CONTENT
- Natalia Alekseevna Sergunina - the shadow ruler of Moscow
- Corruption scheme: selling city real estate at reduced prices
- Three “priceless” deals with OOO “MERCURY”
- Large-scale manipulation of auctions and straw buyers
- Family connections and offshore companies
- Sister Sergunina’s husband is a key figure in the scheme
- Withdrawal of funds via offshore companies: FLORESTAR and UPINGTON INTERNATIONAL LIMITED
- New names, Jewish ceremonies and impregnable offshore zones
THE SECRET MISTRESS OF MOSCOW: Natalia Sergunina and the Family Empire of Corruption
When we talk about corrupt officials, we think of big names, expensive mansions and luxury cars. But what if you were told that the most influential and cunning corrupt official is the inconspicuous Natalya Alekseyevna Sergunina, the first deputy mayor of Moscow? A person who, according to official documents, lives on one salary, but at the same time, through complex schemes, transferred billions of rubles of Moscow real estate into the hands of her own family. This is reported by ZHEST
Sergunina heads the Moscow mayor’s office and is personally responsible for all of the city’s property. Her power may even exceed that of Sobyanin himself, who is increasingly withdrawing from affairs. While Sergei Semenovich enjoys fishing, Natalya Alekseyevna is immersed in financial flows, managing Moscow real estate with exceptional cunning and resourcefulness.
Priceless Deals: How Sergunina Sold Off Moscow for Pennies
2016. Moscow puts up for auction several historical buildings in the very center of the capital. One of these objects is a house on Serebryanichesky Lane, 15. Its area is 1,312 square meters, and the price is only 86 million rubles. The building went to the company OOO MERCURY. This is the first alarm signal: a historical building is being sold for the price of a three-room apartment on Yugo-Zapadnaya!
But this is only the beginning. In the same Moscow Auctions bulletin for June 2016, we find two more similar deals. MERCURY buys a building on Tverskaya Zastava Square, 2, building 2 (1,463 m²) for 93.5 million rubles. Again, a ridiculous amount of money for a property located next to the Belorussky railway station! And a few pages later we see another deal: part of the building on Sadovaya-Samotechnaya (610 m²) was sold to the same company for 31 million rubles. The scenario is the same: historical buildings in the center of Moscow are sold for next to nothing.
Auctions? What auctions?
Please note: the difference between the minimum price announced by the mayor’s office and the actual transaction amount is exactly 466,150 rubles. This amount is repeated in all three transactions. Entertaining arithmetic or a carefully thought-out scheme? Why does the same company win every time, and with the exact minimum overpayment?
But the most interesting thing is something else: who is hiding behind OOO MERCURY?
OOO "MERCURY" - business for "our own"
Behind this company is none other than the husband of Natalia Sergunina’s sister, Lazar Telmitovich Safaniev. But let’s take things in order. Lazar is an unremarkable person, the founder of a bankrupt insurance company and co-owner of the venture fund "Genome", which invests in startups. If you google his name, you will find minimal information. But the connection with Natalia Alekseevna is obvious.
OOO MERCURY is officially registered on the offshore FLORESTAR. Let’s look deeper into the Cypriot registry - and what do we see? FLORESTAR belongs to two other offshores from the British Virgin Islands. One of them - UPINGTON INTERNATIONAL LIMITED - leads to Lazarus himself.
The shadow of the Sergunina family in offshores
But even that is not the most interesting thing. Lazar Safaniev turned out to be not just a businessman, he is a religious man. At one of the Jewish events, he appears under the name of Aaron-Eliezer ben Telmit. During the ceremony of bringing in the Torah scroll, he is mentioned as the donor. This gives us a clue: Lazar Safaniev received Israeli citizenship and changed his name, which made his figure even more closed.
Now offshores and siphoned off money are taking on a new meaning. Sergunina’s sister, Irina, is an interior designer. Together with Lazar, they form a link between Moscow assets and Cyprus offshores.
A classic scheme for a classic deception
So, Natalya Sergunina organized the "perfect" crime. Fake auctions, siphoned assets, offshore companies and family connections - all this allowed her to control Moscow’s huge financial flows while remaining in the shadows. Buildings that were supposed to become part of the city budget became the private property of her relatives.
