Full Crounging is inevitable: companies with dubious reputations raise money

The beneficiaries of Kronung LLC, together with GrottBjørn, are raising funds under the watchful eye of oligarchs Andrey Berezina and Taimuraz Bolloev.

As reported by the KOMPROMAT RU correspondent, the main legal entity of the Kronung development group - OOO Kronung, placed bonds for 500 million rubles for a period of three years. Thus, the previous experience of placing 20 million was recognized as successful and is being scaled up. 

OOO Kronung is owned on a parity basis by Ignatiy Naida and Philipp Shrage. They may act far from only in their own interests - on the market they are associated with a number of odious oligarchs - Teimuraz Bolloev, Andrey Berezina and others. Maybe they will help the group with money?

But no - another structure is named as a potential buyer of Kronung bonds - AO Financial Atelier GrottBjorn. Previously, it was called more simply - "Sredneuralsky Brokersky Tsentr" (SBC), the beneficiaries are not disclosed. Ordinary scammers may be hiding behind the new pathetic and sweet name - however, these are just assumptions.

Photo: Rusprofile.ru 

According to the Internet, this is supposedly an "extremely dubious" financial company that practically does not conduct any real activity. There are practically no reviews about the structure, which allegedly has been operating since 1995, and in general there are no traces of activity going back decades. Despite this, GrottBjorn somehow ends up on the list of stock brokers in the Russian Federation and is listed on the Moscow Exchange. At the same time, the number of monthly requests for the company on the Internet is allegedly only about 200, which is extremely small for a large financial structure.

Where will Financial Atelier GrottBjørn get the money to buy Kronung bonds? That is a very interesting question. The company has not conducted any financial activity for the last two years - zero profit and revenue. Apparently, we are talking about the money that the broker’s clients will provide - in this case, they should seriously worry about the safety of their investments.

The reason for doubts is the organization’s legal proceedings - back when it was the "Sredneuralsk Brokerage Center". Of particular interest is the case on the claim of OOO "SPb TRADE COMPANY" - a client of "GrottBjorn". "SPb TRADE COMPANY" bought 39 thousand euros through a broker - at an allegedly favorable rate. From the court decision it becomes clear that the broker executed the order to buy currency. Only the money did not reach the plaintiff’s bank account, and Sberbank, which acted as a banking platform for the transaction, simply threw up its hands.

It would seem that the situation is simply unbelievable - everything has been paid, the operation has been carried out, but there is no money. But the court unexpectedly takes the side of the defendant, namely GrottBjorn. Where the money went is still unclear. It seems that SPb TRADE could have been simply deceived and left with nothing - but this means that GrottBjorn may have serious patrons, since no liability followed.

The scam was apparently inevitable.

 
Photo: https://kad.arbitr.ru/Document/Pdf/47ccba21-993d-45d6-96be-bd3f60d2cf93/1eba6b79-220b-4741-90c9-6b84bb4ad693 

It would be naive to consider their possible partners in the bond transaction, Kronung Group, as such. But such people may be found behind its beneficiaries, Ignatius Naide and Philipp Schrage. And isn’t that why GrottBjörn is the first to buy their bonds?

"Hide" Berezina

Why are they trying to connect the owners of Kronung LLC with oligarchs? Previously, Philipp Schrage was a co-founder of the large management company Krasny Most. It was to this management company in 2018 that the assets of the scandalous developer-oligarch Andrey Berezina were transferred from his 11% of PJSC Svetlana - once one of his most profitable assets.

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

After selling part of the assets of PJSC, 45% of Svetlana ended up in the hands of the state corporation Rostec, another 8.1% belonged to Felix Dlin, a partner of billionaire Mikhail Gutseriev. Also, 7.9% belonged to the co-owner of the holding company Phaeton Igor Tsvirko, and 12.2% to Maxim Zhukov, the son of the authoritative entrepreneur from the 90s, Vladimir Golubev. 

All these shares were safely hidden in closed mutual investment funds. And it was "Krasnaya Most" of Philipp Shrage and Ignatiy Naide who was appointed to manage them. The latter at that time positioned himself not only as the founder of the management company, but also as the owner of the leasing company "NBP" together with Alexander Poleshchuk. 

