Now we know who is the richest of the wives of Russian officials

In 2014, the wife of the mayor of Nizhny Novgorod, Elada Nagornaya, presented the city with a five-meter sculpture of a steel deer. Citizens were skeptical about the gift animal, accusing the lady of pettiness, since it was officially known that in 2013 alone Nagornaya earned 1.7 billion rubles, having won the title of "the richest wife of a Russian official"

In 2014, the wife of the mayor of Nizhny Novgorod, Elada Nagornaya, presented the city with a five-meter sculpture of a steel deer. Citizens were skeptical about the donated animal, accusing the lady of pettiness, since it was officially known that in 2013 alone Nagornaya earned 1.7 billion rubles, having won the title of "the richest wife of a Russian official."

Of course, compared to some spouses of other mayors of the past, Elada Lvovna nervously smokes on the sidelines. She herself understands this, and therefore she shows incredible modesty: the townspeople learned about the wealth of their mayor’s family from the blog of State Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov, who published the “income statement” submitted by the spouses to the local parliament.

The townspeople did not like such restraint. At the beginning of this year, they began collecting signatures for the resignation of Mayor Oleg Sorokin. Now under the petition addressed to Vladimir Putin, more than 2.7 thousand signatures. Residents of the city suspect the mayor that construction companies affiliated with him are destroying the city center with almost 800 years of history. And somehow it turns out that not only monuments are collapsing, but also the fates of those who are trying to resist them.

The figure of Sorokin appeared on the political field in the early 2000s, when Nizhny became the center of the Volga Federal District. “In order to transfer the city to the capital level, the authorities were interested in very serious participation, as they said in the embassy, ​​“businesses,” recalls political scientist Viktor Lysov. “On this wave, Stolitsa Nizhny has become one of the partners in various capital city projects, and developer Oleg Sorokin has become a potentially significant player in the political and economic market of the city.”

New times of the "old Nizhny"

"Old Nizhny" - the historical center with streets running away from the Kremlin, built up with merchant estates - has become a front line in the war between the townspeople and developers. And most of the construction companies that act on the townspeople, like a red rag on a bull, are controlled by the mayor, or rather, his wife: Nagornoy five years ago all her husband's assets went into trust.

Their number is disputed. For a year now, the list “110 firms of Oleg Sorokin” has been roaming the Web, posted by anonymous users, which, of course, should be treated with skepticism, but it does not interfere with checking. Nagornaya, according to this unconfirmed information, owns a third, the rest is supposedly the assets of business partners of the mayor and his wife. At least 300 names are mentioned: relatives, local parliamentarians and officials, but bosom partners - businessmen Maxim and Pavel Akatov - are immediately visible. Each is listed as a "co-founder" of these assets at least a dozen times. Another partner, Oleg Golovko (became the general director of Stolitsa Nizhny LLC after Sorokin) is a co-owner of at least a dozen companies.

An idea of ​​\u200b\u200bwhat kind of “benefits” a possible business brawler has is given by the income statement of the Sorokin family, which Dmitry Gudkov published on the Web at the end of last year.

Secret Declaration

At the end of 2013, Oleg Sorokin's income amounted to "only" 168 million rubles. But Elada Nagornaya brought 1 billion 734 million 441 thousand rubles to the family. 1.5 billion of this impressive amount is income from entrepreneurial activities. Judging by the declaration, Nagornaya is a co-founder of 21 companies. These data confirm the SPARK data.

Nagornaya owns a residential building, three apartments, seven garages, 15 land plots, 43 non-residential premises (shops, shopping malls). In the “transport” section there are 5 “cars” ( on the roads of the Lower Mayor’s spouse, he probably travels in a Porsche Cayenne S and BMW 750Li, and in its vicinity - on a snowmobile and a swamp). But the most worthy vehicles - the 2012 Bentley Continental GT and Smart Fortwo - are not registered with the traffic police of the Nizhny Novgorod region, but in the city of Cannes, in France. The same "port of registry" and two of the seven "auto" Sorokin - Porsche Cayenne 2006 and Mercedes - Benz E 250 CGI.

The Sorokins have two villas in Nice - 262 and 400 sq. meters, about which it is modestly said that they are only in use by the mayor. As did his wife. One could agree with this one hundred percent if, according to extracts from the real estate register of France (available to the editors), the 23-year-old son of the Sorokins, Nikita, did not act as the owner of the villas.

Confirmation of our conjectures is also in open sources. Here, for example, is information about the “ruler” of VILLA LA CROIX DES GARDES (Сannes, Boulevard _Des _Pins , 1) and HEUREUX EPIDAURE (Сannes, Boulevard Bel Horizon, 266).

^{Click to enlarge}

Translation: The company was founded on January 20, 2012, is listed in the real estate register under the number SIREN 539 357 871. The company specializes in the lease of land and other real estate. The CEO of HEUREUX EPIDAURE is Elada Nagornaya, born in 1973.

