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CORRUPTION

The things they're losing: State Duma deputies will have to give up their Miami apartments, families in Europe, billions in bank accounts

The EU and the U.S. have imposed sanctions on State Duma deputies who had unanimously approved the invasion of Ukraine, their assets and bank accounts frozen, their entry into those countries prohibited. This will be very painful for many MPs: the deputies have their business assets, accounts, and palaces in the West, and some of those ardent patriots have families living there. The Insider has found several Russian MPs whose families, despite all their ultrapatriotic rhetoric, own (or rather, owned before the sanctions) substantial assets in the West.

Content
  • Apartment in Miami, American son, and offshore assets: deputy Reznik's hidden treasure

  • United Russia member from Switzerland

  • Deputy Agaev marches to Berlin

  • Cypriot Bachelor

Apartment in Miami, American son, and offshore assets: deputy Reznik's hidden treasure

The other day, Vladislav Reznik made a public proposition that sounded too radical even for insanely corrupt officials: classify all data on the government officials subjected to Western sanctions, including their family members and their official income and assets declarations. The Insider found out exactly what the United Russia politician wanted to hide. Reznik's last declaration shows he has been earning nearly 94 million rubles a year, owns a house (2,765.9 square meters) and a couple of Mercedes-Benz cars. His position looks pretty solid. However, this is only a negligible part of the income and property owned by the Reznik family.

The deputy's house is located in the Emerald Age gated settlement on Rublevka. He also owns a 22,500 square meter land plot there. The approximate value of the property is 800 million rubles. According to the extract from Rosreestr available to The Insider, Reznik became the owner of the house in 2013. By then, he was already a member of the State Duma. Before his political career, he worked at the Bank Rossiya owned by Putin's closest friends and was known as an associate of the Tambov gang in St. Petersburg. As a representative of the «Russian Mafia,» he was subjected to criminal prosecution in Spain but managed to avoid conviction.

Reznik's Rublevka house is listed as being used by his minor child. According to The Insider, Daniel Vladislavovich Reznik studies at the nearby private school «President». He appears in the database of persons with foreign residence permits and dual citizenship as a holder of a U.S. document. His representative is Diana Gindin, Reznik's wife, also a U.S. document holder.

Diana Gindin also has real estate in the U.S. She owns an apartment in Miami worth $3.8 million.

The house in which the Reznik family owns an apartment
The house in which the Reznik family owns an apartment

Quite a few business assets in Russia are registered in Gindin's name, one of which is a stake in NPO ITS LLC. The company has a portfolio of government orders worth as much as 3.8 billion rubles. It is involved in the installation of «smart traffic lights» and traffic violation cameras. The company's activities are not without corruption scandals: an official of the mayor's office in Orel was arrested and suspected of fraud in connection with the contract the city had awarded to NPO ITS. Through Sputnik LLC, Gindin became a shareholder of Shcherbinka Elevator Plant in 2019. The company is a major player in the business of replacing passenger elevators in Moscow, Ufa, Volgograd, Kursk, the Leningrad region and other places.

Reznik as a deputy drafted bills aimed at improving the collection of fines for traffic violations. When asked about Gindin's firms, he told journalists he had nothing to do with his ex-wife's business because of his divorce. However, The Insider found out that Reznik and Gindin have at least maintained a relationship after the formal dissolution of their marriage: they flew together on vacation to Norway in 2018, to Astrakhan and Israel in 2020, and to Crimea in 2021.

The deputy also re-registered 13 of his cars to Gindin in 2020, even though they had been formally divorced since 2015. Now Gindin's car fleet includes several Mercedes-Benz S- and G-class, a Maybach, a Hummer H1, a Toyota Hilux, and a Volkswagen Caravelle.

Reznik's anger over being added to the EU sanctions lists is understandable - according to The Insider, he flew around Europe a lot. Before the war with Ukraine, the United Russia deputy could be regularly seen in Vienna, Lyon, Madrid, Barcelona, Zagreb, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Paris, and Florence.

Reznik's adult children are also associated with foreign countries. His son Alexander studied at the New York University and lived in London. He now works for VTB Capital. But he has not given up his trips abroad: he prefers Dubai, Greece, the Czech Republic, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands as places of rest. Unlike his father, he has not been blacklisted in Europe, at least not yet. Along with the work at a state-run bank, Reznik's son has a stake in an airplane manufacturing company (Oros) and the Building Structures Factory in Smolensk.

The deputy's daughter, Lidia Reznik, is involved in her father's offshore schemes. The United Russia functionary had been a shareholder of the offshore companies Mediterranean Shipping Company AS Ltd, Orsdale Enterprises Ltd, Sondale Investments Ltd until 2013, then transferred his shares to Lydia. She owned them until 2016. According to an extract from Rosreestr available to The Insider, Reznik also registered his Moscow apartment near the Patriarch's Ponds to his daughter (Malaya Bronnaya Street). Reznik's mother, Iraida Alexandrovna (b. 1928), owns a land plot in the village of Kozino on Rublevka.


