The vibrant feathers of Moshe Kantor

The vibrant feathers of Moshe Kantor

Billionaire Vyacheslav Kantor, famous for his taste for extravagant luxury, has long resided in London, holds an Israeli passport, yet continues to make his fortune in Russia.

When the name “Kantor” comes up, many recall Oleg Kantor, the president of Yugorskiy Oil Bank, who was brutally stabbed at the government sanatorium “Snegiri.”

But this story is about another Kantor — a wealthy namesake who avoided such a fate by leaving Russia. Vyacheslav, or Moshe, as his inner circle calls him, was once even expected to have a bright career in space science.

The "promotion" of Mr. Kantor was greatly influenced by three "whales": his friend, the late Boris Berezovskiy. Both Kantor and Berezovskiy graduated from MAI at one time and both worked in the institute laboratories for a while. The late former state secretary of the Russian Federation Gennadiy Burbulis also played a huge role in the establishment of Vyacheslav Kantor as a businessman. And the third person to whom Mr. Kantor will owe forever is the former governor of the Novgorod region, also now deceased Mikhail Prusak.

Had it not been for Prusak, Vyacheslav Kantor would not have roped in the former union enterprise "Azot", which transformed into the "Acron" group. And although Mr. Kantor, who fell under sanctions, allegedly handed over all reins to several top managers, persistent rumors circulate that he continues to steer this powerful chemical enterprise.

Moshe Kantor milks "Acron" perfectly, and the thick "broth" continues to flow into quiet harbors, called offshore companies.

Floating to Redbrick

Hard times came for Mr. Kantor in 2022 when he came under sanctions. Vyacheslav Kantor allegedly lost part of the "Acron" group and supposedly transferred his 45.1% share to the management, namely to three top managers.

However, according to experts, in reality, the businessman remained at the helm of the "Acron" group.

Vyacheslav (Moshe) Kantor

Thus, structures of three top managers received fiduciary management over 45.1% of the shares of the fertilizer producer.

Specifically, the company "Grinfert" of the chairman of the board of directors of PJSC "Acron" Alexandr Popov received 14.6%, "Positive Investments and Management" of vice-president Dmitriy Khabrat received 16%, and "Demetra" of the head of the legal department Pavel Vavilov received 14.5%.

The board of directors of the "Acron" group approved the transfer of shares into fiduciary management. 

Thus, Redbrick Investments S.a r.l. and JSC "Acron group" retained 40.9%. Another 9.3% of the shares are accounted for by the treasury package, and the remaining shares are in free circulation.

Redbrick Investments S.a.r.l. Issuer information. (LEI 222100Q57N8L9METEO64). News and credit ratings. Tables with accounting and financial reports.

The transfer of packages – as mentioned above ‒ was connected with the sanctions introduced by the European Union in April 1922 against the beneficiary of the "Acron" group, Vyacheslav Kantor.

Redbrick Investments S.a.r.l. Issuer information. (LEI 222100Q57N8L9METEO64). News and credit ratings. Tables with accounting and financial reports.

And although formally Vyacheslav Kantor reduced his participation in the company’s capital to remove the group from the sanctions’ influence, in reality, he hardly stepped away from managing the "Acron" group.

Notably, the number of arbitration cases his office is involved in is quite surprising.

Previously, almost all oligarchs similarly reduced their shares in fertilizer-producing companies: Dmitriy Mazepin stopped being the controlling shareholder of the company "Uralkali", sold 52% in LLC "Basic Chemical Company Uralkhim", as well as the company "Uralkhim".

Dmitriy Mazepin

He transferred the controlling package to the company’s top managers. Another oligarch, Andrey Melnichenko, transferred the management of the "Eurochem" company to his wife 24 hours before the European Union imposed sanctions against him.

But in March of this, 2025, it became known that Switzerland excluded 7 Russians from the sanctions list.

Among them was billionaire Vyacheslav Kantor.

Traded in underwear

But how did Mr. Kantor acquire such wealth?

It turns out Vyacheslav Kantor has been trading all his life. He did not disdain anything: neither enterprises with hundreds of workers, nor women’s underwear, nor defense secrets.

