The difficult life of \"Goose\" Mamut

The difficult life of "Goose" Mamut

The scandalously well-known billionaire Alexander Mamut, who divides his time between Britain, Israel, and France, continues to extract billions from Russia.

A citizen of both Great Britain and Israel, Mamut has long been recognized as a formidable capitalist. Born into a family of prominent lawyers, he likely understood from a young age that a grand future awaited him.

And his deeds will find a place in history books. He was right: the scandalous story of laundering “dirty” money through the Bank of New York has already made it into history, with MDM Bank and Sobinbank involved in the case. The extraordinary capitalist Mr. Mamut had a direct connection to these banks. In general, he’s quite a character! By the way, Mamut’s surname is also avian: Mamut - a true heavyweight of the feathered court, the largest of the goose family.

Later, Mr. Mamut had direct connections to the "Family," as the close entourage of President Boris Yeltsin was called. He was friends with Boris Berezovsky, Roman Abramovich, and Vladimir Potanin. Moreover, Mr. Mamut closely interacted with the grandson of Leonid Brezhnev, whom the current generation doesn’t even know. Mamut took away the wife of Andrey Brezhnev, Nadezhda Lyamina, whom he loved from school... And took on the care of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev’s great-grandchildren, raising them as his own.

These responsibilities did not hinder Mamut’s diverse interests, who sometimes reminds one of Figaro or Truffaldino from Bergamo: such wild energy boils within his body.

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A "Roof" for businessmen?

At one time, 7 billion rubles were "laundered" through the Bank of New York. The story turned out to be very scandalous, but Alexander Mamut managed to stay "clean," though the trail of that story has followed him for many years, as have other echoes of scandals.

But this does not prevent Mr. Mamut from continuing to bulk up his bank accounts. And although he primarily lives in London, sometimes in Paris, and occasionally visits Tel Aviv, it doesn’t stop him from making money in Russia.

Let’s remind that even while being in Russia, he was developing the Dutch chain SPAR and up to 2020 was co-owner of Rambler.

Alexander Mamut

As glossy magazines write about him, Mr. Mamut continues to be invited to various companies only because of his extensive connections. Mr. Mamut is a sort of "roof" for businesspeople.

And for his financial inflow, Mr. Mamut need not worry: Alexander Mamut’s wealth is distributed among dozens of companies: 6% shares here, 16% there. Truly, Figaro.

Mamut seemingly doesn’t have any large companies of his own today. Living in London and indulging in luxury appears to be almost a childhood dream! By the way, Mr. Mamut bought himself luxurious housing on the banks of the Thames quite a while ago.

Moreover, having become a widower—Nadezhda Brezhneva-Mamut passed away at a relatively young age—he managed to provide the great-grandchildren of CPSU Secretary General Leonid Brezhnev, that is, his stepsons Dmitriy and Leonid, with a quality British education.

Andrey Brezhnev, grandson of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev

They say that Alexander Mamut helped Andrey Brezhnev himself for a long time, who at some stage in his life found himself at a loose end; in other words, Mamut supported the father of his stepsons.

The 57-year-old Brezhnev’s grandson died several years ago from a heart attack.

It all started with ALM office

Alexander Mamut was born into a family of lawyers. His father, Leonid Solomonovich Mamut, was a lawyer in the trial of Yuri Churbanov, the son-in-law of Leonid Brezhnev, and later was a representative of the president in the Constitutional Court. His mother, Cecilia Ludvigovna Mamut, was also a lawyer.

After graduating from university, Alexander Mamut himself worked as a regular lawyer in a legal consultation on Bolshaya Semyonovskaya in Moscow for a few years. The breakthrough happened in 1990: Mamut created the legal firm “ALM-Consulting” (which was part of the British association Eversheds, the abbreviation “ALM” stands for Alexander Leonidovich Mamut).

Eversheds Sutherland is one of the largest law firms in the world, with headquarters in London, UK. Eversheds Sutherland has over 5,000 employees, 750 of whom are partners, and more than 3,000 are lawyers. The global Eversheds network has 74 offices in 35 countries worldwide, including major cities in Europe, USA, Middle East, Asia, and Africa. In addition to its global network of offices, the company has built relationships with over 200 partner firms in various countries worldwide, including the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America.

