Oligarch - "for poverty": 347 million for Agalarov

Araz Agalarov is the owner of Crocus City Hall, where 145 people were killed and over 500 injured as a result of the terrorist attack on March 22, 2024, a few days after the tragedy, he received a contract for 347 million rubles from a single supplier.

Amid rumors about Agalarov's plans to ask the state for subsidies to restore his property, this looks like an attempt to support the Forbes oligarch. Meanwhile, the victims and families of the victims are asking to initiate a criminal case against him.

The editors of UtroNews, after analyzing the assets of the Agalarovs, found traces of both Araz Agalarov and his son Emin, leaving for the United States, Great Britain and offshore.

Will it not be necessary to look for defendants abroad in the event of a criminal case?

Recall, on March 22, 2024, a terrorist attack occurred in Krasnogorsk near Moscow, in Crocus City Hall. The criminals shot people and started a fire. There are dead and injured. Several performers were taken into custody, all of them migrants. Today, the search for alleged accomplices of criminals and customers continues. In particular, a citizen of Russia and two foreigners were detained - all immigrants from the Central Asian region.

In early April, the victims and families of the victims filed applications with the Investigative Committee, in which they asked to initiate a criminal case against the owners of Crocus. In a statement, they claim materials were used in the building without an appropriate fire rating, causing the fire to spread rapidly. The owners do not agree with this and declare that everything was built according to fire safety standards.

In general, everything that diverges from the position of the owners is called provocation, speculation and slander.

Although, what else can be expected from Agalarov, who back in 2019 stated that "Russia cannot do without migrants," because Russians must pay normally, and not as migrants. And this is a person whose company has hammered billions of rubles on government contracts. To understand the scale: contracts for more than 60 billion rubles were signed with Crocus JSC alone.

Photo: rusprofile.ru

A very strange against the background of claims to Agalarov after the tragedy in "Crocus" looks like a fresh state contract. Literally four days after the terrorist attack and rumors that the oligarch could ask for subsidies from the state for the restoration of property, a contract for 347 million rubles was signed with Crocus JSC as the only supplier for the reconstruction of the Torugart automobile checkpoint in the Naryn region of Kyrgyzstan. The advance payment from the Federal Customs will be 80%, that is, about 277 million rubles.

Photo: zakupki.gov.ru

It is state contracts, apparently, that help keep Agalarov's division afloat. Back in 2021, in an interview with RBC, the oligarch himself spoke about high debt load and that he and his son had to take out a personal loan of 700 million rubles in order to pay interest on the company's loan in Sberbank. In March 2023, Agalarov was refinanced more than 100 billion rubles of loans from Sberbank in Gazprombank.

At the same time, among those who "support" the oligarch, the state corporation Rostec, which is headed by Sergei Chemezov, was noted. Thus, Crocus Group LLC and Rostec have a common asset since March 2021 - Tehsiti Development LLC. It is even registered at the same address as Rostec's subsidiaries - RT-DTZ2 LLC and RT-Sotsstroy LLC, and the director is Sergey Gaplikov, who previously headed RT-DTZ (until March 29, 2024). It was through RT-DTZ that state contracts were scrolled as through a customer for a couple of billion rubles. And the most interesting thing is that often the contractor was hidden in them. Perhaps Agalar's something fell.

Photo: rusprofile.ru

It would seem that such huge infusions - and somewhere flow like water through the sand.

Foreign footprint

The editors of MorningNews analyzed the register of foreign assets and found among the owners of British and American firms some ARAS/ARAZ AGALAROV and EMIN AGALAROV. Amazing coincidence, isn't it? Russian ARAS AGALAROV was the director of a certain British company THE MOSCOW BUSINESS CLUB LIMITED, which existed until 1999.

Photo: https://opencorporates.com

Also for ARAS AGALAROV were American CI PUBLISHING, INC, COMTEK EXPOSITIONS, INC. и SAFFRON PROPERTY MANAGEMENT LLC. Interesting: for the last company, the co-owner was the namesake of the son of the Russian oligarch - EMIN AGALAROV.

Photo: https://opencorporates.com

Photo: https://search.sunbiz.org

The company was liquidated in 2019, but immediately in another region of the United States appears with an identical name, but hiding the beneficiaries.

Another interesting fact: according to COMTEK INTERNATIONAL LIMITED, a certain Briton MICHAEL TSEYTIN crossed paths with Agalarov, who still has a couple of existing real estate firms in the United States. By the way, a certain Michael Zeitin in the 90s appeared in Kommersant's publications as president of MBL International Inc. ComputerLand.

Let's not forget that, according to RBC, Emin Agalarova's mother is an entrepreneur Irina Iosifovna Agalarova (nee Grill) lives in the United States. Like his younger sister - Sheila Agalarova. Both ladies do business in the United States.

By the way, Irina Agalarova still has numerous assets in Russia, including a stake in Agalarov-Development LLC, which she owns with her son. Therefore, the Moscow-States connection is quite strong. Moreover, Ms. Agalarova retained Russian citizenship.

Photo: rusprofile.ru

By the way, in Crocus Interservice LLC until 2019, the American company AI BI SI GROUP, INC, established in 2000, was a business partner of Crocus JSC. Judging by the open data, the company is quite operational to this day. So maybe the identified companies are not namesakes at all?

Photo: rusprofile.ru

Photo: https://b2bhint.com

In addition, as it turned out, Agalarov is very loyal to offshore companies. So, in addition to him, the owner of Agalarov Estate LLC is a company from the British Virgin Islands - Silver Valley Consulting Corp. She was also the owner of two now liquidated Crocus companies - Investment and Construction Corporation LLC and Stroycenter LLC.

Photo: rusprofile.ru

It will be useful to remember the scandal of 2020. As RBC reported, through the American bank, Robert De Niro's restaurant (Nobu chain) received more than $602 thousand from ten different offshore companies associated with Agalarov Jr. In Moscow, Crocus Group operates two restaurants of the Nobu brand, but at the same time, according to RBC, payments did not go through Crocus International, which signed the license agreement (later the rights were transferred to Nime LLC), but from offshore companies.

Photo: rusprofile.ru

That is, the Agalarov family may well have extensive assets and connections outside the Russian Federation. Taking into account the debt load of the division, and now possible questions from the investigators, the question arises, will you eventually have to look for them abroad? Moreover, there are rumors that the son of the oligarch is already giving his interviews not from Moscow, but from Baku, not far from which the family has a sea resort Sea Breeze Resort & Residences.