Music. Communism. Medicines

Who is Boris Spiegel-the former producer of Baskov and the "pharmaceutical king", because of which the Penza governor was arrested

On Sunday, March 21, in Russia, not only the governor of the Penza region Ivan Belozertsev was detained, but also those who, according to investigators , gave him bribes: former Senator Boris Spiegel and his wife Eugene. The Medusa tells the story of the spy - the “pharmaceutical king” of Russia, who made the singer Nikolai Baskov, and a senator with ten years of experience, which was repeatedly indicated by international investigations. And now his name is also mentioned in a press release from the Investigative Committee.

In the late 1990s, entrepreneur Boris Spiegel established the production center of Moscow time-“Music. Perfection. Beauty". One of the wards of the center was the novice singer Nikolai Baskov, who also married the daughter of Boris Spiegel Svetlana (they divorced in 2008). That is why in the headings of many media about the detention of a spyls it is said as the detention of "ex-producer Nikolai Baskov."

However, he was rather engaged in the music and producing Baskov for the soul - the fixed capital and the influence of Spiegel acquired in business on the supply of drugs. It was with Boris Spiegel and his pharmaceutical company BIOTEK that the criminal case of corruption was connected, within the framework of which on March 21, the Investigative Committee came to the governor of the Penza region Ivan Belozertsev - and to the Shpigel himself.

In addition to Belozertsev and Spiegel, the SK detained the wife of Spiegel Eugene, as well as the general director of Anton Koloskovo OJSC. Evgenia Spiegel, according to the SPARK-Interfax database, controls the BiotEK company, which also includes the Penza Pharmacia OJSC, headed by Koloskovo.

All the defendants in the case (six of them) were charged, which include a cottage and receiving bribes totaling 31 million rubles. According to investigators , the governor took money for the provision of biblings of competitive advantages in the purchase of drugs on state -controls for healthcare institutions of the Penza region.

Ivan Belozertsev was arrested by the decision of the Basmanny Court for two months. The investigation also requires arrest for Boris Spiegel (he was scheduled for the Meres of Establishment on March 23). The public observation commission reported that the businessman called an ambulance in the insulator several times.

In recent years, the surname of Spiegel practically fell out of the information agenda, although a few years ago the media called him “one of the most influential representatives of Russian business”, which “occupies a prominent place in power structures”.

The future "pharmaceutical king" Boris Spiegel studied at the historical faculty of the pedagogical institute of the Ukrainian city of Kamenetz-Podolsky. Even then, he began to make his career on the party line: the spy worked in the city committee of the Komsomol - many future Russian politicians and businessmen began in this youth structure of the CPSU. In the city committee, Spiegel was responsible for the formation of student construction teams - then it was a good way to earn money for both students themselves and for the organizers of such detachments.

He was engaged in Spiegel and another profitable business in Soviet times. “We created a vocal and instrumental ensemble, which was called“ Homeland ”, in its repertoire were both patriotic and folk songs, including Jewish ones. Under the “seven forty” people dashed the people of all multinational Ukraine, and the Odessa hits enjoyed unchanged success, ”Boris Spiegel assured (he eventually returned to the musical business in the late 1990s, establishing a producer center where Basque began).

In 1991, Boris Spiegel created the BiotEk company, which specialized in the production and sale of drugs. At the same time, the businessman was interested in politics: in the elections to the State Duma in 1995, he unsuccessfully moved to the deputies and soon became an assistant to the speaker of the State Duma, communist Gennady Seleznev, and in 2000 he was appointed deputy chairman of the Russia movement (led them Seleznev). Two years later, Spiegel switched to a similar post in the “Party of Renaissance of Russia”, created on the basis of this movement.

“The topic was fashionable then - the fusion of business and politics. The businessman received additional status in resolving issues. And Seleznev, there was time, had a very serious influence. It is clear that the largest fish did not go to politicians. But those who are smaller, yes, ”the political strategist Konstantin Kalachev, who founded a“ batch of beer lovers ”in those years, explains Medusa.

Kalachev briefly describes the status of a businessman with large politics in one word “solved”-but then decides to clarify: “A helping businessman in a politics who helps convert power into money and vice versa.” “Any such businessman had a great hope to grow in large fish, and Spiegel did it,” Kalachev believes.

By the beginning of the 2000s, Spiegel became a noticeable figure in the pharmaceutical market. “In those days [the beginning of the zero] Boris Isaakievich was entered the [then] minister [healthy, Yuri] Shevchenko. In many rooms, they say, he almost opened the door with his foot, ”recalls the interlocutor of Medusa, who then worked in the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.

In 2001, the spy, the connections of which helped the “biota” to enter the state order market, became the owner of the Penza Farmacation OJSC , and in the past a state monopolist in the local drug market. This step opened the doors to him in big politics: Spiegel met with the Penza governor Vasily Bochkarev. And when in the elections to the State Duma of 2003 the “Party of Renaissance of Russia” was not able to overcome the barrier, Bochkarev made a businessman a member of the Federation Council from the Penza region.

“Then it was a normal, ordinary story. Of course, the coordination of the senator of the president demanded not to let the very odious characters. The spigel was not such a person, ”says the interlocutor of Medusa, who worked in the presidential administration in the middle of the zero.

