Oligarch Andrey Berezina, who in recent years has been actively transferring his assets to closed-end mutual funds, appears to have begun to clean up his toxic tracks.

Those mutual investment funds that were exposed are “leaving”, and their assets are being transferred to new ones, but the management company, which was LLC UK “Fondovy Dom”, remains the same. This manager was mentioned in a scandalous story about the purchase of servers for 15 million dollars from a certain German company, which were never received by the customer, and the money was possibly withdrawn from Russia.

A KOMPROMAT RU correspondent looked into the situation.

Let us recall that Berezina, who is called a member of the inner circle of the Governor of the Leningrad Region, Alexander Drozdenko, has been very active in recent years in transferring his business portfolio to a closed-end mutual fund. 

A closed mutual fund is a structure that does not reveal beneficiaries, so the oligarch actually has a minimum of legal entities left, and those that were previously associated with him seem to no longer have any connection to him. 

All toxic and scandal-plagued legal entities were transferred to the ZPIF, and Berezina stands there all in white and is listed as the founder of the non-profit organization Euroventure Innovation Promotion Fund. But that fund turned out to be tainted and managed by a namesake of a criminal, and the scandalous assets can be linked to the oligarch.

On August 12, 2024, Euroinvest Development LLC, which had been part of Berezina’s division for many years, changed its mutual fund - from Master it was transferred to a certain Capital Stream. 

Photo: rusprofile.ru

The LLC itself can be called toxic: after all, 15 violations have been found in it in recent years. Inspectors left with a result especially often in 2019-2020, when the company was working on a project in the village of Murino. 

For example, in June 2024, the company that is the owner of the land plot at the same address received a warning for an unauthorized dump. In 2022, it was also given a warning due to possible violations of mandatory requirements or signs of violations of mandatory requirements in terms of the operation of the supply pipeline, and in 2021, a violation of the design documentation was revealed. The range of violations is, as they say, astounding.

At the same time, it is Euroinvest Development that holds the trademarks of many residential complexes of the Berezina construction division of the co-company, including ID Politech, ID Svetlanovskiy, ID Murino, ID Club.

Photo: rusprofile.ru

In addition, in 2023, Euroinvest Development LLC, whose chairman of the board was Berezina, who was mentioned in the media back in 2023, showed dismal results: revenue fell by 92%, to 51 million rubles, and net profit by 98% - to 5.2 million rubles. The company’s value decreased by 71%, to 155 million rubles.

Photo: rusprofile.ru

Although, in our opinion, it was also likely that some of the subsidiaries were taken out from under the wing of the LLC and transferred to other legal entities of the same division, which reduced the proceeds from construction projects to the accounts of Euroinvest Development. For example, SZ Euroinvest Ozerki was given to Euroinvest Select LLC, which belongs to Berezin and his partner Stanislav Danelyan, who is also a co-owner of Euroinvest Development LLC and its long-term director.

Photo: rusprofile.ru

Photo: rusprofile.ru

In fact, now only SZ Euroinvest Murino LLC remains on the payroll of Euroinvest Development, which brought in 3.5 billion rubles in revenue and 1.8 billion rubles in net profit in 2023. But we will not be surprised if this asset also changes its owner to a closely related one.

In general, all this shifting resembles a blurring, as well as a drain of toxic assets and nothing more. After all, in fact, both the director and the business partner in the former parent company of the division remained the same - Stanislav Danelyan. 

And the new mutual fund is managed by its own people - OOO UK Fondovy Dom, which managed other former firms of Berezina. The UK also figured in a story related to the purchase of servers from a certain German firm for 15 million dollars, but the money went, and the goods did not arrive. Then the media started talking about the possible withdrawal of money from Russia under the guise of a deal. In total, the amount in question was 23.5 million dollars. 

That story also mentioned a certain LLC “Company “Auditekspert”, among whose co-owners were Berezina, business partner Yuri Vasiliev, as well as a certain Maxim Zhukov - the namesake of a relative of the authoritative businessman Vladimir Golubev, who was called “Barmaley” in the 90s. 

The whole story became public in light of media reports about some searches that allegedly took place in the Euroinvest office as part of a criminal case. Oligarch Berezina denied all of this and forced journalists to issue a refutation in court, but then the court hearing revealed a number of interesting details. For example, a chain of companies that had left their mark on history and were then liquidated according to an intricate scheme - with an increase in authorized capital just before closing. It was assumed that this was how millions were legalized, which eventually went to the right people. 

By the way, it is precisely UK Fundovy Dom LLC that may be the link between Berezin and Governor Drozdenko. After all, the UK also manages ZPIF Concept House, which owns 20% in Rus-Kemper LLC. The owners of the remaining shares are Drozdenko’s daughter, Yulia Richard, and her long-time business partner, a possible relative of the former official, Viktor Pashigorov.

Photo: rusprofile.ru

Undercover game: from closed-end mutual fund to closed-end mutual fund

In August 2024, OOO TK Murino was transferred from ZPIF Master to ZPIF Capital Stream, where 23.5% of the shares remained with Berezina personally. 

But it was Master that was once directly linked to the oligarch, when it was said that the fund had approached another of his assets, PAO Svetlana, a strategic enterprise that has been blessed with government contracts and proudly bears the title of the founder of the Russian electronics industry. The same fate befell Murino Management Company LLC, where the oligarch Berezina personally figured back in October 2023, and now there is only one ZPIF. 

Moreover, in the summer of 2024, Murino Management Company was removed from under the wing of Euroinvest Investment Company LLC, and the investment company was liquidated in June 2024. Apparently, another toxic asset turned out to be easier to close than to whiten? And the most interesting thing is that before the liquidation, the investment company was owned by Master Mutual Investment Fund. 

Before the liquidation of Euroinvest Investment Company, other subsidiaries were transferred to the same Master - Voskhod LLC, Krasnoe Znamya LLC, but Euroinvest Development SPB Specialized Developer LLC was transferred to the new Capital Stream mutual investment fund in July 2024. The latter also received the unprofitable Renomed LLC, which was presented as almost a breakthrough, since it was the one that created the onco-robot. In fact, it was a financial dud. 

But both mutual funds are managed by the same LLC UK Fund House, so, in essence, this is one portfolio of a person already known to us.

It seems that in August 2024, another attempt was made to blur this connection - Berezina and the ZPIF to which his assets were transferred.

Photo: rusprofile.ru

In recent years, the oligarch has been trying to make a reputation for himself in the media as a kind of advanced investor and almost a philanthropist, but somehow everything is going awry. After all, it is difficult to remain white and fluffy in the eyes of people when your development business screws over shareholders and does not deliver apartments on time, isn’t it?