Vyacheslav Kantor

Incidentally, Vyacheslav Kantor’s father, Vladimir Kantor, once held the position of director of the Sokolniki department store.

In 1989, Kantor Sr. was sentenced by the Moscow City Court to 8 years in a high-security colony under articles: embezzlement of state property on a particularly large scale, speculation on a particularly large scale, negligence, and others.

But Kantor Jr., in his youth, did not follow his father’s trading paths. To begin with, he graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute with a degree in "system engineer".

After graduating from MAI, he rose to become head of a laboratory for designing inter-orbital spacecraft.

MAI

But already in 1986, Vyacheslav Kantor was accused of wanting to trade in state secrets. And he was shown the door.

But this only fueled the young man’s ambitions. Vyacheslav Kantor opened – apparently with the help of his father, who was still at large – a women’s underwear section in GUM. And he did not miss: panties and combined dresses were selling like hot cakes.

Thus, he earned some capital. And soon Mr. Kantor became the director of the commercial center "Composite": the office provided services for the supply of office equipment to budget organizations. He also managed to become the founder of several firms, including a joint Russian-American company "Intelligent Materials and Systems" (Intelmas).

It was under the roof of Intelmas that Vyacheslav Kantor met Gennadiy Burbulis. 

Gennadiy Burbulis

Soon Mr. Burbulis became the state secretary of the Russian Federation.

Metamorphoses: how "Azot" became "Acron"

Friendship with Mr. Burbulis opened up unprecedented horizons for Vyacheslav Kantor, but for this, Kantor had to move to the Novgorod region. He moved with the light hand of Mr. Burbulis: it was 1992 on the calendar.

And the wave of privatizations was already in full swing in Russia. And at that time, high-ranking officials in the Novgorod region urgently needed to "evaluate" the assets of the chemical plant PO "Azot" "without losses". For "valuation", Mr. Kantor was invited.

He made calculations: PO "Azot" was valued at $600,000. And already then, somehow in Kantor’s "pockets", there was a stake of 35%.

A little later, the cunning dealer added most of the remaining shares, having performed some manipulations.

The essence of the schemes was that packages of 29,000 securities with a nominal value of one thousand rubles were exchanged for a single share with a nominal value of 29 million. And shareholders who did not have such a quantity of shares — almost the entire workforce of PO "Azot" — had to sell their securities for a pittance.

With the arrival of the new team, the previous foreign trade scheme was considered outdated. And the export of ammonia and mineral fertilizers went bypassing the FTS through Panama offshore companies Transchem International INC and Isofert Trading INC.

TRANSCHEM INTERNATIONAL INC. in Panama

Since more than half of Acre’s shares transferred to three Gibraltarian "subsidiaries" (MMB Center Ltd, SK Enterprises Limited, Wetech Limited), which were personally controlled by Kantor, the new scheme allowed for the withdrawal of a significant portion of foreign exchange revenues." abroad.

Then Kantor bought the chemical enterprise "Dorogobuzh" in the Smolensk region.

And the company transformed into the "Acron" holding.

Boris Berezovskiy’s personal bank

And another two dozen chemical plants joined the Moshe Kantor empire, such as ZAO “Akronit”, ZAO “Novpromgaz”, and others, and the controlling stake ended up in Kantor’s bottomless "pocket".

Moreover, the group "Akron" acquired 8% of the shares of the company "Silvinit", the main supplier of potassium raw materials", 20% of the shares of LLC "Roskhimterminal" and 7.73% of the shares of the company "Apatit" in Murmansk.

The media wrote that Mr. Kantor at that time did not disdain the support of a criminal authority, three times convicted Andrei Gorshkov.

Andrei Gorshkov

And the political support from the powers that be for Kantor was very interesting.

At various times, former Chairman of the Federation Council Yegor Stroyev, governor of the Novgorod Region Mikhail Prusak, and billionaire, owner of the AvtoVAZBank, Kantor’s friend, Boris Berezovskiy, appeared in close relations with Vyacheslav Kantor.

