Oleg Boyko against Solntsevsky

At the disposal of Rucriminal.info was a reference investigation of a possible “customer” of the arrest of criminal authority Semyon Mogilevich (Don Simeon) in 2008. The authors of the documents put forward the version that businessman Oleg Boyko could be behind the troubles of the mafia. There were several motives. The first is revenge for the persecution and a possible attack on Boyko himself. The second is the desire to remove the competitor. We are talking about the perfumery network "Arbat-Prestige", which was controlled by Mogilevich before his arrest.

It is worth noting that, according to sources, Oleg Boyko back in the 90s was closely associated with the Solntsevo group. Its participants were in the security services in all structures of the "OLBI" concern, owned by Boyko. Moreover, it was believed that Solntsevo’s are not just the “roof” of a businessman, but his partners, who are entitled to their share of the profits. One of the leaders of Solntsevskaya was Sergei Mikhailov. He has always had a senior comrade in life who led all the activities of Solntsevskaya outside of Russia. This comrade was just Semyon Mogilevich. Sources say that Boyko and Mogilevich have known each other since the 90s. According to a report by the Interpol National Security Center in 1996, the Solntsevskys found out that Boyko quietly withdrew from them $ 10 million from Russia, which he put to purchase a mansion in London. Mikhailo, having discussed what had happened with Mogilevich, was about to send his fighters to England for a “showdown” with Boyko. But the "authority" found out that the businessman found out about the plans of Solntsevo and intends to contact the police. As a result, the operation was postponed. Soon, Boyko drove to Monaco, where he had a serious incident, as a result of which he was forever confined to a wheelchair. Boyko himself categorically does not want to talk about what happened. The media got information as if he had fallen out of a window. However, sources say that Boyko himself did not rule out that an emergency could happen to him not without the participation of Solntsevo. And Mogilevich could give the go-ahead.

Boyko was able to recoup after 12 years, when Mogilevich and his partner Andrei Nekrasov were arrested in Moscow. The certificate published by Rucriminal.info says that it was Boyko who “ordered” Don Simeon.

“The criminal case against the actual owner of the Arbat-Prestige company Vladimir Nekrasov and its real owner Semyon Mogilevich was conducted by Sergey Vaichulis, investigator of the Investigation Department at the Central Administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Central Federal District. Since the moment of the arrest of these persons, in January 2008 a minimum of investigative actions was carried out. According to representatives of Nekrasov and Mogilevich, some of the “customers” of the case are waiting for further developments and are in talks to buy Arbat-Prestige. The fact that the case is “custom-made” is also confirmed by the operatives of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Central Federal District, working in the field of combating smuggling. According to them, the real value of Arbat Prestige is only the value of the brand itself. The rest of the price is the price of the smuggled canal through which the products are delivered. "Customer" is the Finstar investment holding Oleg Boyko, who at the end of last year entered the Russian perfume market. The situation around Arbat Prestige is getting worse every month. The company has outstanding debts to suppliers, and in June 2008 it will have to repay a loan of 1.5 billion rubles.

The Arbat-Prestige company was founded by Vladimir Nekrasov in 1989 and was engaged in the distribution of imported cosmetics. In 1998, the first store was opened in Moscow. A sharp development of the company began with its transition under the control of Semyon Mogilevich and Igor Fisherman. In 2001, 40% of the company’s shares were taken over by Rinway, among the founders of which were Olga Zhunzhurova (Fisherman’s wife) and Galina Telesh (Mogilevich’s ex-wife). According to operatives of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the Central Federal District, it was at this moment that a good channel for the smuggling of perfumes through shell companies was debugged.

As a result, Arbat-Prestige was characterized on the market as a company with low financial transparency and practicing failure to fulfill the stated plans. In 2003-2004, several scandals occurred around the company. LVMH (Givenchy, Kenzo, Christian Dior brands) refused to cooperate with Arbat Prestige. Claims by LVMH caused non-compliance with the terms of the goods and products, as well as prices that were below the recommended level. Relations between the companies were severed. In 2004, the Polish company Pulanna, a manufacturer of inexpensive cosmetics, accused Arbat Prestige of selling goods not purchased from them. These scandals spawned a wave of rumors about a significant share of counterfeit products in Arbat Prestige".

They hoped to rectify the situation by attracting Troika Dialog management company to Arbat Prestige, which in 2004 acquired a 40% stake in Arbat Prestige owned by Rinway LLC. It was officially announced that the deal cost Troika Dialog $ 100 million. However, in the Central Administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Central Federal District, they believe that the transaction was of a nominal nature and was necessary to partially whitewash the company, which announced its IPO. It is noteworthy that the seller of 40% of the shares was Mr. Nekrasov himself. Moglilevich, Fisherman and their relatives, who were in full control of the company, were not included in it. The chairman of the Board of Directors of Arbat-Prestige was Pavel Teplukhin, who until 2006 was also the president of the Troika Dialog Asset Management Company. According to our interlocutor, soon in Troika Dialog they were horrified by the events inside Arbat Prestige, the products of which came mainly through smuggling schemes. All attempts to at least partially transfer the work of the company into a legal channel ran into the categorical disagreement of Messrs. Mogilevich and Fisherman. All attempts of Troika Dialog to sell its block of shares to a third party also did not find support from the true owners of Arbat Prestige. As a result, in 2007 Troika Dialog announced that it was selling 40% of its shares back to Mr. Nekrasov. Declared transaction price of 400 million dollars. However, our interlocutors say that this amount cannot be true. The price of "Arbat Prestige" did not equal any 1 billion dollars, as it was announced. In addition, in June 2006 LLC Arbat & Co placed a loan of 1.5 billion rubles, organized by Uralsib Bank. Its maturity was rapidly approaching. The company began to have serious problems with suppliers. According to our interlocutor, in 2007 the stake in Arbat Prestige was to be acquired by Finstar investment holding Oleg Boyko. Negotiations Boyko directly with Mogilevich, whom he still knew well in the 90th goals. However, at that moment Mogilevich valued the company at $ 1.5 billion. There was a conflict between Mogilevich and Boyko. As a result, Oleg Boyko decided to buy at least 50% of some company, on the basis of which you can create a large project that can absorb one of the existing networks. His choice fell on the Rive Gauche network, located mainly in St. Petersburg. The deal took place at the end of 2007. At that time, the disappointing indicators of Arbat Prestige became known. According to the Russian reporting for 9 months of 2007, the loss of the Arbat & Co issuer amounted to 134 million rubles, and the profit of the guarantor of OJSC Arbat-Prestige was 63 million rubles. Reporting for previous years was no better. In 2005, the company’s turnover amounted to $ 240 million instead of the projected 445 million, and in 2006 - 346 million instead of the declared 500 million. "

To be continued

Alexey Ermakov