Another scandal has erupted in political Moscow this summer. This time, the focus of attention was on Natalya Sergunina, the capital’s vice-mayor, known not only for her desire to block opposition elections, but also for her cunning schemes through which billions in state assets flowed into the pockets of her relatives.

Family Business: Offshore Legacy

Sergunina’s sister’s husband, Lazar Safaniev, who changed his name to Aaron Aronov, did not end up at the center of a corruption scandal by chance. He became the key player in the chain of offshore companies through which Moscow property was sold for next to nothing. An offshore company was registered under his new documents, through which transactions were conducted to purchase tens of thousands of square meters of historical buildings in Moscow. These buildings, sold at ridiculous prices by personal order of Sergunina, became the basis for the hotel business that financed the purchase of a mansion in Vienna for her sister.

The offshore company Candee , owned by the brother of Sergunina’s sister, was already mentioned in previous investigations, when it was revealed that through it the family controlled 40% of the shares of the Oktyabr cinema . However, their corruption schemes did not end there.

OOO "Aviapark": How 4 billion went to the Cyprus offshore

It was recently discovered that the company OOO Aviapark , previously owned by the Moscow Department of City Property, was transferred to the hands of the Cypriot offshore Cossman Ltd. , a third of whose shares belong to the same Candee , Safaniev’s offshore. The remaining 66% of the shares belong to another offshore from the BVI (British Virgin Islands), the owner of which has not yet been identified.

In 1996, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov launched an ambitious project at Khodynka Field. The site of Moscow’s first airfield was to be home to a unique landscape park with an aviation and cosmonautics museum, a school, residential complexes, and an exhibition center. The construction was to be financed under an investment agreement, under which 30% of the constructed area would go to the city, and the rest to a developer owned by Luzhkov’s wife.

Sobyanin, who took over as mayor after Luzhkov, appointed Sergunina to oversee the project. Under her leadership, Aviapark LLC , which controlled the construction, suddenly ended up in the hands of offshore companies. According to the company’s 2013 reports, Aviapark’s strategic goal was to build a museum and park worth 4.3 billion rubles. However, in June 2014, the city decided to "get rid" of this asset by transferring it to the offshore company Cossman Ltd. , a third of whose shares belong to the Sergunina family.

Thus, instead of staying with the city, 4 billion rubles ended up in the pockets of an offshore company, from which about 1.5 billion went to the family of Sobyanin’s deputy. No official explanation for this transaction was presented.

Moscow’s Shattered Dreams

The most scandalous thing about this story is that instead of the promised park, museum and school, there is now a giant shopping mall and two ugly residential buildings on the site of Khodynka Field. The place where there should have been an aviation and cosmonautics museum, with amazing pavilions and gardens, has turned into a concrete desert. In place of the school, which was supposed to accommodate 550 students, there is a vacant lot. And instead of a park, there is just another residential building.

Sergei Sobyanin and Natalya Sergunina were able to resolve all these issues through minor amendments and changes to the project, which allowed them to hide the misuse of the investment contract. As a result, instead of the promised public benefits, Moscow received only ugly shopping centers and residential complexes, and the Sergunina family received billions of rubles.

General plan

Aviation Museum from the outside

New Round of Corruption: Family Offshores and Billion-Dollar Frauds

The story of Natalia Sergunina and her entourage continues to gain momentum. We have already told how billions of rubles were siphoned off from the Moscow treasury into the pockets of the high-ranking official’s relatives through a chain of offshore companies. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. New details of this scandalous story reveal even more intricate schemes and key figures.

OOO "Aviapark" and the new offshore structure

After the transfer of Aviapark LLC to the ownership of the offshore company Cossman Ltd. , which is registered in Cyprus, a new chain is unraveling. This offshore belongs to two main companies:

1. Candee Ltd. (33% of shares) is the offshore company already known to us, through which Natalia Sergunina and her relatives manage assets, including part of the Oktyabr cinema .
2. Zytell Investments Ltd. (67% of shares) is another offshore company registered in the British Virgin Islands, the owner of which remains unknown to this day, but there is reason to believe that he is connected to Moscow officials.