Sometime in or before 2012 Doronin, Tio and Berman have very confidentially created a ‘family office’ in Cyprus, which was tasked with the management of the ownership structure of their Russian and international holdings, all aspects of corporate financing (debt and equity financing and dividend policy), treasury responsibilities, as well as with the most delicate assignments related to the trio’s ‘shadow partners’ from among high level Russian officials. The employee entrusted with the overall management of the Cypriot office was Ms. Anna Krustkaln, Head of Treasury of Capital Group, who moved to Cyprus on a permanent or semi-permanent basis specifically for this purpose. Krustkaln joined Capital Group in 2003 and eventually took charge of the most secretive and sensitive aspects of the company’s operations, including its illegal activity that involved corrupt deals and money laundering.
Krustkaln, who had a corporate email address at Krustkaln@capitalgroupcorp.com and at akrustkaln@gmail.com , often communicated with her colleagues and with the three shareholders in writing, leaving a trail of emails, many of which (containing metadata that allows to verify their authenticity) are now in our possession.
Doronin, Tio and Berman would frequently sign instructions to Cypriot law firms that acted as administrators for their holding companies. Communication between Cypriot agents and the three shareholders was also carried out through Krustkaln.
Among the Cypriot legal and administrative firms that provided nominal ownership, legal and corporate services, were Dadlaw Nominees Limited, Nobel Trust Limited, Ioannides Demetriou and individual consultants, such as Marianna Orphanidou.
We are now going to present the first part of evidence that clearly demonstrates how Doronin, Tio and Berman engaged in corrupt deals with high ranking and sanctioned Russian officials and laundered their money.
On April 4, 2019 Marianna Orphanidou, an employee of Nobel Trust Limited, a Cyprus-based provider of administrative services, wrote an email to Maria Roumba (at that time an in-house lawyer for the trio’s family office in Cyprus), copied to Anna Krustkaln and several of Orphanidou’s colleagues at Nobel Trust Limited, requesting to provide documents (passports, utility bills, etc.) of Mr. Pyotr Evgen’evitch Shatrov, Mr. Vladimir Prokhorov and Ms. Elena Efimova, the ultimate beneficial owners (UBO) of two Cyprus companies – Portground Holdings Limited and Pineterrace Trading Limited.
Vladimir Prokhorov was the father of Aleksandr Prokhorov, who at the time was the Head of the Department of Investment and Industrial Policy of Moscow.
Pyotr Shatrov was the nominal owner of Sergei Pakhomov, former Head of the Ministry of Construction of the Moscow Region, former Head of Sergiev Posad district of Moscow region and, presently, Deputy of Russia’s Duma (Parliament) and Head of the Parliamentary Committee For Construction and Utility Services. Pakhomov is sanctioned by the United States, EU, UK and Ukraine.
Elena Efimova was the sister of Vladimir Efimov, who is presently the Deputy Mayor of Moscow in the Government of Moscow for Economic Policy and Property and Land Relations.
Having received no response, Orphanidou sent a follow-up email on May 3. On May 7 Krustkaln sent an email to her Moscow colleague Anton Shelkovkin, Tax Manager at Capital Group, asking whether he can get the requested documentation from one ‘Yuri’ (presumably the contact person, designated by the UBOs. This exchange clearly shows that the Cyprus services provider considered Krustkaln (Doronin, Tio and Berman’s trusted employee) to be the contact person for relations with Russian UBOs (officials) and that Krustkaln was engaged in this work together with another high ranking employee of Capital Group.
On May 14 Shelkovkin got back to Krustkaln and told her that ‘Yuri’ is asking whether it is possible to say nothing about Prokhorov and Efimova to Nobel Trust, because at the moment only Pyotr Shatrov is the shareholder. This shows that both Shekovkin and Krustkaln knew very well that they were dealing with Russian officials who were concerned about disclosing their identities.
On that same day Krustkaln replied that it is not possible because all of the aforementioned UBOs were already disclosed to Nobel Trust and had even signed the necessary corporate documents when the company was transferred into their control. Shatrov is ‘simply a [nominal] shareholder’, wrote Krustkaln, ‘and they apparently declared him as a beneficiary in Russia. Let them leave him as such for Russia if they need so. But for these [Nobel Trust] new information will need to be provided, because the UBOs have already been declared.’ This exchange shows that Krustkaln had been involved in the operation to create offshore companies for Russian officials and to conceal their identities since the beginning. It also demonstrates that she was aware that their actions and her actions were in violation of Russian law.
Shelkovkin was not re-assured and asked whether it was possible to provide documents stating that the UBOs have donated their shares to someone or that they sold them for a nominal price and that now the UBOs were unreachable. ‘The question is, of course, what was going through their minds when they were appointing themselves [as UBOs]’, wrote Shelkovkin,’but it doesn’t make things easier for them’. Krustkaln replied that this was not possible either and that ‘we did as was instructed by Baldin’. These emails demonstrate that Krustkaln was clearly aware of the role of one Baldin in this corrupt scheme.
Sergei Baldin, mentioned in the correspondence, was a Moscow bureaucrat with a very long tenure. He served as Chief Accountant of the Moscow City Land Resources Department, General Director of the State Unitary Enterprise Of The City Of Moscow “City Property Management Center” (from April 23, 2014 until December 19, 2017), General Director of State Unitary Enterprise Of The City Of Moscow “M.Progres” (from September 28, 2016 until October 3, 2017), Head of Office of off aforementioned PORTGROUND HOLDINGS LIMITED in Moscow with a registered office in the City of Capitals (from August 26, 2013 until March 23, 2019) and is presently General Director of the State Budgetary Institution Of The City Of Moscow “Multifunctional Migration Center” (since August 16, 2019). Apparently, Baldwin was responsible for devising the ownership structure in the interests of high level Moscow officials to whom he reported. It is interesting that the Cyprus company Portground Holdings ltd. of which Baldin was a General Director had an official address at Capital Group’s landmark property – City of Capitals.
Finally, on May 21 Shelkovkin sent Krustkaln the links to official biographies of Sergei Pakhomov and Vladimir Efimov on the official website of the Moscow city government with the words ‘Here they are… They are still worried and are asking what can they submit [do] in order to change [themselves as] UBOs’.
This final email proves yet again that Krustkaln and her colleagues were very much aware of the personalities of officials whom they were helping to conceal their identities and hide their ownership of offshore firms. All three officials are involved in regulating the construction industry in Moscow and in Russia in general. All are involved in issuing construction permits and distributing lucrative government contracts, i.e. in the business of the three partners of Capital Group. This provides yet more evidence of the illegal sources of capital of Vladislav Doronin, Pavel Tio and Eduard Berman, which they are busily attempting to legalize in the United States, the European Union and elsewhere.