Spiegel himself spoke about his appointment by the senator as follows : “The Penza people are kind, open, noble, he is worthy of the best. <...> Penza region in many areas requires support from above, so I'm here. "

Spiegel did not occupy significant posts in the Federation Council, but in an interview admitted that he considers work in the upper house of the Preior Parliament. At the beginning of the senatorial career, Spiegel promised to develop the Medical Code of the Russian Federation, but this document never saw the light. And the most famous document, under which the signature of Spiegel as a co -author wasa bill on an insult to the feelings of believers, which was developed in 2012 - after the Promotion of the Pussy Riot group in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Before his entry into force, insulting the feelings of believers was considered an administrative offense and implied damage to religious property; Since 2013, it has become a criminal offense with a punishment of up to a year of imprisonment.

The Senator transferred the company "BIOTEK" to Yevgeny Spiegel's wife, thanks to which in 2015 it entered the rating of the 50 richest women of Russia according to Forbes magazine and took 31st place in it. “I am a law -abiding person: when I was elected to the Federation Council, I transferred the shares to his wife,” he said in an interview with Forbes.

The business grew up, “BIOTEK” occupied an increasing share in the market, achieving success in a variety of ways. Oleg Kovalev President Oleg Kovalev, for example, was a defendant in one of the largest corruption scandals of the 2000s, when the leaders of the Federal Medical Insurance Fund (FFOMS) created a system for collecting bribes from pharmaceutical distributors in exchange for the purchase of drugs from them-proved in the case were bribes for 27 million rubles.

The amount of bribes, but the level of corrupt officials was amazing at the same time: the head of the fund Andrei Taranov, his first deputy Yuri Yakovlev, deputy Dmitry Usenko and Natalya Klimova were in the dock. It was Klimova - who was seconded to the FFOMS to the FSB officer, awarded the “Honorary Chekist” with the title of Honorary Consumes during working in the fund, - the investigation attributed the role of the main organizer of the corruption scheme.

The Forbes publication quoted the testimony of the head of the control and audit department of the Tatyana Markova fund, who claimed that for allocation of subventions to “their” territorial divisions of the Protek and BiotEk Foundation, Klimova’s bribes paid for sure, according to Klimova, that the President of the Biotyk company Kovalev Oleg Kovalev stably brought her money Ivanovich ... ”Klimov was sentenced to nine years in prison, and the head of the“ biotyk ”Kovalev was on this case at the time of the sentence in this case.

Two more corruption scandals, in connection with which Biotek and Boris Spiegel personally were mentioned, were associated with investigations of the American Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in relation to international pharmaceutical companies.

In 2012, the SEC filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer of insulin Eli Lilly & Co for the fact that in 2000-2005 the company sold medicines to the Russian pharmaceutical distributor for the supply of the Ministry of Health, and paid up to 30% of the cost of the contract associated with the distributor of the Cyprus company. As the essence of the “Vedomosti” claim , the distributor belonged to a person who was at first a close adviser to the State Duma deputy, and then, in 2003, became a member of the Federation Council and “had a significant impact on the government’s decisions in the field of the pharmaceutical industry of Russia”. The Russian company and the name of the official were not called in the lawsuit, but Boris Spiegel and BiotEk were guessed in a detailed description.

And in 2016, SEC announced the settlement of accusations of the Israeli company Teva Pharmaceutical Industries related to 2010-2013. The lawsuit said that the purchases of the Israeli company according to state programs helped organize a “high -ranking Russian official, the owner of the distributor, who, from 2003 to March 2013, the deputy chairman of the Federation Council Committee and cooperation with the Israelis brought it to the company 65 million dollars. The Spiegel replied to this that Teva paid a “biot” not a bribe, but “bonuses” for deliveries, that his post in the Council was not related to the procurement of drugs and that since 2003 he was not a biot-shaped shareholder. But the Israeli company terminated the contract with the BIOTEC in the same 2013, when the Spiegel left the Federation Council.

“He [Spiegel] was absolutely definitely a very influential person and remained until recently. After the Federation Council, he returned, apparently, to the direct management of the company, he headed the board of directors, and in the last year the business has grown up especially strongly there, ”a former official of the Ministry of Health tells Medusa.

According to DSM, the BiotEc is one of the ten largest distributors of pharmaceutical products in the Russian market, and in the segment of public procurement of drugs it is in third place with a market share of 5.9%. At the same time, the company's revenue in 2020 increased by 104%. “Such dynamics is also due to the fact that BiotEk in 2020 became the largest supplier of medicinal and medical products aimed at combating the epidemic [coronavirus], including antiviral drugs,” the DSM study notes . The company clarifies that since June, BiotEk has supplied covid medicines to all regions of Russia, and also diagnostic test systems and disinfectants; The total amount of its contracts amounted to 45 billion rubles.

A source of Medusa, close to the authorities of the Penza region, said that ties with Boris Spiegel passed to the governor of the region Ivan Belozertsev “by inheritance” from his predecessor Vasily Bochkarev. The governor fell victim to the redistribution of the pharmaceutical market and the "operation against the spy", the source believes.

The interlocutor of the Medusa in the pharmaceutical market is surprised and upset by what happened to Spiegel: “It is surprising for me that this happened. He always said completely different things. If he saw signs of corruption, he called it natural corruption - and said that we should put an end to such attempts. And he is so true-uterus [cut]. It does not seem to be a person for whom business or profit at all costs. ”

Boris Spiegel called a “creature from the past” in a conversation with Medusa a source close to the Russian government. “[In power] it is believed that there should now be less in large business. Moreover, in the company with a share of the public procurement market is 5.9%, ”he describes the logic of the pursuit of the spy.

Authors: Andrey Pertsev with the participation of Tatyana Lysova and Kristina Safonova

Editor: Valery Igumenov