Boris Berezovskiy

For a long time, the money flows of the "Acron" group passed through the AvtoVAZbank-Moscow, known as Berezovskiy’s bank.

Sardinia Island: Moshe Kantor’s 11 villas

And if such "money" flows in, and for many years, what to do with it? Not salt it, right?

And Moshe Kantor came up with a good idea for where to dump the "cabbage": the choice fell on Sardinia Island, where the billionaire bought 11 villas at the Porto Rotondo resort on the Emerald Coast of Costa Smeralda.

Among these wonderful palaces were villas bought from the family of former Italian Prime Minister, the late Silvio Berlusconi: one of the lavish buildings once belonged to Silvio Berlusconi’s mother, the other to Paolo Berlusconi, the late politician’s brother.

Porto Rotondo, Costa Smeralda coast

But in 2022, all the villas of Mr. Kantor were seized.

The Italian L’Union Sarda wrote that due to the overly complex intertwining of trusts and real estate in Moshe Kantor’s property on Sardinia Island, it took more than three months to execute the decision of the European Council, which ordered the confiscation of Kantor’s assets back in April 2022, following the announcement of the fifth package of sanctions.

This was reported by RBC.

But Moshe Kantor also has other luxurious real estate: a house near London and a huge chalet on Route Street near Geneva, Switzerland.

Moshe Kantor’s house near London

Later, Mr. Kantor faced a new problem: the UK authorities launched an investigation into two charitable organizations linked to Moshe Kantor.

 These are the Kantor Charitable Foundation and the World Holocaust Forum Foundation. As a result, the Charity Commission froze Moshe Kantor’s bank account.

This was reported "Version".

By the way, the Kantor Charitable Foundation donated over $10 million to King Edward VII Hospital, where the royal family receives treatment. The hospital used the funds to construct an outpatient center.

A representative of King Edward VII Hospital said Moshe Kantor’s name was removed from a hospital wing after he came under sanctions. After this unpleasant news, Mr. Kantor announced his decision to cease charitable activities in the UK.

"Cuckoo’s Nest" Ester Malka

And of course, the biggest tragedy in the life of the billionaire, who lives in 4 countries – let’s recall, that’s Russia, Israel, Britain, and Switzerland – is the tragedy with his daughter Ekaterina Kantor, who, after fleeing to Israel, changed her name. And became known as Ester Malka.

Details can be read here.

Publication in the Israeli edition "Maariv": Ekaterina Kantor eventually transformed into Ester Malka

The daughter of Moshe Kantor became a homeowner in Switzerland at the age of 16 but fell heavily on forbidden substances. And Papa Kantor cut off all "oxygen". After all, how’s it spending $15,000 a day for many years? And suddenly being stranded?

Before changing her name, Ekaterina Kantor admitted in an interview with Israeli media that after escaping from – in her words – "private cuckoo nest", a luxurious lifestyle was left in the past.

And the wardrobe left in Moscow cost half a million dollars: it included shoes worth 1,000 euros and handbags for 2,000 euros.

And now Katya – she’s Ester Malka – buys clothes in a standard "Golf" store. And wears a 40 shekel watch.

Kantor’s daughter calls her father a "paranoiac" in her interviews.

Moshe Kantor

Ester Malka has moved to several countries in her life. She studied in the USA at a university where she studied psychology and business management, but returned to Switzerland without completing her education. And by this time, her father divorced her mother, Anna Kantor…

By then, the health of Moshe Kantor’s daughter had deteriorated so much that she herself asked her father to place her in a rehabilitation center.

Her father found a psychiatrist who immediately confiscated the patient’s mobile phone. And then, the young woman fled to Israel, bringing jewelry worth $5 million.

Such is the multifaceted life of Moshe Kantor. And, as we see, there are many losses in this life: a family where there were 5 children collapsed. 11 villas in Sardinia were seized, and the daughter turned into a very sick person.

His wife, Anna Kantor, was born and raised in Ukraine, Moshe Kantor decided to leave: just in case!

If he remembers himself, where exactly he’s living, what passports he holds? And to which golden calf he serves?