Former vice president of VTB, taking the post of director of USC, violates the law banning officials from doing business and creates a corruption precedent?...
Six months after being appointed to the post of head of the state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation, the "right hand" of the head of VTB Kostin, Andrei Puchkov still has not parted with his personal business, thereby creating corruption risks. Isn't it through him that firms will sell non-core USC assets, removing cream in favor of individual characters?
The UtroNews correspondent understood how one high rank combines entrepreneurship and civil service.
After USC, under the wing of which the country's main shipbuilding assets were concentrated, finally fell to the bottom, it was transferred to the management of VTB State Bank.
In September 2023, the head of VTB Kostin announced that USC had a "huge financial hole," the lack of reliable reporting and the management of the state-owned company was not effective. At the same time, Kostin added that the "old holes" should be closed by the state, not VTB, hinting clearly at budget injections.
In August 2023, Kostin sent his "right hand" - VTB Vice President Andrei Puchkov to steer USC. The protégé's task, apparently, is to establish the very effectiveness of management, but already in the understanding of Kostin, who himself is very averse to having a gesheft with state assets. Recall at least his possession of the former forest hunting FSUE "Los."
Puchkov turned out to be something similar to his boss.
Puchkov's business box
Six months have passed since Puchkov was appointed to a high position, but he both owned four commercial real estate companies and remained. He did not even create the appearance of decency in the form of transfer to trust management. And that's where the corruption risk comes in.
Photo: https://egrul.nalog.ru/
After all, USC, in addition to shipbuilding assets, has others, as they are usually called not specialized ones. Among them is real estate, which is actively sold by the state corporation. And here you see, the head himself suddenly drew firms that could play the role of intermediaries in such transactions. There is something to think about the prosecutor, perhaps.
Andrei Puchkov, being the head of USC, today owns four firms in the field of rent, real estate management, as well as buying and selling it. Among them are Bibirevorealestate LLC, Hefler MOS LLC (established in 2012, is the owner of premises in the City of Capitals North Tower business center), Sanproperty LLC (2017) and LLC Enthusiast. All firms are alive, operating, judging by the results of 2023. Puchkov's revenue for them amounted to 236 million rubles. We do not know whether the head of the state corporation declared this income or not, since the declarations of officials for some time began to hide from the population what did not work out.
Photo: rusprofile.ru
Among Puchkov's business partners in some of his firms, very remarkable persons were previously noted. For example, Igor Kuchin, a lawyer, owner of a stake in Salymneft LLC and TsKR Legal Bureau LLC, was such at Hefler MOS LLC. So, the latter is the contractor of the "subsidiary" of the state bank VTB - LLC "VTB DC," with which at least three contracts were previously concluded for a total of 75 million rubles. Taking into account that Kuchin, according to the source of UtroNews, is also possibly a fellow student of Puchkov, an entertaining picture is drawn.
That is, Mr. Puchkov is quite averse to lobbying the interests of "his" people and letting them approach the budget millions? In USC, perhaps, there will even be more room for such manipulations.
Photo: rusprofile.ru
Photo: rusprofile.ru
Kuchin's partners in Salymneft LLC are also interesting, which in the near future may well become a supplier of USC fuel for ships.
Today, the co-owner of Salymneft is a certain Promazot LLC Andrei Teterkin and Artem Gurinov. Teterkin is a former top manager of Evraz Group, NK Yukos and SIBUR, which has just several fuel trading firms. Teterkin was also previously the director of the Russian Fishing Company LLC, when the owners were the brother of the governor of the Moscow Region Maxim Vorobyov and the son-in-law of the oligarch Timchenko Gleb Frank. With these two, Teterkin even had a common asset - RMD - Foreign Investments LLC, in which Vadim Gurinov also had a share - another native of the SIBUR division, the ex-owner of SIBUR - Russian tires.
Photo: rusprofile.ru
Among the business partners of Teterkin, offshore companies from the British Isles ran through one of the oil fuel companies - KIMBERLY TRADING SERVICES LTD and CAROLINA GROUP SERVICES INC. And Gurinova is generally referred to by FederalPress as a co-owner of the petrochemical AvestraGroup and an investor in premium real estate in London and highly liquid suburban locations in different places in the UK.
Photo: rusprofile.ru
By the way, in the biography of at least one Puchkov company, he also inherited an offshore company - HEFLER INVESTMENTS LIMITED, which was liquidated only in 2019.
Speaking about Puchkov's fellow student - Kuchin, one cannot ignore another very remarkable character - Sergey Kotlyarenko, with whom they had a common company - TsKR-Consultants LLC.
Photo: rusprofile.ru
Among the partners of Kuchin and another partner of Puchkov - Andrei Romanov (for Teriberka Finance LLC) was a certain Evgeny Salzman (investment company Ultimate Capital, worked at Deutsche Bank).
Photo: rusprofile.ru
Salzman was the managing partner of the Marathon Group, along with Alexander Vinokurov, the son-in-law of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Also in 2019, Salzman was included in the board of directors of TransContainer. Which at the same time included the then adviser to the head of Russian Railways, Alexei Teicher. Another very remarkable person. The Moscow Post has repeatedly talked about the schemes, as a result of which the former top manager of state-owned Russian Railways received tidbits.
Returning to Puchkov, it is also worth noting that among the former co-owners of his companies was a certain Maxim Puchkov, who, judging by his patronymic, may be his brother. This Mr. is also the owner of seven companies, one of which works in the field of IT, and the rest in the same as the firms of the head of USC. We will not be surprised if, in the event of a scandal, the rest of Puchkov's assets go to a relative.
Photo: rusprofile.ru
Puchkov, although he left VTB, did not lose touch with his patron Kostin. After all, it is VTB that manages USC and is its main creditor.
Sources of UtroNews claim that it is also through Puchkov's close friend, billionaire Roman Gromozdov, that communication is carried out on the affairs of the developer Donstroy, which VTB once left for debts. More about this UtroNews reported in the past material.
Taking into account the connection of Donstroy with VTB, the focus of Puchkov's business begins to play with new colors. But the question arises, does Kostin know about the personal interest of his protégé Puchkov, or will this bomb of corruption risk come as a surprise to him?
And it would not be bad for the Sledkom to check how a federal employee is also a businessman at the same time.
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