The state intends to seize real estate and assets worth 42 billion rubles from Vladimir Kaishev.
The Prosecutor General’s Office has filed a lawsuit to transfer into the ownership of the state assets associated with Vladimir Kaishev – the former chairman of the government of Karachay-Cherkessia, elected in 2022 as an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, two sources familiar with its content told RBC, and confirmed a source close to the supervisory agency.
The lawsuit demands that the Pyatigorsk Dairy Plant, Elizaveta-Mineralnye Vody LLC, Nasib LLC, which manages the Pyatigorsk Hippodrome, as well as the agro-firm Selo im. G.V. Kaishev. In addition, the claim to turn to the state income covers 35 non-residential buildings and structures, 67 land plots, as well as residential houses in the Moscow Region and Stavropol Territory, apartments and cars.
As an interim measure, the plaintiffs are asking the court to seize the assets and bank accounts of the defendants and related structures.
The value of the assets, including the Pyatigorsk dairy plant, the Stavropol-based Agrofirma Selo named after G.V. Kaishev, and the Nasib company, which manages the hippodrome in Pyatigorsk, is estimated at 41,944,636,908 rubles, says RBC a source familiar with the estimates given in the plaintiffs’ materials.
The defendants in the suit are Vladimir Kaishev himself, his ex-wife Nuret Kaishev, brother Yuri and daughter Elena Kaishev, as well as the general director of Upro group Artem Machulsky, LLC “Pontos Plaza”, which is registered in Essentuki, and its former head Irina Leonova, niece of Vladimir Kaishev. Now Kaishev has been arrested in the case of illegal possession of Kavminvodi JSC. Businessman Evgeny Kudel and Igor Khranovsky, Director of the Department of Socio-Economic Development in the North Caucasus Federal District of the Ministry of Economic Development, were arrested in the same case earlier.
From 2000 to 2008 Vladimir Kaishev worked in the Ministry of Agriculture – he headed the Department of Food, Processing Industry and Baby Food, was assistant to the Minister, and in 2004-2005 he was acting deputy head of the Federal Agency for Agriculture. In 2008, Kaishev became head of the government of Karachay-Cherkessia; he served as prime minister of the regional government until 2010.
Then until 2016 he was assistant to the presidential envoy in the North Caucasus Federal District.
According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, simultaneously with his public service Vladimir Kaishev “in conditions of conflict of interest engaged in commercial activities through authorized persons, including using information on the financial and economic condition of enterprises, their property complexes and the land fund occupied by them, in order to benefit himself, his relatives and provide it to their affiliated business entities,” says the source, b Using this information, Kaishev chose the property he was interested in, withdrew it from public ownership and re-registered it into his own property or the property of people related to him, says one of RBC’s sources, citing as an example the creation of the Selo named after G.V. Kaishev agro-firm. G.V. Kaishev.”
At the time of the creation of the company, which was first called Voroshilov Selo and later renamed, Kaishev was working in the Ministry of Agriculture. “As a result of his consistent actions and the conditions created during his time in power, Kaishev formed the property complex of LLC Agrofirma Selo Voroshilova on the basis of the Voroshilov collective farm, which was later bankrupted,” he said.
To conceal his participation in the management, the source pointed out, 100% of shares in the capital of the firm were registered by him to his brother, Yuri Kaishev. Later, his niece Irina Leonova, former wife Nuret Kaisheva and Vorontsov V.Y., affiliated to him, acted as nominees, and Elena Kaisheva became the owner of 54 land plots.
During the same period, Kaishev secured the transfer of the property of the Pyatigorsk Dairy Plant in his favor by registering shares in Vorontsov V.Yu. (95.24%) and his niece Irina Leonova (4.76%), and later Yuri and Nuret Kaishev acted as nominal owners, RBC’s source close to the supervisory agency lists.
In his civil service, Kaishev supervised the work of the Pyatigorsk hippodrome. “He took advantage of the unstable financial condition of the hippodrome, ensured the receipt in favor of a legal entity affiliated to him of property for breeding livestock,” indicated the source familiar with the materials of the lawsuit. Also, “using authority and power and acting through controlled persons,” he ensured the transfer in his favor of property previously owned by FSUE Sanatorium Mineralnye Vody, RBC’s source added.
According to him, to manage the property of the sanatorium and resort complex was created Sanatorium Mineralnye Vody-2 LLC, and later Elizaveta-Mineralnye Vody LLC, registered to nominal owners, including Artem Machulsky. “To give the appearance of complying with anti-corruption prohibitions, Kaishev transferred stakes in the companies’ capitals and management positions in them to his relatives and proxies,” he concluded.
According to the plaintiffs, having created the highly liquid agro-firm Selo Voroshilova and PMK LLC in 2003-2012 in circumvention of anti-corruption laws, as well as having obtained control over the Pyatigorsk Hippodrome and the Mineralnye Vody Sanatorium, Kaishev invested the proceeds from their operation in new business projects.
In particular, the hotel complex “Pontos Plaza” was created on the basis of the Andzhievsky Sanatorium. “Also, Kaishev directed the corrupt income to the purchase of expensive real estate and vehicles, which he distributed among close persons,” concluded a source familiar with the materials of the lawsuit.