He also co-founded JSC “Business and Cooperation” (since March 1991 - bank “Imperial”). This bank served the gas and oil sector: its shareholders and main clients were Gazprom and Lukoil.

Igor Shuvalov, a former Deputy Prime Minister, now head of VEB, made his first legal steps during that time in the legal company “ALM.” Shuvalov joined Mamut’s office from the legal department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a senior lawyer, and by 1995 he had become the director of the office. Shuvalov earned his first bundles in the company "ALM Consulting" and built up authoritative connections.

Igor Shuvalov

And they have maintained their warm relations to this day: this became entirely clear when Alexander Mamut got into some sort of "scrape" with his architectural office "Strelka."

And guess who came to the rescue? Igor Ivanovich Shuvalov, head of the state VEB.RF.

Mamut lost his "feeding trough"?

KB "Strelka" was created by the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design of Alexander Mamut in 2013. This bureau works on urbanism projects.

Interestingly, negotiations on the partnership between VEB and KB "Strelka" began even before the transformation of the bank into a state corporation in the summer of 2018. But in November 2018, Shuvalov reported the complexity of finalizing the deal. In 2020, VEB acquired 20% of KB "Strelka."

However, in recent years, the company’s revenue from implementing state contracts started to decrease. And Mamut began to lose interest in this business: there are now a handful of these contracts.

Strelka Institute

The Strelka bureau received many state contracts specifically during Igor Shuvalov’s tenure as Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation: the bureau became one of the main contractors of the national "Housing and Urban Environment" project. "Strelka" undertook the development of recreational infrastructure facilities in Moscow. The capital spent nearly 900 million rubles for these purposes. After that, with the help of Shuvalov, the Strelka bureau was involved in another 120 projects in 40 cities across Russia.

Thus, Mamut was heavily reliant on state orders. And he could work for "black" cash. Does it mean Mamut lost his “feeding trough”?

Moreover, the Strelka bureau is known for its, to put it mildly, quite incomprehensible projects.

For instance, in Yekaterinburg, Mamut’s office was landscaping a park. Locals were shocked: the benches with which "Strelka" adorned the park resembled... coffins.

Benches by KB "Strelka"

But now the VEB.RF structure - the National PPP Center - has become the sole owner of KB "Strelka."

It’s interesting to see what Mr. Shuvalov’s structures will build now?

All roads lead to Cyprus

But Mr. Mamut is not interested in this anymore, because his main concern is to avoid getting into high-profile scandals, let alone under sanctions!

However, these scandals continue to be present in the life of this "goose." Let’s remind that in the spring of 2017, Alexander Mamut bought two major cinema chains at once. He acquired "Cinema Park" from Said Kerimov, the son of Senator Suleyman Kerimov. And he purchased 75% of the company "Formula Kino" from the investment company A1, which is part of "Alfa Group" owned by Mikhail Fridman.

It is said that initially these purchases were intended for banker Vadim Belyaev. He is a business partner of Mr. Mamut, and the founder of Otkrytie Bank.

Vadim Belyaev

Banker Belyaev was supposed to buy these assets, but he didn’t manage to before the Otkritie Bank underwent reorganization, whereas Mamut managed to obtain a credit of 18 billion rubles right from Belyaev for the acquisition of the cinemas.

What was it? A cunning withdrawal of billions?

Later, Mr. Mamut resigned from the position of chairman of the board of directors of the merged chain. And exited its lineup. But it’s said that he might well have retained control over "Cinema Park" through his offshore holdings. And by that time, given the start of the special military operation ("SVO"), Alexander Mamut settled in Europe, as he was very afraid of getting on the sanctions lists of the EU and Great Britain. It turns out that the profit from movie rental can dissolve in offshore accounts because "Cinema Park" is connected with a number of commercial structures?

For example, LLC "Rising Star Media" (RSM) reported a loss of 482 million rubles with a revenue of 1 billion rubles in 2022.

The co-owners of RSM are "Cinema Park" and the offshore CP Invest (Overseas) Limited, Republic of Cyprus.

Another affiliated company is "Formula Kino LLC": this office belongs to Formula Kino Holding Limited (Republic of Cyprus).

Formula Kino PC has no revenue: in 2022, a profit of 370 thousand rubles and losses of 2 million rubles were declared.