Registering real estate for a son is a completely logical scheme, given that the law does not oblige officials to declare the income and property of adult children. However, the Sorokin family does not hide in France. The name of the Nizhny Novgorod mayor is on the gate of Villa la Croix des Gardes.

^{House of the Sorokins. Pictures provided by employees of the Anti-Corruption Foundation}

“We, ordinary residents of Nizhny Novgorod, can probably be proud that we have the richest wife of an official, such a “golden woman,” says Alexei Yakimov, a member of the council of the NRO of the Just Russia party. - But it doesn't work. The declarations confirm that the welfare of the Sorokin family is growing at the same time as the budget is impoverishing.

Declaration of non-accountability

Since 2010, the mayor of Nizhny Novgorod has been elected from among the deputies of the City Duma - he is "candidate No. 1" from United Russia. According to federal law, parliamentarians are not required to report their income at all, but Sorokin's regional norm still obliges to do so. As for the spouse of the first person, her declaration can be presented to the public only with her consent. Elada Nagornaya did not give such consent.

Last year Nizhny Novgorod prosecutor Vladimir Nikonov spoke out against such a "freedom" - through his efforts a bill on the promulgation of declarations was submitted to the City Duma. The confrontation ended with the fact that the Duma's legal department concluded: Nikonov's initiative does not comply with federal legislation. The prosecutor's office lost the courts, and soon the fighter for "openness" lost his post.

Lifetime checks

Attempts to get an answer about material well-being from Oleg Sorokin himself ended in nothing three times. In 2004, his work as financial director of the Nizhny Novgorod Road Fund was checked by the Ministry of Finance. This story, perhaps, should have been forgotten if it had not surfaced in 2015 (but more on that later). In 2013, transactions with the city of companies that were suspected of being affiliated with the mayor's family were checked by the prosecutor's office of the Nizhny Novgorod region.

On November 14, a representative of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Vladimir Markin announced the next inspection. In the department of the Investigative Committee for the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Colonel of Justice Yulia Sklyarova confirmed this information to Novaya Gazeta, noting that "no deadlines for verification have been set." The reason was two land deals, “concluded in 2011-2012 by the city administration with the Regioninvest52 and Ingradstroy companies affiliated with close relatives of Sorokin,” said General Markin. For several months, investigators have been studying "the circumstances of the actual participation of the head of the city in the management of commercial organizations." In August 2012, the prosecutor of the Nizhny Novgorod region asked to check under what circumstances these companies received the plots.

In March 2013, they even opened a case under article 165 part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Causing damage by deceit or breach of trust.” At the same time, the companies Stolitsa Nizhniy and Start-Stroy, owned by members of the mayor's family, were searched. It all ended in “puff”: first, the prosecutor Kozhevnikov was dismissed from his post and transferred to Lipetsk, and in February 2014 the case was closed due to the lack of corpus delicti.

People in Nizhny are used to checks on the mayor. “Yes, at first the people were excited - especially when Markin made a statement. But I have a feeling that in the investigating authorities there are daddies for everyone and everything in this country,” suggests political scientist Valentina Buzmakova. “From time to time they are taken out, and when the situation changes, they are put back.”

Without competitors

In addition to prosecutors, businessmen also got burned on the Sorokin family. Several sad stories taught them not to “get on the rampage”.

In 2010, Zhilstroy-NN won the tender for the development of the site, promising the city 14% of the apartments built. The company Nagornoy "Start-Stroy" applies to the local OFAS. Anti-monopolists find violations during the competition - Zhilstroy-NN flies out of the project. The site goes to "Start-Story", which is building four multi-storey buildings. For some reason, the city did not receive apartments: at least in the public space, nothing is known about the opposite.

Two years later, Ingradstroy (the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation calls this company close to the mayor's family. - Ed. ) On a leasehold basis, it receives 453 hectares for development in the Sovietsky district of the city. The results of the competition in the OFAS were challenged by two Moscow companies - ZhBK-Stroy LLC and Vektron CJSC. Entrepreneur Mansur Sadekov comes to the last company with an offer of a bribe of 30 million for the withdrawal of the appeal. They take him red-handed - Sadekov publicly declares: for a crime under Art. 204 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (commercial bribery) went at the behest of Sorokin. As a result, the mayor was interrogated as a witness, and Sadekov was sent to Matrosskaya Tishina, being released only in October 2014 after paying a fine of 307.2 million rubles. The ill-fated site remained with the Ingradstroy company, whose owners reached the Supreme Arbitration Court, which overturned the decision of the OFAS.

The last example is the story of Alexander Bekusov, General Director of MFK-Invest LLC, who entered the construction market with the intention of investing more than 2.5 billion in the economy of the Nizhny Novgorod region, and as a result lost 700 million and spent six months in a pre-trial detention center.

