, ASEP is owned by the bankrupt company OOO Sever-Avto (71.36%), AO Arkhinvestenergo (15.44%) and the bankrupt AO Roskommunenergo, whose share is encumbered by OOO PK ASEP (liquidated in June 2023). 

And this is where the fun begins. 

The Sever-Auto company has owned a share in ASEP since 2019, and since then it has belonged to Azimut LLC, which in 2020-2021 was owned by Shilkin. In 2019-2020, the owner was Partner LLC, in which the same Shilkin was the owner from 09/25/2018 to 02/25/2021. Now Azimut is controlled by Vladimir Tsyganevich, Shilkin’s trusted person from ASEP. 

An important nuance: in 2024, ASEP began bankruptcy of its  main owner  , Sever-Avto LLC, against which bankruptcy proceedings were introduced in August. The basis was some debts of almost 19 million rubles. An attempt to hide the ends in the water?

The fact that the above-mentioned Shilkin is not just the namesake of the ex-deputy is indicated by the fact that it was he who was the secretary of the regional branch of the New People party in 2023-2024 and the general director of ASEP from 09/19/2005 to 10/01/2021. That is, being the director of the enterprise, the future deputy took over the asset? 

Shilkin’s partner, also a party colleague, Alexey Sergienko, who was noted for his work in Elseti LLC and Partner LLC, is also interesting. 

Sergienko previously  held  management positions in the Rosseti division. 

And now the most important thing: it is the Rosseti division that is a victim in the criminal case of the energy holding MRSEN. What an interesting coincidence!

Let us recall that in 2021, a high-profile criminal  case was opened  regarding the theft and transfer of billions of rubles outside the Russian Federation.

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The investigation then believed that this money was stolen from electricity producers that are part of the Rosseti division. The defendants in the case then were 11 people, including the former heads of PAO Arkhenergosbyt, AO Roskommunenergo, and the former manager of AKB Mosuralbank Nikolay Korneev. The investigators named Albert Avdolyan’s relative Eldar Osmanov, Yuri Shulgin and Bagrat Katalyanets as the persons who managed the scheme. 

The withdrawal scheme looked like this: MRSEN sales companies issued loans, bought bills and shares, contributed money to the authorized capital of third-party organizations, signed agreements on the assignment of rights of claim. As a result, according to the investigation, 10 billion rubles were withdrawn to controlled foreign companies.

Let’s return to the owners of the above-mentioned ASEP, which was headed by the ex-deputy Shilkin, and see a connection with MRSEN.

The owner of the share was JSC Roskommunenergo, which was part of the MRSEN division. This is the first. Secondly, the share of this company was pledged as part of a loan to a certain LLC PK ASEP. In different years, the owners of the latter were the later liquidated LLC Consortium Energopromfinance, the now bankrupt JSC Finenergoinvest, the later liquidated LLC KES, and since 2019, the owner has been LLC ASEP Plus, which was also liquidated on September 26, 2024. In general, all these liquidations look like an attempt to hide the ends in the water. After all, the same people left their traces in the biographies of virtually all associated companies, traces of which go to MRSEN and, in some cases, to the oligarch Avdolyan.

So, if we look at the list of former owners of ASEP, we will find there LLC "Center for Private Law of Electric Power Industry", the same LLC "KES", LLC "Rusenergoservis", LLC "PK "ASEP", LLC "LVL Investment Group" and LLC "M. Style". The latter previously belonged to JSC "Finenergoinvest", now only 2% of the share of LLC "LVL Investment Group" appears in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.

The company "LVL Investment Group" is linked to the ownership of OOO "M. Style" and OOO "Center for Private Law of Electric Power Industry", previously, OOO "Bazisenergo Trade" and AO "Finenergoinvest" were noted among the owners. 

