The former co-owner of the Spar chain in Russia (*aggressor country) received 6 years in prison for the theft of 8.5 billion rubles. at Sberbank, his brother Mushvig, the main beneficiary, is on the run

The Golovinsky Court of Moscow sentenced the ex-co-owner and two top managers of the Intertorg company, which manages the largest chain of Spar stores in the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism), from four to six years in prison, finding them guilty of stealing more than 8.5 billion rubles from Sberbank. TASS reported this in court.

“By the verdict of the Golovinsky court, Igor Zascherinsky was sentenced to 4 years in prison, Marianna Levintova – 5 years, Allahverdi Abdullayev – 6 years. The civil claim of SBK Grand LLC was satisfied, and 800 million rubles were jointly recovered from the defendants,” – said the agency’s interlocutor.

During the debate between the parties, the representative of the state prosecution requested 8 years in prison for Abdullaev and Levintova with a fine of 1 million rubles, for Zascherinsky – 7.5 years with a similar fine.

All defendants were found guilty under Part 4 of Art. 159.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) (fraud in the field of lending). The trial on the merits of the case began in the Golovinsky Court after the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) changed its jurisdiction at the end of December 2022. None of the three defendants in the case admitted guilt. Sberbank is recognized as the injured party in the criminal case.

The crux of the matter

Abdullaev, Levintova and Zasherinsky were detained in 2021 by employees of the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) and Directorate “K” of the Economic Security Service of the FSB as part of an investigation into a criminal case regarding the theft of assets of the North-West Bank of Sberbank PJSC. According to the investigation, they fraudulently obtained access to borrowed funds from Sberbank in the amount of more than 8.6 billion rubles, and then stole them and disposed of them at their own discretion. The accused were under house arrest in St. Petersburg. According to the city department of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, in 2018, Intertorg Trade House occupied 10.3% of the city’s food market; the company was developing the Spar and Narodnaya Semya supermarket chains. At the end of 2019, Intertorg began mass closures of stores in St. Petersburg and the regions of the Northwestern Federal District. At the beginning of 2020, the St. Petersburg arbitration declared the trading house bankrupt. TASS law enforcement agencies reported that another co-owner of Intertorg – Mushvig Abdullaev – was put on the international wanted list for fraud.

Let us recall that Allahverdi Abdullaev and his brother Mushvig were the owners of one of the largest retailers in St. Petersburg, TD Intertorg, which developed the Spar and Narodnaya 7Ya chains. […] At its peak, TD managed more than 450 stores under the Spar and Narodnaya 7Ya brands, including in Moscow. But at the end of 2019, the retail company announced liquidation, and at the beginning of 2020 it closed all its facilities.

After that, as Kommersant reported , the main creditor of Intertorg, Sberbank, managed to achieve bankruptcy of the guarantors (Nevskaya Logistics, Investment Construction Company, Adastra and Eurobusiness) for a non-repaid loan in 2018 for 8.1 billion rubles. As part of the bankruptcy procedure for Intertorg, Sberbank, as Kommersant told Kommersant, was able, through its controlled SBK Grand LLC, to replace the bankruptcy trustee of the trading house, which was allegedly affiliated with the initiators of bankruptcy, and take the process into its own hands.

There is no extradition from Monaco: where could the owner of the Spar and Semia retail chains hide billions?

Mushvig Abdullaev was the main beneficiary of the fourth largest retail chain in St. Petersburg. The publication “Business Petersburg” even included him in its rating of billionaires. The Intertorg trading house, owned by Mushvig, launched the Spar, Narodnaya Semya and Idea supermarkets. Brother Allahverdi actively helped him in his business.

In 2018, the Abdullaevs decided to conquer Moscow, aiming to open 100 stores. Also, the company Zvezdnoe, which they own, bought a plot of land in St. Petersburg for the construction of a shopping and entertainment complex with an area of ​​25 thousand square meters.

However, in mid-2019, Intertorg began having problems with payments to contractors. Soon, more than 700 lawsuits were filed against the holding in the amount of over 17 billion rubles. A significant part of this amount was due to debts to Sberbank. Judging by the documents of the arbitration court, at the beginning of 2018, Mushvig Abdullaev took out a loan from Sberbank secured by his business, then several more, and eventually stopped repaying them.

