Akulinino on Costa Brava

Visit the Spanish town where the friends and relatives of the head of Rostec, Sergei Chemezov, live. OCCRP investigation

In Spain, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea near Girona, there is a village in which Elizabeth Taylor, Sean Connery, Robert de Niro and Lady Gaga rested. Recently, relatives of the old acquaintance of the President of Russia, the general director of the Rostec State Corporation Sergei Chemezov, as well as people from his environment, settled there; Their neighbors were Ukrainian politicians and officials who are under sanctions in Russia. Journalists became interested in this village, studying the offshore network “Troika Dialogue”, which served the interests of representatives of the Russian elite (in Spain there is an anti -corruption investigation into some transactions mentioned in the publication). Olesya Shmagun and Irina Dolinina tell how relatives and friends of Chemezova buy expensive real estate in a half -closed resort town.

On the rocky shore of the Catalan coast of Costa-Brava laid the pedestrian trail of Kamino de Ronda-the district path. The steps hollowed out in the rock lead to high cliffs, from which a view of the Mediterranean Sea opens, and down to small bays with gold sand. In the area of ​​the town with the difficult-pronounced name San Felu-de Gishols, immediately after the San Pol Beach, where Kamino de Ronda makes another turn and enters a new steep rise, there is a small village of S`agaro.

At the foot of the hill, on which stands S`agaro, the road rests on the barrier and the security post. Then only residents of the village or their guests can pass, and the numbers of other people's cars are included in a special accounting book. A car that removes the views for Google Street View could not get into the village, so in the vicinity of Cux, you can take a walk using the Google card, but not inside the village. Nevertheless, it is allowed to go to the territory on foot.

S`agaro does not look like a “cities”, as an agent for the sale of real estate in a conversation described it in a conversation with OCCRP correspondents. The sidewalks here are too narrow, and the carriageways are too wide for the place in which automobile traffic is prohibited. Rather, it is a city in which everyone has their own garden - well -groomed, with its own pool, and most importantly - reliably hidden from prying eyes. Private luxurious villas hide behind high fences, much higher than human height. There are no bars or restaurants in the village - and no benches on which pensioners usually warm up in the Spanish towns in Spanish towns. Every half hour, the village is patrolled by a local guard car.

“About 70% of the inhabitants of Cames are Russians,” says the postman working in the village. The real estate agent calls another figure: “According to my estimates by Russians, not the majority here, about 10-15%. Everyone talks about Cames as a place where the Russians live - because their houses are the largest and they are the richest. ”

Local residents told OCCRP that they know about the Russians in Cames, but at the same time they never met them. “We have been living here for 30 years and every day we walk along the Kamino de Ronda or along the streets of C`agaro. It is always so deserted here, says Bernard. - I hear a lot about the rich Russians, but I have never seen them. Probably because we ourselves are not so rich and do not go to the same places where they are. ” Steven agrees with him, who is handing over real estate in the neighboring San Feliu de Gishols: “Rich Russians spend time on golf sex, in chic restaurants or in their own villas. And they are not very tuned to socialize. ”

Due to this secrecy surrounding the new residents of Cames, the locals are sure that Putin's relatives live here. The reporters could not find these - but there were people who were at least familiar with the Russian president.

OCCRP journalists drew attention to Curalagaro because in the declining years, one Russian pensioner moved here. And this happened as a result of a very strange deal.

A profitable loan

On April 7, 2008, a pensioner from Moscow Anna Kurepina signed a loan agreement with Delco Networks, registered on the British Virgin Islands. Under the terms of the contract, Kurepin received 12 million 220 thousand euros (that is, approximately 450 million rubles at the then rate) without collateral and guarantee. She spent the money on the purchase of real estate in Spain. Kurepina lived in Moscow in the same apartment as Vladimir Artyakov, then the Governor of the Samara Region, and today - the first deputy general director of the Rostec State Corporation Sergei Chemezov.

Vladimir Artyakov since 1997 has been working on a civil service or in state -owned companies. He held the position of governor of the Samara region from 2007 to 2012, when he voluntarily resigned to become deputy general director of the Rostec State Corporation.

In 2008, when Kurepina signed the first loan agreement for 12 million euros, Artyakov declared an annual income of 10 million rubles, and his wife earned 278 thousand rubles. For an average Russian, this is a lot, but with such an income, Artyakov would have managed to earn on the villa in Spain in only 40 years; And then - if all this time they had not spent anything on their living.

