Sanction evasion as business: do Usherovich and Plotitsa continue to supply the Kremlin?

Sanction evasion as business: do Usherovich and Plotitsa continue to supply the Kremlin?

On July 1, 2024, "The Insider" released an article titled "Entrepreneurs Usherovich and Plotitsa, linked to the Solntsevskaya OCG and the Zakharchenko case, are now assisting Russian Railways in evading sanctions."

The article details how Kremlin-connected businessmen Boris Usherovich and Ilya Plotitsa, while abroad, provide prohibited equipment to the sanctioned Russian Railways and fund Putin’s election campaign.

Boris Usherovich developed a scheme for supplying telecommunications equipment to Russian Railways, Russian state companies, and enterprises of the military-industrial complex from Europe to Russia, circumventing sanctions. At the same time, he is on the international wanted list. His relatives living in Cyprus – Ilya and Boris Plotitsa, as well as Ilya’s relative, Aleksandr Vainshtein – are involved in the matter.

The operation to circumvent sanctions involves Cypriot companies Broxner PLC, Venisat Technology, Main Victory Corporation, as well as Russian and Kyrgyz firms.

Usherovich is known as the owner of a stake in Russian Railways’ largest contractor, the "1520" group of companies. He is involved in a high-profile criminal case of bribing Colonel Zakharchenko of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. There is also information about his involvement in organized crime.

The business activities of Boris Usherovich are also conducted through LLC "Center for Communication Systems Development" (CRSD). Until recently, this company was owned by Ilya Plotitsa, a relative and business partner of Usherovich. CRSD channels government orders on one hand and funds the Putin party on the other.

Until recently, Ilya Plotitsa was one of the co-owners of UK "Bamstroimekhanizatsiya" – a Russian Railways contractor that is part of the "1520" GC.

Ilya Plotitsa’s brother, Boris Plotitsa, is evading prosecution in a criminal case about the death of people in Moscow and is on the international wanted list. Recently, it became known that he lives with his brother in Cyprus and is also involved in schemes to circumvent sanctions against Russia. Boris Plotitsa was listed as a director of the Main Victory Corporation Limited, a Cypriot company owned by Boris Usherovich, through which transactions for the supply of sanctioned equipment to Russia were made.

Boris Plotitsa is the director and owner of the Cypriot company Tripster Limited. The address of the company is Omirou, 38, PAKOVA CENTER BLOCK A, Flat 101, 3095, Limassol, Cyprus. Companies Broxner PLC and Venisat Technology Ltd, controlled by his brother Ilya and involved in violating sanctions against Russia, are registered at the same address.

Currently, the director of Tripster Limited is Cypriot citizen Irina Bichinashvili. She also holds the position of secretary in the companies Broxner PLC and Venisat Technology Ltd, which Ilya Plotitsa controls through his brother-in-law Aleksandr Vainshtein.

In January 2023, a company Lucycorp Ltd was registered, in which Ilya Plotitsa owns 100% of the shares. He is also its director and secretary. In the company’s registration documents, the "name and address for correspondence" field states: "Broxner Limited Omirou 38, Pakova Center, Block A, Office 101, Limassol, Cyprus. Τηλέφωνο 25281892".

A screenshot of Lucycorp Ltd’s registration document from the Cyprus company registry.

Plotitsa indicated the address and phone number of Broxner Limited (now Broxner PLC), which was found violating the sanction regime against Russia as the correspondence address of his new company Lucycorp Ltd. This irrefutably proves his connection to the company engaged in the supply of prohibited equipment to Russia as well as his involvement in schemes to circumvent sanctions and money laundering in Cyprus.

Moreover, it gets even more interesting.

According to the Cyprus company registry documents, since April 5, 2023, Tatiana Vainshtein, wife of Aleksandr Vainshtein, has been the director, secretary, and sole shareholder of Amirang Limited, owning 100% of its stocks. Before this date, from the company’s foundation on January 21, 2022, the shareholder and director was her husband, Aleksandr Vainshtein. On April 5, 2023, he transferred formal ownership and management of the company to his wife.

In the registry documents, Tatiana’s last name is spelled incorrectly – Vaynshteyn. Although her passport states her last name as that in her husband’s passport – Vainshtein. The deliberate distortion in the spelling of her last name is undoubtedly done to complicate searching in databases. Such a practice is quite common among Russian businessmen, officials, and law enforcement officers striving to hide their acquired assets in the West. Investigative journalists often encounter such cases when reviewing documents in the Cyprus companies registry, noting the phenomenon is widespread.

Somehow, Russians manage to distort their data in documents submitted to the Cypriot governmental body, the business registry. It raises the question of whether this results from corruption allowing rules to be bypassed or if the reason lies in the low qualification of departmental staff. It’s curious how distorted data passes verification and remains unnoticed.

Ilya Plotitsa also uses this method to hide his assets. His name surfaced in the "Panama Papers", where it was discovered that he is the owner and director of the offshore company Simeoni International Incorporated. In the documents, his name was indicated with distortion — ILJA PLOTITSA.