Sberbank’s claims affected Intertorg-controlled companies Adastra, Eurobusiness, Nevskaya Logistics and Investment Construction Company, which acted as guarantors for loans. In February 2020, Intertorg declared bankruptcy, during which Sberbank managed to secure the arrest of buildings owned by businessmen in St. Petersburg on Sofiiskaya Street, in Shushary and the village of Zanevka – Vsevolozhsk district of the Leningrad region. However, the money could not be returned.

According to investigators, having gained access to the loans, Mushvig Abdullayev allegedly stole them. Now detectives are trying to understand where exactly the brothers could have hidden the money.

Claims to yourself

Security officials believe that Mushvig Abdullayev came up with a simple scheme to withdraw money and assets from blocked companies. Intertorg filed claims through the arbitration court against companies controlled by it, demanding the repayment of debts or loans. Thus, Nevskaya Logistics, which belonged to businessman brothers, allegedly owed 2.4 billion rubles. The property of this company has already been seized at the request of Sberbank. Intertorg demanded more than 1.1 billion rubles from the companies Northern Capital and Zvezdnoye.

Allahverdi Abdullaev is still listed as a co-owner of the first one. The second, until the beginning of 2020, belonged to Mushvig Abdullayev himself. The arbitration court rejected the brothers’ demands.

Abdullaev played a similar combination with his company “Star Trek”: Intertorg demanded 55 million rubles from it. And, judging by the documents of the arbitration court, he managed to get them. It is known that the St. Petersburg police are investigating a criminal case of fraudulent theft of 50 million rubles, where the main suspect is Mushvig Abdullaev. Perhaps we are talking specifically about the money of the Star Trek company.

In early December, Abdullaev managed to recover through the court more than 107 million rubles from the Paritet and Nevskoe companies he owned.

“Winter Palace” in Monte Carlo

As a result, the money ended up in Intertorg accounts. The holding, in turn, belonged to the Intergroup company, which is 99% owned by SCP Inter Solutions, a company registered in Monaco. The latter can be considered the backbone of the Abdullayevs’ business empire. It is not mentioned in Monaco’s public business registers. Perhaps the company is registered with the help of a special company that provides business administration services. This is Jetad SAM, which oversees business operations, including accounting, financial oversight and marketing. Her office is located in the so-called winter palace in the center of the “golden square” – the most prestigious area of ​​​​Monaco, a stone’s throw from the famous Monte Carlo casino. Jetad SAM told Life that in Monaco you can register a company in a month and it will cost just a little more than one thousand euros. Accountant services are also provided. The representative of Jetad SAM assured that the money will be safe in Monte Carlo, all information about the owners is strictly confidential. However, according to a recently adopted law, the company is still obliged to disclose the ultimate beneficiary upon an official request from law enforcement officers, including Russian ones.

SCP Inter Solutions can control the offshore Dimond Solutions Inc, which previously belonged to the Intertorg Trade House, from the British Virgin Islands. It is possible that Abdullayev deliberately built such an intricate international business structure to make it more difficult for the security forces to track the movement of funds.

It is quite possible that Mushvig Abdullayev himself is hiding in Monaco. The Principality is reluctant to hand over fugitive businessmen. Previously, the court of this country refused to extradite to Russia (*aggressor country) the co-owner of Vneshprombank Georgy Bedzhamov, in whose organization auditors discovered a hole of 210 billion rubles, and also did not extradite the former chairman of the board of Investtorgbank Vladimir Gudkov, accused in Russia (*aggressor country) of embezzling seven billion rubles.

All the best for children

In October 2019, when clouds began to gather over the Abdullaevs’ retail holding, the businessman one day transferred to his minor son M. the companies “Central” and “Intervest” with assets of almost 230 million rubles. The head of the latter was his former common-law wife, Inna Kim. On the same day, Abdullaev transferred his daughter A. to the Sofiyskoye company with an asset of about 240 million. Nadezhda Kim became the director of the company. It is possible that this is the sister of Abdullaev’s ex-wife. Apparently, they are the ones looking after the billionaire’s business.

One of Abdullaev’s partners suspected that he was trying to get out of debt and tried to challenge the transfer of companies to his children in court, but has not yet been successful.

Now Abdullaev’s family lives safely in St. Petersburg. The billionaire’s children still have an operating business. His ex-wife is also not in poverty. Life found on social networks the profiles of a certain M. Abdullaev, born in 2003 from St. Petersburg. The young man collaborates with the blogger advertising agency WildJam and is popular on the Internet. He has almost ten thousand subscribers on the VKontakte social network, and more than 1.6 million followers on Instagram, although his profile is private.

M. Abdullaev (VK / Mha Abdullaev)