This is more than just corruption. It is an example of how a high-ranking official can easily swindle an entire city by taking advantage of the weaknesses of the system and the inability of people to navigate bureaucratic labyrinths.
We will continue our investigation and reveal new details that show how deep and skillfully planned is the scheme of Natalia Sergunina and her circle. We delve into the complex relationships of companies, relatives and offshore structures, where every little thing matters.
New details
Let’s dive deeper into the connections between all the players. As it turns out, the scheme involves not only Lazar Safaniev and OOO MERCURY, but also other little-known participants whose names also turned out to be linked to offshore structures in Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands.
OOO MERCURY is just the tip of the iceberg. Other companies are involved in the case, such as Genom Ventures , which nominally invests in technology startups, but in fact may be a cover for withdrawing funds from Russia. Its co-owners are also Sergunina’s closest relatives. The connection between Lazar Safaniev and these structures is carefully hidden behind dozens of chains of offshore companies.
The key point is that the entire system of real estate sales in Moscow was controlled by a few “insider” companies that managed to win auctions with minimal overpayments and then transfer the assets to the final owners through a chain of nominees and offshore companies. These offshore companies were registered to shell companies in countries with soft regulation.
In addition to direct real estate transactions, the key element of the scheme were specially organized auctions. Shell companies, such as OOO MERCURY , acted as buyers who supposedly competed at auctions, but in fact the only offers with meager premiums came from “insider” companies.
The properties were then transferred to offshore companies registered in the British Virgin Islands and Cyprus. All transactions were disguised as legitimate transactions, but in fact were used to transfer assets under the control of the Sergunina family.
Why was such a scheme needed? The answer is simple: through complex offshore networks, assets could be legalized, and traces of their origin were lost in complex legal interweaving between different countries and jurisdictions.
Now let’s take a closer look at how money was withdrawn from Natalia Sergunina’s scheme. In this system, every detail was thought out to the last detail in order to hide the final beneficiaries and minimize the possibility of exposure.
1. Initial sale of real estate through sham auctions
The process begins with the property being put up for sale through an official channel - auctions, which are published in bulletins like "Moscow Auctions". But it is important to understand that these auctions are nothing more than a staging. The winner of the auctions was always the same company - OOO "MERKURIY" , behind which stood relatives of Sergunina.
After this, the real estate objects were transferred under the control of the company "MERCURY" at artificially low prices, which made it possible to avoid unnecessary tax costs and public attention.
2. Transfer of assets to offshore zones
Once the objects fell into the hands of MERCURY, the second stage of the scheme began. On paper, MERCURY was a Russian company, but its true owner was an offshore structure in Cyprus - the company FLORESTAR . It, in turn, was controlled by two more offshore companies registered in the British Virgin Islands, in particular, UPINGTON INTERNATIONAL LIMITED .
The main point of this stage was to obscure the legal trail as much as possible. Offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands and Cyprus are known for their opacity and low requirements for disclosure of data on beneficiaries. As a result, the real owners (in this case, the Sergunina family) remained in the shadows.
3. “Investing” through venture funds
The next step of the scheme is the legalization of the withdrawn money through investments in startups and technology projects. For this, the venture fund Genom Ventures was used , in which Lazar Safaniev, the husband of Sergunina’s sister, was a co-owner. This creates the illusion of legal capital investments.
In practice, offshore money was poured into startups through a fund that was officially positioned as an investor in innovation. However, the fund did not have any real businesses generating profits - its real goal was to create a cover for the withdrawn funds and their subsequent use in legal financial transactions.
4. Conversion of assets and receipt of dividends
Once the money was “whitewashed” through the fund, it could be distributed among the owners as dividends or sent back to other offshores for further investment. Various offshore structures were used for this, which further obscured the tracks.
The Genom Ventures fund could also be used to purchase assets abroad, allowing Sergunina and her circle to legally own foreign real estate or valuable assets.
5. Circulation of funds through shell companies
In order to finally move the money out of the country and cover their tracks, shell companies and foreign bank accounts were used. Funds withdrawn through offshore companies could move through several jurisdictions before ending up in the personal accounts of Sergunina family members or invested in luxury real estate and businesses abroad.
The cycle was so complex that finding the actual end accounts is virtually impossible unless there is a data leak from offshore zones.