United Russia member from Switzerland


Leonid Simanovsky, a deputy and an oligarch, lobbies his business interests in the Duma and continues to direct his business despite the ban. After voting for the laws against «foreign agents,» he sent his daughter to live in Switzerland as a permanent resident.

When running in the September Duma elections, Leonid Simanovsky had 5 billion 455 million in his bank accounts. He obviously wasn't in it for the salary: the balance of his bank deposits alone would have been enough to pay him a deputy's salary for a thousand years. Yet Simanovsky makes 1.6 billion rubles per year, 300 times more than the average deputy.

As a shareholder of Novatek, Simanovsky lobbies the interests of the country's largest privately owned gas producer. He has co-sponsored laws on tax rates that favor his company. Simanovsky owns shares in Novatek jointly with Leonid Mikhelson through Levit LLC. An extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities contains no information on his shares being held in trust, as required by the law which prohibits deputies from doing business.

The Insider found another piece of evidence that Simanovsky is indeed linked to Novatek. We were able to find out he drives a Lexus LX with license plate number A6**VU777. This car belongs to Novatek. It is also used by the deputy's assistant Darya Pomelova and his housemaid.

The same Lexus is used by Sofia Simanovskaya, the MP's spouse, who drives to her apartment on 2nd Frunzenskaya Street to feed the fish from her dacha in the village of Lipki, Odintsovo District. Simanovsky bought her a 479-square-meter house on a 1,300 square meter land plot in 2017.

Despite Simanovsky's luxury real estate, his daughter prefers to live far away from both her family and the Samara region, which her father represents in the State Duma. According to The Insider, 47-year-old Svetlana Simanovskaya appears in the database of individuals with dual citizenship and foreign residence permits.

She has been residing in Switzerland, apparently for a long time: we were able to find her ad on one of the local forums; she looked for a housecleaner in Zurich in 2011. The deputy's daughter is employed by Novatek's Swiss subsidiary, through which the company sells the country's natural resources without having to pay taxes in Russia.

Zurich
Zurich

On the other hand, Simanovsky spared no expense to support the formal leader of his party. It was he and the other oligarchs who financed Dmitry Medvedev's Dar Foundation.

Simanovsky has been a member of the State Duma since 2003. As a member of United Russia, he supported repressive and «foreign-agency» laws. He sent his own daughter to one of the most enjoyable places in Europe.


Deputy Agaev marches to Berlin


Sanctioned United Russia deputy has assets in Germany

State Duma deputy Bekkhan Agayev was put on the EU sanctions list, long with his colleagues, because of his recognition of the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics. A native of Chechnya, Agaev was elected to the parliament based on United Russia's Moscow Region quota. He had previously been a deputy in the sixth State Duma (2011-16 convocation). Even then, The Insider found out, he should have been stripped of his mandate for doing business abroad.

According to the German commercial registry, until 2012 the company Interinol Handelsgesellschaft was headed by Vakha Agaev, the late father of the United Russia deputy and also a deputy himself. From 2012 to 2015, Bekkhan Agayev held the title of Prokurist in the family firm - that is, the company's trusted person with the authority to sign off on transactions. That is, the United Russia deputy conducted business activity abroad in parallel with his work in the State Duma, which is prohibited by law.

The owner of Interinol Handelsgesellschaft was Batyr Agayev - the MP's younger brother who lives in Berlin.

The Agayevs, who are believed to have good relations with Ramzan Kadyrov, are involved in the oil trade. Their Russian company, Yug-Nefteprodukt, has the annual turnover of more than 7 billion rubles, and owns many high-end real estate properties, including those near Moscow's Golden Mile. During the State Duma elections, Bekkhan Agaev transferred the firm to his 21-year-old son Ruslan.

Bekkhan Agayev is a man of wealth. Before the election, he declared an annual income of 937 million rubles. However, as he fights alleged foreign influence side by side with the United Russia party, he himself owns assets abroad. And not just in Germany. He is on the supervisory board of the companies Business Energy and Rusneftekhim Bolkans in Bulgaria, another EU country.


Cypriot Bachelor


On his Instagram page, Nikolai Bortsov, a United Russia member, rejoiced over the office\l recognition of the «DNR» and «LNR.» Well, now he will have to relocate his Cypriot business, which he registered in the names of his daughter-in-law and wife (whom he had prudently divorced while in his eighties), to Donbass.

The deputy's wife Nina and his daughter-in-law Svetlana, according to the documents available to The Insider, are shareholders in the Cypriot offshore company Cashten Holdings Limited.

Like other United Russia politicians with foreign assets, Bortsov is a rich man. At least, he was before the sanctions. His annual income exceeded 800 million rubles. He owns shares in Progress Capital. He also receives income from its affiliate, JSC Progress. It's a family business, in which the deputy's daughter-in-law is also involved. The Bortsovs own the «FrutoNyanya» and «Lipetskiy Buvette» brands.

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