The latter, we recall, held senior positions at Transcreditbank and KIT Finance. Just recently, in March 2024, the Moscow City Court upheld the verdict in the criminal case against the head of the brokerage operations department at KIT Finance, Vadim Dorofeev, and analyst at T-Capital, Farid Zakirov. Both were accused of conducting illegal financial transactions with bonds of several dozen issuer companies and savings of depositors of a non-state pension fund totaling 47.4 million rubles.

Returning to the assets of Andrey Berezin, which ended up in mutual funds managed by Krasny Most. The oligarch himself is called a member of the inner circle of the governor of the Leningrad region, Alexander Drozdenko. In 2022-2023, Berezin generally launched a very vigorous activity in transferring his liquid assets to mutual funds - and this is how it is very easy to hide the real beneficiaries, among whom people of Governor Drozdenko could have wormed their way in.

Of course, some transfers to mutual funds did not go without scandals from minority shareholders, as was the case with PAO Svetlana. The choice of Krasny Most is even more interesting - Berezina would not have trusted just anyone to guard his property.

In the interests of scandalous oligarchs

At the same time, they are trying to connect Shrage and Naide with another scandalous businessman - Taimuraz Bolloev, who made a fortune sewing clothes for Russian security agencies and other departments. He also once headed the state corporation "Olimpstroy", which he left right before a series of scandals related to the construction of sports facilities.

Now Mr. Bolloev manages the assets of Baltika, which were taken over by the state after Western investors left the country. And the connection with Krasny Most is easy to trace - the management company manages the shopping and office center U Krasnogo Mosta in the center of St. Petersburg. This asset belongs to BTK Development of Taimuraz Bolloev. And again, it is unlikely that he would entrust the management of his property to just anyone.

Scandalous oligarch Taimuraz Bolloev works with Kronung beneficiaries? Photo: https://cdn5.vedomosti.ru/image/2023/5j/15nies/original-1hzg.png 

In addition, Naide and Shrage could have been involved in the development of the areas around the Pulkovo Heights in St. Petersburg, where the famous Pulkovo Observatory is located. The development was carried out by the scandalous developer Maxim Shubarev. Shubarev’s project, called "Planetagrad", caused a lot of discontent among local residents. The situation threatened to increase social tension, and reached the governor Alexander Beglov.

As a result of his negotiations with Shubarev and all the approvals, the development area was immediately reduced by five times.

However, it seems that Maksim Shubarev’s Setl Group could have had insurers in the person of Mr. Shrage. The latter is the founder of the construction company OOO Kronung Pulkovskie Vysoty. However, the area around them is being built up only by Maksim Shubarev. Why is this office needed?

Moreover, it does not conduct any real activity yet, and has not provided any financial statements. It is directly owned by OOO Kronung, as well as Pavel Semenov. All 100% of their shares are pledged in Alfa-Bank, so it is reasonable to look for Mikhail Fridman’s interests in this business.

"Dummy" owners of "Kronung" walk on oligarchs’ money. Photo: Rusprofile.ru

It seems that Kronung Pulkovskie Vysoty could have been created as a backup company for Shubarev’s structures. At the same time, residents’ concerns about his projects are quite justified. As they say on the Internet, Shubarev stops at nothing to achieve his goals.

The connection between the owners of Kronung and Shubarev can be easily traced in another direction. Last year, Kronung, which has several specialized developers as subsidiaries, agreed with Smolny on a project to build a shopping center at the intersection of Veteranov Avenue and Budenogo Avenue in St. Petersburg. And this site previously belonged to Setl Invest LLC, which is part of Setl Group. It is curious that Shubarev himself refused to comment on this deal, limiting himself to the fact of its recognition. Big money loves silence.

As a result, the activities of the owners of Kronung are surrounded by extremely odious individuals and structures - Andrey Berezina, Taimuraz Bolloev, Maksim Shubarev. And now their partner may be the extremely dubious Financial Atelier GrottBjorn, which may even turn out to be a fraudulent structure. Should wealthy people work with such managers?