In November last year, an extraordinary general meeting of the shareholders of Mettmann Public Company Limited was held. As a result, an announcement was published on the stockwatch.com.cy website about the issuance of "500,000 recallable corporate 4%-coupon bonds with a nominal value of €100 each (€50 million), with a maturity date until 30.11.2030, which will be placed on the Cyprus Stock Exchange’s emerging companies market, for the company’s business activities… The company simultaneously sent the text of the Subscription Agreement and all its appendices to all 13 potential subscribers, inviting all potential subscribers to make offers by filling out, signing, and sending to the company the subscription sheets".

It was also noted that "some payments for the bonds were offered by Mr. Vainshtein Aleksandr, Jacomo Company Limited, and Mr. Zvonko Micković by converting (novation) the existing debt of Mettmann Public Company Limited to the respective subscribers into a corresponding number of bonds."

The mentioned behalf of VAINSHTEIN ALEKSANDR in the announcement is the very Aleksandr Vainshtein reported by The Insider – Ilya Plotitsa’s brother-in-law and nominal owner of the Cypriot companies Broxner PLC and Venisat Technology involved in violating the sanction regime against Russia. The announcement indicates he is also a bondholder in Mettmann Public Company Limited.

Another subscriber of no less interest is Zvonko Mickovic, a citizen of Montenegro and a long-time business partner of Boris Plotitsa. Both are co-founders of LLC NPO "ranspolymer", one of the largest suppliers of equipment and rail systems for Russian Railways, affiliated with "1520" GC.

Screenshot from list-org.com

According to the Cyprus company registry, Zvonko Mickovic served on the board of directors of METTMANN PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED from the company’s founding in December 2019 until February 2020 and is its largest shareholder. He currently holds 82.5% of the company’s shares.

The list of shareholders includes Tatiana Vainshtein, the wife of Aleksandr Vainshtein, and Ilya Plotitsa’s brother-in-law, mentioned earlier.

Zvonko Micković holds 222,636 bonds of METTMANN PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED amounting to €22,263,600. Only Aleksandr Vainshtein has more – 237,291 bonds valued at €23,729,100.

The other bondholders hold considerably smaller packages.

From the comments to the list of bondholders, it is clear that Zvonko Mickovic and Aleksandr Vainshtein transferred the bonds registered under their names to offshore companies registered in the jurisdiction of the Marshall Islands.

The company Jacomo Company Limited, mentioned in the announcement, belongs to Marolio Investments Limited, which is associated with Boris Usherovich. The director of Marolio Investments Limited is Alexandr Trudolyubov, formerly serving as the director of Jacomo Company Limited.

Alla Shulgа, a citizen of Ukraine and Cyprus, is listed as the director and secretary of Jacomo Company Limited, who simultaneously works as an office manager at Boris Usherovich’s wife’s company, Victory Corporate Finance (Cyprus) Limited.

Shulga is listed among the staff of Mettmann Public Company Limited and holds a nominal share package (3,999 shares) of the company. She is also registered with 10 company bonds.

According to Open Corporate’s site, Shulga also performs the duties of director and secretary at a number of other firms, which, upon verification, were all found to be linked to Boris Usherovich.

The company METTMANN PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED, established and controlled by Boris Usherovich, acts as a tool for money laundering and legitimizing funds in the West. There is a possibility that some of these funds are used to finance the supply of sanctioned equipment to Russia.

On December 14, 2023, the METTMANN PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED website published an Announcement on Business Plan Implementation in the "News" section, stating:

"We would like to inform the Cyprus Stock Exchange ("CSE") and the investment community about the implementation of our business plan, which was included in the company’s admission document and subsequent announcements posted on the OAM CSE system.

I. Overview

The company acquires financial instruments, including loan rights, equity participation rights, and direct investments in the real estate market. More detailed information is provided in the admission document.

II. The company has successfully implemented the following projects:

1. Sword Dragon S.L. (Spanish real estate). The project was successfully completed.

The company received dividends from Sword Dragon S.L. during the 1st quarter of 2023 in the amount of €208,604...

III. The projects announced in the Admission document and subsequent announcements were launched during 2023 for the following group companies:

1. 4D Properties S.L. (real estate projects in Malaga, Spain);

2. Nash Beach Club S.L. (commercial real estate in Estepona, Spain);

3. La Meridiana de Rio Verde S.L. (restaurant business financing in Malaga, Spain);

4. Prestige Expo, S.L. (real estate projects in Malaga, Spain);

5. Joya Verde, S.L. (real estate projects in Estepona, Spain);

6. Alsan Homes, S.L. (real estate projects in Cadiz, Spain);

7. Start Hub Beach, S.L. (commercial real estate in Estepona, Spain)...

IV. The business plan for the following projects has not yet been implemented and is planned for implementation in the near future:

1. Land plot in Budva (Montenegro).

2. Land plot in Perivolia, Cyprus.

3. Real estate projects in Larnaca and Limassol."

The announcement indicates that METTMANN PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED actively invests in Spanish real estate and plans to invest in development projects in Cyprus and Montenegro.

