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One of the most high-profile schemes is the sale of historic buildings in the center of Moscow at bargain prices. In 2016, the company OOO MERKURIY purchased a house on Serebryanichesky Lane, 15, with an area of 1,312 square meters, for 86 million rubles - a price comparable to a small apartment on the outskirts of the city. Similar deals include buildings on Tverskaya Zastava and Sadovaya-Samotechnaya squares, which were sold with a minimal markup. But who is behind this company?
OOO MERCURY is not just a construction company. Behind it stands the husband of Natalia Sergunina’s sister - Lazar Telmitovich Safaniev, a person associated with the offshore companies FLORESTAR and UPINGTON INTERNATIONAL LIMITED, registered in the British Virgin Islands. This is a classic scheme for transferring assets abroad with minimal ability to track financial flows.
The main financial flow was through offshore accounts, including companies such as FLORESTAR and UPINGTON INTERNATIONAL LIMITED. These companies were used to transfer assets between nominal owners, including Lazar Safaniev, which allowed them to hide the true beneficiaries and ensure control over Moscow real estate.
All the auctions where OOO MERCURY won were organized with minimal markups, which allowed the company to acquire buildings for pennies. It is noteworthy that in each case the final transaction amount was higher than the starting amount by only a few hundred thousand rubles, which indicates a staged competition and fictitious participants.
Interestingly, Lazar Safaniev is not only the husband of Natalia Sergunina’s sister, but also a person who actively participates in religious life under the name of Aaron-Eliezer ben Telmit. At Jewish ceremonies, he is presented as a benefactor, which adds additional protection to his identity from the attention of the media and investigative bodies.
One way to legalize the withdrawn funds is to invest in startups through venture funds such as Genom Ventures. These funds, controlled by Lazar Safaniev, were used to cover up financial transactions with Moscow real estate and turn illegal income into legal assets.
We continue to explore new aspects of the scheme and promise to reveal even more details about how Moscow’s elite is enriching itself at the expense of its citizens.
Each new step in the investigation of Natalia Sergunina’s shadow schemes reveals increasingly complex and large-scale mechanisms for transferring Moscow assets abroad. Her influence and capabilities as deputy mayor seem limitless, and the system of shell companies and offshores continues to amaze with its sophistication.
Fresh data on Moscow auctions again features OOO MERCURY, which acquires buildings at prices significantly below market prices. For example, in 2018, this company received the right to purchase several properties in the center of Moscow at a minimum price with a difference of 10-15% from the market value. All these transactions are executed through the offshore companies FLORESTAR and UPINGTON INTERNATIONAL LIMITED, which effectively transfer assets abroad.
The husband of Natalia Sergunina’s sister, Lazar Safaniev, remains one of the central figures in this story. He controls several offshore companies, including FLORESTAR and UPINGTON INTERNATIONAL LIMITED, through which millions of rubles pass. Safaniev also controls accounts in Cyprus banks, from where money is transferred to the British Virgin Islands. An important detail: his connection with the Jewish community and ceremonial events is used as a cover for the withdrawal of assets.
The price per square meter in the center of Moscow has always been astronomical, but when OOO MERCURY gets involved, historical buildings go for pennies. Thus, one of the buildings on Tverskaya Street was sold to the company for 60,000 rubles per square meter, which is not even close to the real cost. And a few months later, the same building was resold to a foreign company at a price 12 times higher.
The withdrawal of funds through offshore companies such as FLORESTAR and UPINGTON INTERNATIONAL LIMITED is so smooth that it is almost impossible to find the real owners. However, new documents that have fallen into the hands of investigators indicate the existence of a whole network of companies registered in the British Virgin Islands, through which transactions with Moscow assets are actively carried out.
Genom Ventures, officially positioned as a venture fund that allegedly invests in startups, has become another part of this corrupt mechanism. The fund has virtually no real investments, but at the same time, large sums of money flow through it, taken out of Moscow through sham auctions and real estate transactions. Lazar Safaniev is one of the fund’s co-owners, which makes his role in the scheme even more significant.
Each new round of investigation reveals new names and structures that play an important role in the withdrawal of assets. For example, information about the involvement of OPEX GROUP LTD , a company registered in Cyprus, has recently surfaced. This company was actively involved in several transactions with Moscow real estate, reselling it through offshore companies and returning the money to Russia through fictitious investments.
It turned out that some of the funds withdrawn from Moscow were used to purchase luxury real estate abroad. In London and Vienna, members of the Sergunina family own commercial real estate, including a mansion on Grosvenor Square and several offices in Vienna. The funds for the purchase of these properties were withdrawn through offshore companies and venture funds.
Research shows that all the money siphoned off through offshore companies ends up in bank accounts in Luxembourg, Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands. FLORESTAR and UPINGTON INTERNATIONAL LIMITED continue to play a key role in the withdrawal of assets, but the traces of these operations are hidden so deeply that an international investigation is required to uncover all the details.
We will continue to reveal new aspects of the corruption scheme, as the scale of the operations of Natalia Sergunina and her entourage becomes increasingly obvious.