However, the earliest declaration submitted by Artyakov in 2007 during the election to the State Duma (Artyakov was elected twice to the State Duma on the regional list of United Russia, but both times refused the mandate immediately after the elections) is somewhat knocked out of the overall picture. Then, being the manager of AvtoVAZ, he declared an income of one and a half billion rubles. (For comparison: the net profit of the entire group of companies in 2006 amounted to two and a half billion rubles.) Artyakov in the press explained such a high earnings by the fact that he was paid the output allowance, and even promised to return it.

During his governorship, Artyakov’s income lasted a long time in the region of 10 million rubles a year. Only in 2012, his wife suddenly earned 60 million, although before that she showed an annual income in the area of ​​half a million rubles. In 2008, Artyakov Dmitry was 25 years old, while he was just starting to engage in restaurant and hotel business.

By indirect signs, it can be assumed that Anna Kurepina is a relative of the former governor. Artyakov himself on the direct question of journalists about who he had this woman, did not answer. It was not possible to contact the OCCRP Kurepina.

The company from the British Virgin Islands, which issued her loan, was part of the offshore universe built by the Russian investment bank Troika Dialogue, which OCCRP spoke in detail. In August and October 2010, Kurepina received another two and a half million dollars from the offshore companies of Troika (the goal is not indicated in the documents).

On the same April day, when Kurepina took a loan for the purchase of real estate in Spain, the Governor of the Samara Region Vladimir Artyakov received local residents. People from the village of Bolshaya Chernigovka, on the Bolshaya Glushitsa River, 150 kilometers from Samara, asked the head of the region to assist. Since 2002, the reconstruction of secondary school No. 2 has not ended in any way, and the children were forced to study in two or even three shifts in neighboring school No. 1. The governor said that education is “the basis of the development of the economy and society”, and the system of education of the Samara region “should solve the problems of the leading formation of human potential”. And therefore, he asked the Ministry of Finance of the region to find funds necessary for the Chernihiv school that could not find several years - 70 million rubles.

50 acaro lands of the land of Curalo that year cost seven times more - almost half a billion rubles.

Villa Artyakov

On the ground that Anna Kurepina bought, a light light two -story building in the style of the Italian Palazzo rises now. In the basement of the villa there are a garage and a wine cellar, on the ground floor there are two bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, a kitchen, a living room and a separate laundry room. On the second floor there are two more bedrooms, one of them with a dressing room. Both go to an extensive terrace of 40 square meters. The villa and the land on which it stands belong to the son of Artyakov Dmitry and his wife Julia. According to the extract from the Spanish register, Kurepina sold them real estate in 2014.

Nearby is another villa, which also belongs to the Artyakov family. It was built in 2005, now it is also recorded on Dmitry Artyakov. There is no hedge between the two houses, the territory of the estates around the perimeter is tightly planted with high pinchs - Italian pines. The name of the street on which the houses are located - Carrer del Pins - can be translated as a pine one.

When the OCCRP correspondent approached the Italian Palazzo Artyakov, there were no owners there. Without them, repair work was underway on the site and in the house. Workers know that the owner of the house is a very wealthy Russian, but they believe that the “owner of Gazprom” lives here. When asked how the rich house of Artyakov’s house, the Spanish worker enthusiastically replies: “Pff! Very rich. This house and this [he points to both arties of the Artyakov] belong to the same person. But there [indicates the road]-El Hef lives [the “chef” in Spanish]. ”

El Hef

The building indicated by the Spanish worker is located across the road from the Artyakov villas. It is no longer a graceful Italian palazzo, but a medieval fortress. A round stone tower with small buttons at the very top is attached to a two-story building with a tiled roof.

The villa is surrounded by a large piece of land - 60 acres. In the documents it is called a garden, although the owners chose to pour most of the territory with asphalt. Near the old house they are now building another with the same tiled roof.

These buildings are really related to the family of Chief Artyakov - the head of the Rostec state corporation Sergei Chemezov. Now all this real estate belongs to his stepdaughter Anastasia Ignatova (daughter of the second wife of Chemezov - Ekaterina Ignatova).

Sergey Chemezov is an old acquaintance of Vladimir Putin. He, like many other friends of the president, is now under international sanctions. In the 1980s, Chemezov and Putin worked in Dresden through the first Main Directorate of the KGB (intelligence). They lived in the same house, were friends with families. In 1996, Chemezov headed the Department of Foreign Economic Relations of the Russian Presidential Administration. Putin at that time was a deputy manager. There, a couple of years later, a familiar Chemezov began to work with them - Vladimir Artyakov; He became the deputy Chemezov.

With the elevation of Putin, the career of Chemezov and Artyakov developed synchronously. In 1999, Chemezov headed the FSUE Promexport, Artyakov came there as a deputy. When Chemezov in 2004 received the post of general director of Rosoboronexport, Artyakov again became his deputy. After Chemezov was headed by the Rostec State Corporation, Artyakov, who had managed to work for several years by the governor of the Samara region by that time, was again appointed his deputy.

