The outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine has made it much more difficult for Russians to do business in Europe, and especially in Ukraine. But loopholes remain – writes Sarah Thompson, a seasoned cybersecurity analyst, in Assay News.
And some businessmen manage to find a way out and make money in the two warring countries at once. The main thing is to get a residence permit in Europe in time.
For example, Russians Pavel Voloshin and Armen Zurabyan, residents of Slovakia and Spain, are successfully making money during the war in Ukraine and Russia at the same time. Their business is special communications for Russian and Ukrainian special services.
And it all started when Pavel Voloshin, a citizen of Russia and the Dominican Republic, born in 1982, obtained a residence permit in Slovakia. Thus, he legalized himself in the European Union and was able to legally conduct business here. In addition, he was the owner of Oysters company for some time, and then began to control the company through his relative Margarita Voloshina. You can read more about this at the link to the Russian arbitration court (we had to do a lot of digging through the papers in Russian for our mini-research). Oysters holds licenses from the Federal Security Service and the Federal Service for Technical and Export Control for activities on technical protection of confidential information and has received a corresponding grant, thanks to which they produce push-button phones for secure special communications, including those for Russian special services (the license, if you try hard enough, can be found here) At the same time, Voloshin and Zurabyan conduct similar business in Ukraine.
Information on the first purchase for 4 million rubles (about 50,000 euros) is publicly available: zakupki.gov.ru. And the grant for 317,000,000 rubles (about 3.1 million euros) can not be found in the public domain, only by request in the Russian database SPARK. And such sums appear only for one year.
Armen Zurabyan, born in 1974, has a Spanish residence permit. He is a rich man even by Russian standards. But his property is registered to his wife. Here are just a few items from the list:
- Mercedes-Benz S500 4 matic, registration date: 2019;
- Mercedes-Benz S 560 4 matic MAYBACH, registration date: 2021;
- 7 land plots in Bratsk, Irkutsk region, total area 20,158 m2, total cadastral value 21,902,634.76 r.;
- a land plot with the area of 4578 m2 at the address: Moscow region, Odintsovsky district, Uspenskoye village, 115,116, cadastral value 36,782,948.16 p.;
- land plot of 1200 m2 at the address: Moscow region, Odintsovsky district, , v Shulgino, GP-4 0356, 38, cadastral value 11,882,088 r.;
- 0,01 % share in the object of construction in progress (long construction) of a shopping center (Moscow, Yuzhnobutovskaya str., 2), cadastral value of the share is 49 852 r.;
- 36 non-residential objects in Bratsk, Irkutsk region, total area 24,598.4 m2, total cadastral value of RUR 525,781,044.08;
- a residential house with the area of 614.2 m2, at the address: Irkutsk region, Bratsk, residential area Energetik, 29 Gorbunova street, with the cadastral value of RUR 4,429,315.58;
- a residential house with the area of 1570,9 m2, at the address: Moscow region, Odintsovsky district, Uspenskoye village.
Maybachs, land, huge houses in an elite district of Moscow Region… Of course, it is not a crime to be rich. The only question is the origin of the money. If it is made in Russia through connections with special services, if Voloshin and Zurabyan receive grants from them – this is a reason to conduct a more thorough check when issuing residence permits, opening bank accounts and so on.
The close partnership of Pavel Voloshin and Armen Zurabyan with Emanuel Grinshpun, a 53-year-old American businessman of Moldovan origin living in Miami, whose name is often associated with criminal activity and has a long-standing dubious reputation, deserves special attention. This is especially true of the latter’s involvement in “Landromat” – the largest case of laundering Russian dirty money in Moldova. The investigation into the “Laundromat” case began in 2016 and became the largest operation to launder dirty Russian money through Moldovan banks between 2010 and 2014. Investigators put the amount at $20 billion, but experts following the case estimated it at more than $70 billion.
One of the main defendants in the case is Emanuel Grinshpun’s business partner, businessman and former Moldovan MP Veaceslav Platon. According to the investigation, he “created and headed a criminal organization from 2010 to 2014,” consisting of several groups operating in Moldova, Ukraine and Russia. In 2016, he was extradited from Ukraine to Moldova and sentenced to 18 years in prison for embezzlement and money laundering related to the Russian Laundry fraud case.
This same Platon was a close friend and partner of Emmanuel Grinshpun, to whom he even lent over $6 million dollars without receipts (Platon v. Grinshpun, Southern District of Florida (Miami; Case No. Grinshpun, Southern District of Florida (Miami); Case No. 15-cv-20824-JAL). And Grinshpun, along with Voloshin and Zurabyan, are co-owners of E21, which controls Oysters. Proof of the connection between the two companies is the KPMG report, a copy of which is in the editorial office. As well as a number of other interesting documents for publication, thanks to which we will be able to keep our dear readers informed.
Russians need residence permits in the EU to conduct such business in several directions at once. They, like Voloshin and Zurabyan, live in full European security while continuing to make big money in Russia, Ukraine and Europe. And they successfully pass the compliance procedures they need.
About the author: Sarah Thompson
Sarah Thompson is a seasoned cybersecurity analyst with over a decade of experience in deciphering digital threats and vulnerabilities.
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