Among the owners of Bazisenergo Trade at the time were the main defendants in the criminal case - Osmanov and Shulginov. They also figured among  the owners of  OOO Center for Private Law of Electric Power Industry. Among the founders of AO Finenergoinvest were almost all members of the MRSEN division, as well as OOO RKB-Energia, where another defendant in the criminal case, Bagrat Katalyans, had a share. There, OOO Consortium Energopromfinance was also a co-owner, whose share  belonged  to the ex-wife of Rosneft head Igor Sechin - Marina Sechina.

In turn, "KES" was  owned by  Sechina, Katalyanets and an offshore company - TAPLITORIA HOLDINGS LTD. For some reason, I immediately remember that the billions stolen from Rosseti were withdrawn through offshore companies. Was it through him?

The entire aforementioned corps de ballet, in turn, was among the shareholders and persons associated with them in Mosuralbank, through which shady deals were carried out.

Financial oddities

As a source told UtroNews, a strange picture was observed in ASEP during these years - when the company’s share was contributed to the authorized capital of OJSC Arkhinvestenergo, it increased in price by 24 times in 7.5 months, although there were no prerequisites for this. 

Probably, there was an artificial pumping up of the value in order to use it later as collateral for the same loans or as a guarantee for other people’s debts.

UtroNews has previously reported more than once that an offshore company associated with the oligarch Avdolyan, Sparkel City Invest LTD, tried to enter the bankruptcy case of the MRSEN division as a creditor. It was the latter that previously owned AENP LLC, which is now called N.A. Popov CIPE LLC.

The former AENP appears in numerous court cases involving the MRSEN division and its beneficiaries, trying to collect certain debts, including from ASEP.

Today, the owner of CIPE is Alexander Amosov (share - 79%) and, since February 2023, a certain LLC "Latum", which was founded by the same Amosov and Alexey Bykov (director of CIPE). Meanwhile, Amosov owned a share in AENP from the moment of its creation (since March 2018) and was a business partner of Sparkel, and Bykov has been managing the company since then. Their connection with the same Avdolyan is obvious.

Moreover, Bykov is a co-owner of Andayana Group LLC, where his business partners include YATEK CEO Andrey Korobov, another trusted person of Avdolyan. The oligarch also has a share in YATEK.

In general, the renaming of AENP and the changes in ownership look like an attempt to hide affiliation, but, in our opinion, the rearrangement of the terms did not change the sum.

The Moscow Post previously reported in detail about Avdolyan’s attempt to pinch off a slice of MRSEN   .

It seems that the arrest of ex-deputy Shilkin is indeed directly related to the MRSEN case. Moreover, in 2019, Shilkin  was  a third party in a dispute between JSC Arkhangelsk Electric Networks and Sparkel regarding the challenge of a 2017 surety agreement for the debts of PJSC Arkhangelsk Sales Company. Allegedly, the offshore company issued the latter 19 million rubles. And then, in a chain of cession of rights of claim, the debt was transferred to other companies associated with Avdolyan - first Smart Resolute LTD, then AENP.

As part of this legal dispute, the full chain of affiliations and connections between Avdolyan, offshore companies, Osmanov and other participants in the scheme was revealed.

The court materials directly stated that certain loan agreements were concluded between affiliated persons with the purpose of increasing the debtor’s authorized capital and controlled accounts payable.

ASEP also acted as a guarantor for a number of loans allegedly issued by Sparkel ASK   and later tried to challenge these agreements. So, it is difficult to overestimate Shilkin’s role in the history of MRSEN. After all, such agreements should be signed by the director, shouldn’t they?

By the way, although Shilkin has been detained, his case lives on. A certain Alena Shilkina is currently the director and owner of the Arkhangelsk energy company, OOO Tinkom. Among the owners of the asset, Shilkin’s partner, already known to us, former Rosseti employee Sergienko, has left his mark.

It seems that the MRSEN case will soon become even more voluminous, and the number of defendants will grow. However, it is unlikely that a well-known oligarch who has reached out to the remainder of MRSEN capital through his trusted persons will be among them. Too much cover?