The owner of the medieval fortress, the stepdaughter of Chemezova Anastasia Ignatova, is a teacher of MGIMO, who became famous throughout the world when she starred for the Pirelli calendar for 2017 along with the Uma Turman, Penelopa Cruis, Kate Winslet and other Hollywood actresses of the first row; In a press release regarding the release of the calendar Ignatov was designated as a “special guest”. This calendar is produced by Pirelli tire manufacturer, to get to its pages is considered a great success for any model. According to the coincidence, Pirelli has a joint venture with Rostec in Russia, which owns two tire plants. However, the photographer Peter Lindberg assured that it was his own idea to shoot Ignatov for the calendar with the most famous actresses.

According to Ignatov, she acquired a house and land in Spain in 2017, and before that, real estate was recorded in a company from Liechtenstein - Societe Immobiliere Elsamex. It is difficult to find out who is behind this company; For the owner, shares of a bearer were discharged, guaranteeing almost complete anonymity. But Elsamex's interests in real estate transaction were represented by the sister of the head of one of the “daughters” of Rostec. There are several more reasons to assume that behind the company from Liechtenstein stood people close to the Chemezov family.

Who is for Elsamex

The director of the company Ekaterina Joseph holds a similar position in hundreds of firms around the world. But at least nine companies are directly connected with the Three Dialog and offshore Universe, which the Investbank created for customer service. Sergei Chemezov in an interview with Vedomosti admitted that he and his family are Troika clients.

Troika offshores also paid several Elsamex accounts to offices from Austria and Liechtenstein in 2006 and 2007.

Ekaterina Joseph did not make a real estate deal herself. Her and Elsamex was represented by Spain citizen Maria Baer Pakhomova, sister of the Rostec leasing company, Avia-Capital Service, Roman Pakhomov (as Vedomosti reported in 2016). The same Maria Pakhomova acted as an intermediary and when buying the Artyakov villa in 2008. (OCCRP journalists failed to contact Joseph and Pakhomova.)

The amount that Ignatova paid for the Mediterranean villa also raises questions. Judging by the documents from the Spanish land register, the house in the paradise of the paradise cost it two million 800 thousand euros, although according to experts, its market value is many times more. “I do not think that the cost of this villa fell below three million euros even in the most crisis years. Today, this object costs at least 15 million euros, ”says Igor Indrixon, founder of real estate investment manager, founder of the indriksons.ru portal.

Photos from the social networks of the youngest son of Chemezov Sergey also testify that he spent time in S`agaro long before 2017.

Rich pensioners

Anna Kurepina, a pensioner from Moscow, who successfully acquired the villa in Spain, at the age of 80, not only received millions of euros on credit from the offshore company Troika, but also began her own business.

Moreover, not one, but together with another pensioner-73-year-old Muscovite Lyudmila Rukavishnikova, close to the family of the Rostec General Director of Chemezov. In Moscow, Rukavishnikova was registered at one address with Chemezova's wife Ekaterina Ignatova and her daughter Anastasia. Apparently, she has a mother-in-law Chemezov, but the direct question about whether Rostizov was a relative of Chemezov, the Rostec press service did not answer the OCCRP correspondent.

The Russian business Kurepina and Rukavishnikova was simple: the pensioners got a little non -core property of Rostec and his enterprises. For example, the five-story business center Spiridonovka 20, a couple of kilometers from the Kremlin. At the beginning of the zero, the AvtoVAZ automobile giant - one of the key enterprises of Rostec - bought this building for $ 10 million. And in 2010, the mansion departed the company of pensioners. The cost of renting offices there, according to ads, is about 25 thousand rubles per square meter per year. The total area of ​​the business center is 2200 square meters. That is, per year, the office center should bring the owner about 60 million rubles.

Among the tenants are the Constellation concern Rostec. Only in January 2017, this guest paid for a small room almost one and a half million rubles.

Separately, Rukavishnikova in 2018 got a company that owned a share in the famous Sochi sanatorium "Rostec" "Green Grove". The sanatorium is known for the fact that on its territory there is a cottage of Stalin, where, in addition to the Soviet leader, Molotov and Voroshilov rested. Rostec restored the Green Grove for the 2014 Olympics, spending almost 800 million rubles on it.