According to Bekusov, the problems began when MFK-Invest began building housing "at a price half that of competitors." In 2011, the entrepreneur was “hung up” with the debts of the company, in which at that time he had not worked for two years. Under this pretext, searches were carried out at MFK-Invest LLC: all accounts were arrested, and cash was seized. Construction is up.

For six months in the pre-trial detention center, 125 cases were opened against Bekusov on the statements of equity holders and contractors, who, according to the entrepreneur, "were called to the police to file statements." Saved by the economic amnesty announced in July 2013. Her condition is compensation for losses to the victims: Bekusov paid 140 million. Criminal cases were terminated, and, having been released, the entrepreneur distributed debts.

“In Nizhny there is a monopoly of large developers, so the emergence of new companies is not preferable,” Bekusov concludes.

Without the "old bottom"

Unlike business, city defenders do not give up so easily. But they have to confront both the authorities and developers. “Since 2010, the destruction of the historical center has gone exponentially,” notes Alexei Yakimov, a member of the council of the NRO of the Just Russia party. “In 2013, city defenders lay down under a bulldozer almost every day, first on one street, then on the other.” A vivid example of such resistance is the struggle for a quarter bounded by Gorky, Novaya and Ilyinskaya streets.

In 2006, the investment council of the city decided to build residential buildings on the territory of a triangle built up with old merchant estates. The place is unique - in the house number 74 on the street. Gorky, for example, Alexey Peshkov lived in 1879. Initially, the whole block fell under protection, but gradually the protection zone "shrank" to one house.

The project was implemented within the framework of the national program "Affordable and comfortable housing for the citizens of Russia". the cleared area under the hammer to The scheme turned out to be anecdotal: first, the government of the Nizhny Novgorod region spent 370 million budget dollars on the resettlement of residential buildings and the demolition of dilapidated housing, and then officials sold Regioninvest52 LLC for only 84.3 million rubles.

In 2012, the “national program” aroused the sincere interest of the prosecutor’s office: “supervisors” not only pointed out that such a “price” “does not correlate” with the 370 million budget costs, but also directly stated: the cost of a site located in the most historical center, they calculated, "based on the average market value of economy class new buildings at the zero stage of construction." True, this check also bypassed the participants in the scheme - no cases were brought against officials.

Now in the "triangle" there is a cleansing of historical buildings. In January, a bulldozer destroyed the L.A. House. Davydova-Pecherkina.

Belvedere vs Bulldozer

A small house with a carved gazebo at 46a Novaya Street is desperately not a symbol of struggle. The estate of the merchants Burmistrovs, built in 1890, is notable for its hexagonal turret behind a carved pediment and its extraordinary fate. He owes it to his last owner, pensioner Lidia Aleksandrovna Davydova-Pecherkina, who in the 1970s exchanged a well-appointed “odnushka” apartment for two rooms in the same estate with an attic.

Having become the owner of the whole house in the 1990s, Lidia Alexandrovna turned the dilapidated housing into a city landmark. In 2000, the house was given the status of a newly identified object of cultural heritage, which, however, was taken away four years later. The house survived its defender for a year and a half: Lidia Alexandrovna died on August 11, 2013, the estate with a carved belvedere - on January 12, 2015. After the pensioner's death, her distant relatives sold the building to Regioninvest52 LLC, and the developer demolished it.

Moreover, on the very day when the activists of the organization "Green World" handed over to officials from the State Protection Department an application for entering the house into the "protective register". The officials did exactly the same with the house at 126 Ilyinskaya Street. On March 21, the results of the examination were sent to the department, the next day it was demolished by the same "Regioninvest52".

One address, one name, one offshore

The Investigative Committee calls Regioninvest52 LLC a company affiliated with the mayor. The first person of the city denies these connections, although there are good reasons for such a conclusion.

Legal address "Regioninvest52" - st. Maksim Gorkogo, 117. According to SPARK, at least three companies of Elada Nagornaya are registered at this address: Indor-NN LLC (60% share), Stroyindustriya LLC (60% share), Stroyinvest-52 LLC (share 60%).

There are connections at the personal level as well. According to SPARK, the post of director of Regioninvest52 LLC is occupied by Ilya Alexandrovich Balmusov. And here is an interesting coincidence: in 2008, it was he who was the director of Horeka-NN LLC, at a time when Oleg Sorokin, Elada Nagornaya, Oleg Golovko and Pavel Akatov were listed as its co-owners (remember these names?). By the way, Nagornaya herself was Balmusov's predecessor as the manager of Horeka-NN LLC - she was the director of the office in 2006.