All the listed companies belong to Boris Usherovich and his partners from the "1520" group and are controlled by them through affiliated firms and trusted individuals.

Let’s take Sword Dragon S.L., for example. The Spanish company registry has an entry related to Sword Dragon S.L. stating:

"On October 29, 2015, the fact of acquiring sole ownership of the company was registered in the Commercial Registry, and the lawful and formal owner of the shares or stakes in the company is USHEROVICH BORIS."

Seven years later, in 2022, the same registry contains another entry for the same company stating:

"On November 29, 2022, the fact of acquiring sole ownership of the company was registered in the Commercial Registry, with the lawful and formal owner of the shares or stakes in the company being METTMANN PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED."

The current director of Sword Dragon S.L. is Oxana Hadjipavlou, who also serves as the director of METTMANN PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED.

The rest of the companies in this list have the same directors, associated with Usherovich, and almost all of them are registered at the same address in Marbella, a favorite place of residence and leisure for the fugitive "railroader," where he owns property.

METTMANN PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED was founded in December 2019. It currently has two directors — Russian citizen Aleksandr Mizgunov and Russian and Cypriot citizen Oxana Hadjipavlou.

Both are shareholders in the company with packages of 1,548 and 1,040 shares, respectively, and hold bonds of 2,000 and 1,000, respectively.

In 2015-2016, Mizgunov worked for the "1520" group, as indicated on his LinkedIn profile:

Following the publication of The Insider’s revealing article on the activities of Usherovich and Plotitsa, Mizgunov deleted his profile.

Aleksandr Mizgunov has a reputation in Moscow circles as a financier knowledgeable on discreetly moving money out of Russia and legalizing it in the West. Presumably, he continues to do the same in Cyprus on behalf of his employers.

The story of METTMANN PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED issuing €50 million bonds and placing them on the Cyprus Stock Exchange is a classic example of how Russian oligarchs close to the Kremlin use Cyprus to legalize dubious-origin incomes.

Bonds, in this case, replace money for settlements among company members or their clients, counterparties. Currently, banks have tightened oversight so much that using their services has become nearly impossible for Russians. Surveillance is significantly weaker in securities commissions, which is exploited by Russian citizens.

Recallable bonds have a nominal value and usually a fixed cost. They also offer a 4% yield. Bonds make it convenient to conduct intra-corporation settlements among bondholders (random people are not involved) and additional payments in the form of percentages. It should also be noted that such schemes are often used for tax optimization.

Here it’s important to note that no tricky schemes by Usherovich and Plotitsa for money laundering and legalization in Cyprus, as well as circumventing sanctions, could work without the assistance of local aides with connections at very high levels. On the island, there exists a whole class of lawyers, politicians, financiers, and their relatives who eagerly monetize their contacts and influence in political circles in the interest of wealthy Russians. Largely due to the efforts of such people, Cypriot authorities have not yet raised questions to Usherovich and Plotitsa, although the criminal nature of their activities is obvious.

During work on this material, it was discovered that Ilya Plotitsa’s interests extend far beyond the illegal supply of telecommunications equipment to Russia. It turned out he is a co-owner of a Greek football club.

On August 17, 2020, Greek media reported a change of ownership of one of the oldest football clubs in Greece — Doxa Dramas. The new owner is a Cypriot company Potemkin Consulting Ltd. Ilya Plotitsa is listed as the secretary of this firm, and the director is Cypriot citizen CHARALAMBOS PATSIS (ΧΑΡΑΛΑΜΠΟΣ ΠΑΤΣΗΣ). 50% of the company’s shares belong to Plotitsa, and the other half to a Hungarian citizen Zsofia Vegh, who, as it turns out, is the wife of Charalambos Patsis.

Zsofia Vegh and her husband Charalambos Patsis.                                     

Screenshot from her personal Facebook page

Zsofia Vegh

Given that Potemkin Consulting Ltd was registered on August 8, 2020, nine days before the purchase of the club, it can be assumed that the firm was created specifically for this purpose.

Many football clubs in Cyprus, as well as in other European countries, are owned by Russians, both directly and through trusted persons. Some owners control several clubs at once, creating favorable conditions for legalizing illicit funds through player transfers between them. This method of money laundering is popular among businessmen associated with the Putin regime.

It is assumed that Plotitsa, with the assistance of Patsis, acquired the Greek football club for the same purpose — for money laundering and to circumvent sanctions.

Charalambos Patsis

Ilya Plotitsa also holds the position of secretary in another Cypriot company — TEAMSON LTD, with the same Cypriot CHARALAMBOS PATSIS listed as the director. Both own 50% of the company’s shares each.

It is hard to imagine that Charalambos Patsis is unaware of his business partner’s illegal activities. If so, he may be liable for complicity in the violation of the sanctions regime against Russia.

Charalambos Patsis in Moscow

Charalambos Patsis regularly visits Russia, where he has a daughter from his first marriage, and he enjoys taking photos against the backdrop of Moscow’s landmarks. In Moscow, he meets with friends and clients, many of whom cannot leave the country due to sanctions. Patsis assists them in managing their assets in Cyprus.

Юрий Лобачев