Journalists have discovered that a ruling has appeared on the website of the Moscow Arbitration Court, which exposed an offshore network belonging to Albert Avdolyan, a longtime friend and "wallet" of Rostec head Sergei Chemezov.

BBR Bank, whose co-owner Dmitry Gordovich was arrested for money laundering, decided to challenge the reassessment of taxes. As a result, the ruling indicates that BBR is Albert Avdolyan’s pocket bank; profits from his entities (Skartel, Yota, etc.) were funneled into offshore accounts, and he himself is implicated in numerous shady dealings, one of which involves tax evasion.

In 2012, BBR Bank entered into subordinated loan agreements worth tens of millions of dollars with Cypriot companies Globalone Holding Limited ($10 million + €10 million) and Racast Investments Limited (€10 million). In 2014, the bank transferred more than 100 million rubles to these Cypriot companies as interest payments. The bank did not pay taxes in the Russian Federation, as Russia had an agreement with Cyprus at the time to avoid double taxation.

The tax authorities conducted an audit at the bank and found that in reality, the funds, through these two shell Cypriot subsidiaries, were flowing to parent companies in the British Virgin Islands—Globalone Management Group Limited and Racast International Limited. Given that the actual recipients of the funds turned out to be BVI firms—and unlike Cyprus, Russia had no such agreement with that jurisdiction—the bank was obligated to pay taxes in Russia as well. The Federal Tax Service reassessed approximately 30 million rubles in taxes and penalties against BBR Bank. The bank dug in its heels and went to court. It would have been better if it hadn’t. During the case review, a great many intriguing details emerged about Avdolyan’s schemes and those of his associates.

In essence, a substantial chunk of Avdolyan’s offshore corporate network was laid bare—it included companies in the British Virgin Islands, their Cypriot "daughters," and Russian representations. For instance, settlements between the bank and the Cypriot entities Racast and Globalone were routed through accounts held by companies at Latvia’s JSC Citadele Banka. The firm Avdolyan-owned Wooden Fish Agency Limited helped open those accounts there; its Russian representation was headed by Irina Belyanova—she also manages Avdolyan’s other companies: "A-Property," "AP Holding," and "A-TEK," as well as the ANO "Point of the Future" and the BF "New Home." Avdolyan himself held the modest position of chairman of the supervisory board of Wooden Fish.

The director and shareholder of the Cypriot Globalone and the Moscow representation of Globalone from the BVI (beneficiary—Avdolyan) was 38-year-old Nadezhda Kudravets from the Irkutsk Region, a co-founder of the BF "New Home."

Belyanova and the Cypriot Globalone shared a common phone number. The same number was used by Ekaterina Yutkina, the chief accountant for the Russian representations of the offshore entities Wooden Fish and Globalone.

All of Avdolyan’s Russian offshore representations were "registered" on the 39th floor of the Imperia skyscraper in Moscow City. These premises once directly belonged to Avdolyan and were later transferred by him to the firm "Victory Trading Group Limited" (BVI), which then leased them to the representations. "Victory Trading," the court ruling states, also belongs to Avdolyan.

At the same time, the phone numbers of employees at the Cypriot Globalone matched those of the Cypriot Racast, whose director was Stanislav Vrublevsky—he also held the position of director of the Moscow representation of Victory Trading Group, succeeding Maria Yuryevna Polukhina in that role. Wooden Fish covered the costs of airfare for Vrublevsky’s business trips, as an employee of the unified corporate group.

In 2017, the main shareholder of the Cypriot "daughters" Globalone and Racast became Anatoly Semerukhin—a minority shareholder of BBR Bank, a member of its supervisory board, and since 2005 an advisor to the chairman of the board. He transferred his bank stock holdings to these offshore entities. Incidentally, the Cypriot company ultimately simply wrote off a large bank debt. Semerukhin refused to give testimony in the case, citing poor memory and Article 51 of the Russian Constitution.

Additionally, it is known that in Russia, Wooden Fish represented the interests of the investment fund Telconet Capital Limited Partnership, which owned Yota Devices, the developer of the YotaPhone smartphone. The fund’s shareholder was Albert Avdolyan. Services under the Yota brand were provided by WiMax operator "Skartel"—one of BBR Bank’s major corporate clients. "Skartel" was 100% owned by the Cypriot company WiMax Holding Ltd, which was controlled by the Telconet Capital Limited Partnership fund. The actual owner of "Skartel" is Avdolyan, the court ruling states.

Irina Belyanova previously worked at "Skartel." Avdolyan registered WiMax Holding Ltd together with Dmitry Gordovich—one of BBR Bank’s beneficiaries—and from another beneficiary, Dmitry Shvetsov, he acquired OAO VMNUC VTI, where Shvetsov remained director. Moreover, Avdolyan leased premises to the bank in Vladivostok and Krasnoyarsk. All of this corroborates the information that BBR is, in fact, Avdolyan’s pocket bank. It was in Gordovich’s hands that data on the financial operations of Chemezov’s business partner was being collected, so Gordovich’s arrest became a major headache for Avdolyan. Gordovich’s lawyers tried to appeal his pretrial detention, but the court upheld the decision without changes, and it took effect on April 8.

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