It is also interesting that Horeka-NN LLC, which connects the director of Regioninvest52 LLC, the mayor, his wife and their main business partners, is registered at the address characteristic of companies from the “110 list”: st. Belinsky, 61. Together with Horeka-NN, six active Nagornaya companies are “registered” here: Plaza-Holding LLC (100%), STN-REKLAMA LLC, Bereg LLC (50%), “ Investproekt (60%), Sorenta LLC (75%) and Sistema LLC (75%).

Another rather noticeable connection can be found in the decision to initiate a criminal case, dated March 26, 2013 (available to the editors). The document states: “The funds deposited as a deposit were received by Regioninvest52 LLC on December 7, 2011 from Start-Stroy LLC, with which a loan agreement for 84.5 million rubles was concluded under the personal guarantee of one of the Start-Stroy founders. Build "- Golovko O.V."

The circulation of connections ends if you find out who owns Regioninvest52 LLC. According to SPARK, the owner of the company is the Cypriot offshore WAMIL INVESTMENTS LIMITED. Traces of WAMIL lead to those distant times when the future mayor of Nizhny was responsible for the finances of the regional Dorfond. Through those who now manage WAMIL (and, accordingly, Regioninvest52 LLC), budgetary millions went abroad.

The Control and Audit Department of the Ministry of Finance came to this conclusion in 2004 - following the results of an audit of the Far Eastern Federal District, a criminal case was opened against the future mayor "on the fact of embezzlement of budget funds in the amount of more than 500 million rubles and subsequent legalization." The Far Eastern Federal District processed the purchases of fuel and materials through dozens of “one-day firms”, as a result, the “total turnover of dubious financial transactions” exceeded 5 billion rubles. Money was “laundered” through Cypriot offshore companies that are directly related to the Cypriot owners of Regioninvest52 LLC.

In the real estate register of Cyprus it is indicated : the director of WAMIL INVESTMENTS LIMITED is a certain NFYNB MRLBYVBU, translated from Greek into Russian - Dina Blaivas. A similar name appears in a letter addressed to the Deputy Plenipotentiary of the Volga Federal District Alexei Sukhov in August 2012 by the Nizhny Novgorod prosecutor Kozhevnikov (available to the editors):

“In the Federal Tax Service of Russia, documents for registration were submitted by the director of WAMIL INVESTMENTS LIMITED Blavais D.A. (it can be assumed that the surname is obviously indicated incorrectly. - Ed . ), the location of which was not established during the consideration of the appeal.

The whereabouts of a native of Nizhny Novgorod, born in 1959, “Novaya” was helped to determine account the Facebook of the director of WAMIL. This is Cyprus, its capital Nicosia. According to the official biography, the doctor of medicine, director of the Center for Speleotherapy in Nicosia, graduated from the Gorky Medical Institute and worked in Nizhny Novgorod as a cardiologist. In 1992 she moved to Cyprus.

Dina and her husband Mikhail Blaivas are managers of a number of offshore companies that appear in the materials of the criminal case on embezzlement from the Road Fund.

In 2013, the Nizhny Novgorod publication Pravda PFO points out , citing a source in law enforcement agencies: in 2003, during searches, documents were found proving that Dina Blaivas "registered a number of companies for Sorokin and Golovko through her office in Nicosia."

WAMIL INVESTMENTS LIMITED shares its legal address with several other companies. Neighbors are SOMONA ENTERPRISES LIMITED and CRISANTO HOLDING LIMITED. The secretary of all three firms is ΜΑΡΙΝΑ ΦΩΤΙΟΥ. And among the “friends” on Facebook, Dina Blaivas has a certain Marina Fotiou . A Muscovite lives in Cyprus and since April 2010 has been working as an administrator in the law office of Elena Constantinou & Co. The office of the firm, which has been dealing with "registration and servicing of international companies" since 1994, is located at the same address as WAMIL, SOMONA and CRISANTO.

In the 2002 criminal case, there were about a dozen offshore companies through which funds from the Far Eastern Federal District flowed. Among them are Cypriot residents CHIBO WORLDWIDE LIMITED, RISKRUT ENTERPRISES LIMITED and LECON NOMINEES LIMITED. The director of the first is Nina Blaivas, the secretary is Elena Konstantinova. In the second and third, Konstantinova is again listed as secretary. Closes the circle offshore ALOA - VERA LIMITED, whose directors are Nina and Mikhail Blaivas.

Strategic loans, general managers, one address and offshore acquaintances - there is reason to think, you must agree. However, the Sorokin family still claims: there is no connection here.

But "Greece has everything." Or in Cannes.

PS Elada Nagornaya did not respond to Novaya Gazeta's request, but the press service of Nizhny Novgorod Mayor Oleg Sorokin said: "The head of the city has repeatedly stated that he does not comment on the activities of law enforcement agencies, because everyone should do their job." However, we asked him not about this, but about the "family" business.