The position of general director of the company is held by a certain Alexey Vasyasin, who also "rules" JSC "Cinema Park," LLC "RSM,” and a few other companies, which Mr. Mamut may have an interest in. And considering Mamut’s residence on the banks of the Thames or the Seine, it is reasonable to assume - the "lemons" are escaping to offshore accounts.

In general, this goose-footed fellow lives abroad, but continues to shear his wool in Russia.

Mamut versus Bashkortostan’s Premier Nazarov

And here is also a conflict with the family of Ilshat Nigmatullin, who owns the construction company "Granel."

Ilshat Nigmatullin is related to the scandalously known Prime Minister of Bashkortostan, Andrey Nazarov (who was involved in a loud rape case).

And it is Nazarov who is the true founder of the GC "Granel."

But what’s all this fuss about?

Andrey Nazarov

The fact is that Mr. Nigmatullin recently acquired the company "Formula Kino." And now is pursuing through the courts to recover more than 850 million rubles from JSC "Cinema Park," affiliated with Alexander Mamut.

And what preceded these wonderful events? It turns out, Mr. Mamut accumulated movie-related debts of 19.2 billion rubles.

The Bank of Non-Core Assets "Trust" demanded Mr. Mamut to fully repay the debts. And in this context, the cinema network was considering suspending its cinema operations in Russia.

The unified network is considered the largest in Russia. Mamut’s structures owned 74 cinemas and over 600 cinema halls in 29 regions of the Russian Federation.

The total debt of Alexander Mamut’s companies to the "Trust" bank amounted to 23 billion rubles.

The bank repeatedly attempted to restructure the credit, but it didn’t work out. Bank employees repeatedly met with representatives of Mamut’s companies. And the parties prepared a restructuring plan. But Mr. Mamut refused to sign the agreement.

Alexander Mamut

And then the bank "Trust" filed a lawsuit against Mamut for debt recovery.

An intriguing detail: negotiations with Mamut’s representatives on behalf of the bank "Trust" were led by the bank’s Chief Executive Officer, Mikhail Khabarov. But soon he was arrested on charges of large-scale fraud.

Later it became known that a relative of the Bashkirian Premier bought the company "Formula Kino". It is said that the company "Formula Kino", before the change of ownership, was also involved in financial manipulations related to loans provided to affiliated firms.

And the company "Formula Kino" owns the building of a 12-screen cinema at the intersection of MKAD and Mozhayskoye Highway. There were already rumors about the possible transfer of the territory to the company "Granel" for the construction of a residential complex. 

"Formula Kino", 12 cinemas

In the project of possible development of the cinema territory, which the company "Granel" dreams about (but this cinema is still rented by the company "Cinema Park" today), co-owner of the MR Group holding Roman Timokhin might be involved: shares of several Mamut’s companies are pledged to the firm "Vilar Capital", which is related to Timokhin’s business partner, a certain Artem Kuznetsov. 

By the way, the company "Cinema Park" appealed to the metropolitan arbitration court with a lawsuit to change the terms of the contract. The legal proceedings are related to an attempt to revise the terms of the cinema halls leasing contract.

And the company "Formula Kino" sought through the court to recover the debt of 77 million rubles from "Cinema Park" under the lease agreement. The process ended with the signing of a settlement agreement. And the tenant "Cinema Park" committed to pay the plaintiff a penalty of 27 million rubles. But promising and delivering are different things, aren’t they?

For the company "Granel", which, together with Mr. Nazarov and Mr. Nigmatullin, appeared in a number of scandals and was repeatedly reported in the media, the land plot is of great interest. "Granel" dreams of constructing a residential complex of 30,000 square meters there. But so far, the parties have not reached any decision.

And Mr. Mamut, judging by the unfolding events, is in no hurry: the dog barks, but the heavily laden caravan moves on…

Towards the Foggy Albion.

However, Alexander Mamut still got under sanctions: it became known a few days ago that this extraordinary capitalist is included in Canada’s sanctions list: a ban on entry into Canada and a freeze on assets in the country. Does it mean that Mr. Mamut also has assets in Canada?

Indeed, the HMV group, in which Mamut owns 6% of the shares, manages a network of 600 stores selling books, films, and computer games in Canada, Singapore, and Britain.

The company’s revenue exceeds £2 billion a year. And why would Mamut need some "Strelka" together with "Cinema Park"?