“Judging by the nature of the involvement of representatives of Rostec in private projects, the property of subsidiaries of the state corporation by relatives of top managers, it seems that the General Director and the First Deputy State Corporation are not felt between private and state business,” said the Deputy General Director of Transpensers of the Internet, Ilya Shumanov. “The intertwined structure of private and state is plentiful soil for the conflict of interests, abuse, and possibly even losses of state property.”

The shore of dreams

The families of Artyakov and Chemezov settled nearby not only in Spain. They are coexisting in Moscow in an elite house in Povarskaya, 28. And in the village of Akulinino near Moscow, where a section of Chemezov with an area of ​​six hectares borders on the estate of Artyakov - about one hectare less.

The S`agaro on the rocky shore of the Mediterranean Sea has every chance of becoming the Spanish Akulinino. Other acquaintances and neighbors of Chemezov from Moscow spend time here, for example, the family of the famous Russian obstetrician-gynecologist Markur or the Founder of the founder of the Three Dialogue Ruben Vardanyan.

Немало фотографий из СʼАгаро можно обнаружить в социальных сетях сына Курцера Саломона или его жены Елены . Фотографии из поселка также выкладывала дочь Варданяна Мария. Курцер отказался говорить с OCCRP про СʼАгаро, представители Варданяна не смогли предоставить оперативный комментарий.

OCCRP не удалось обнаружить недвижимость, которая принадлежала бы этим семьям. Зато три шале в соседнем поселке Мас-Ноу принадлежат кипрской компании Suizo Properties, которая была создана «Тройкой Диалог».

Семьи Курцера, Варданяна, Чемезова и Артякова близки. Их младшие дети общаются в соцсетях и выкладывают совместные снимки из разных городов и стран. А отцы семейств и старшие дети вместе ведут бизнес.

Все четверо входят в союз охотников и рыболовов «Клуб времена года» в Акулинино. Чемезов, Варданян и Курцер вместе владеют некоммерческим партнерством «Неотложная медицинская помощь» в Москве. «Тройка Диалог» Варданяна в свое время консолидировала пакет акций АвтоВАЗа и КамАЗа для «Ростеха» и привлекала на предприятия иностранных инвесторов.

Дмитрий Артяков со старшим сыном Чемезова Станиславом управлял гостиничным комплексом в Геленджике, теперь со средним Александром занимается недвижимостью. Александр Чемезов в возрасте 22 лет открыл вместе с Курцером «Клинику экстренной медицинской помощи» (она обанкротилась в 2011 году).

Fraternal peoples

В испанском поселке СʼАгаро немало и других интересных жителей. Например, в нескольких кварталах от Чемезова, который находится под санкциями США за недружественные действия в отношении Украины, расположена вилла, где живут высокопоставленные украинцы. Именно здесь в мае 2016 года испанская полиция арестовала Степана Черновецкого, сына бывшего мэра Киева. Антикоррупционная прокуратура подозревает его в отмывании денег украинской мафии. Черновецкий и его сын тоже находятся под санкциями, но уже российскими. В 2018 году они были объявлены персонами нон-грата за недружественные действия Украины в адрес России.

В нескольких кварталах от Черновецкого расположена вилла, которая до недавнего времени принадлежала компании, связанной с бывшим депутатом Верховной рады Украины Анатолием Шкрибляком. В 2015 году собственник компании сменился на кипрскую компанию-номинала, а конечного собственника невозможно отследить. Но в то же время пост директора в компании — владельце особняка в СʼАгаро заняла Мария Пахомова, связанная с «Ростехом».

«Конечно, мы не проверяем подробно людей, которые покупают у нас недвижимость, — рассказывает сотрудник агентства Maso Inmobiliaria, одного из старейших агентств по продаже недвижимости в СʼАгаро. — Мне все равно, чиновники это или депутаты. Да, у нас есть обязанность проверять источник дохода. Но, как правило, мы просто просим, чтобы деньги приходили со счета в испанском банке. Это значит, что банк уже проверил чистоту средств».

Сотрудник агентства недвижимости говорит, что слышал про обыски на одной из вилл, но не знает подробностей. Полицейские рейды здесь, очевидно, могут повториться. Как сообщила испанская пресса , антикоррупционный прокурор начал разбирательство по поводу денег из офшорной сети «Тройки», которые были вложены в местные виллы. В частности, будет проверена история с кредитом для 80-летней пенсионерки из Москвы.

Amendments . В первой версии материала утверждалось, что Сергей Чемезов находится под санкциями США, но не Евросоюза. На самом деле Чемезов был внесен в санкционные списки ЕС еще в 2014 году. We apologize to the readers.

Ирина Долинина , Олеся Шмагун ;при участии Антонио Бакиеро , Макса Хименеса Ботиаса (El Periodico), Карины Щедровски (OCCRP)