"Russian Lotto" as a "business elevator" for Sargsyan

One of the largest manufacturers of elevators and lifting equipment, Otis sells its plant in St. Petersburg. The buyer will be the Russian holding S8 Capital Armen Sargsyan, better known for investments in the lottery business.

The amount of the transaction is not called, but the real beneficiary of the transfer of property rights to Sargsyan may be the team of the head of the Rostec state corporation Sergei Chemezov. More details - in the material The Sankt-Petersburg Post.

Interestingly, the negotiations on the deal were led by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in the person of Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, although on both sides we are talking about private structures. Manturov is considered close to Sergei Chemezov, from the family for many years they have been doing joint business.

Armen Sargsyan's holding S8 Capital includes operators of popular lotteries Russian Lotto, Stoloto and others that bring multi-million dollar profits and state-regulated ones. However, in reality, the team of Sergei Chemezov may be behind them.

The connection is difficult to trace, but possible. They "punctured" once - at the very end of 2019, when the modest owner of a black caviar trading business Nadezhda Bartosh from the Moscow region "unexpectedly" won a whole billion rubles in "Russian Lotto"

Given the presence of several businesses, Bartosh's participation in the lottery could be a frank "setup" for advertising "Russian Lotto" from S8 Armen Sargsyan. Moreover, Bartosh was the exclusive distributor of Caviar Court Food Processing products in Russia. Do they play the lottery?

Intelligence Veterans Jackpot

Bartosh company (30%), where the second owner is Anton Zhuravlev (30%), was called TD "Tsarsky Sturgeon." Who owns the remaining 40% is unknown. After media attention to Bartosh's person and this structure, she quickly changed her name to SMM Trading House LLC.

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

Other information has been preserved. Until June 2018, one of the co-founders of the Tsarskoye Sturgeon TD was Sergey Karaoglanov, who was also the co-founder of the Dzhermuk TD, which was engaged in the wholesale trade in drinks, as well as TD SMM LLC.

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

Sergei Karaoglanov is the current head in three organizations, the total revenue of which at the end of 2021 amounted to 1.3 billion rubles. He also acted as the founder of a dozen legal entities at once, one of which deserves special attention - the regional public organization (ROO) "Veterans of foreign economic organizations for military-technical cooperation." He came out of the co-founders of the ROO only in the summer of 2021 - just after the scandal with Bartosh and her incredible win.

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

One of the co-founders of the RPO is another RPO: "Foreign Intelligence Veterans," as well as the all-Russian public organization "Association of Veterans and Security Officers." Its president is the former head of security of President Boris Yeltsin, Alexander Korzhakov.

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

As you know, Sergei Chemezov himself worked for many years in the state security agencies. Perhaps Sergey Aleksandrovich Karaoglanov was also related to them. According to evil languages, allegedly earlier in Wikipedia there was an article about him, or about his full namesake. But now there is no such article (where has it gone?) - but the screenshot has been preserved.

Photo: discovery sources

We do not undertake to judge the authenticity, but if you believe this screenshot, then earlier Karaoglanov, allegedly, was the general director of the All-Russian association Oboronexport, by the name of Rosoboronexport, which was previously part of Rostec.

The same Karaoglanov, according to the screenshot, could previously work as an adviser to the general director of the Moscow aviation software MiG, which now, after a series of transformations, is part of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC). Which, in turn, is part of the Rostec circuit.

But something else is also interesting. The already mentioned ROO "Foreign Intelligence Veterans" has 10 subsidiaries. One of them from 2015 to the same "highlighted" 2021 was JSC AKB Novikombank, which is now 100% owned by Sergey Chemezov's Rostec state corporation. Is the circle closed?

Photo: Rusprofile.ru

Thus, it can be assumed that Sergei Chemezov and Sergei Karaoglanov may be familiar for many years, and interact through a number of organizations, including public associations of former employees of the state security bodies. And the S8 of Mr. Sargsyan is to act in the interests of people close to Rostec.

The question arises: with what money will Sargsyan buy an elevator plant in St. Petersburg? At the end of 2021, the main legal entity of the holding JSC S8 Capital had a loss of 173 million rubles with revenue of 1.1 billion rubles. And this is in the presence of assets with a total value of 4.2 billion rubles.

One gets the impression that the holding is a kind of "cube" for pumping assets, which, moreover, has a very indirect relation to lotteries and industrial production. We could observe something similar with the owner of NK Bank Viktor Grigoriev, who is considered a person close to Chemezov.

Earlier, Rostec sold 75% minus one share of the Technodinamika holding to Grigoriev's structures for a ridiculous price for such an asset (dozens of high-tech enterprises in the aircraft industry) of 13.8 billion rubles. Given the strategic nature of the asset, they were allowed to bid... only Grigoriev's structure. After all, Rostec was personally involved in the selection.

The Mess of Fate

As for Armen Sargsyan, he completely resembles the "pampering of fate." At one time, he very successfully married Ekaterina Ordzhonikidze, a socialite and daughter of the former vice-mayor of Moscow during the reign of Luzhkov, Joseph Ordzhonikidze. The latter, among other things, could oversee the development of the gambling business in the capital (then it was not banned), as well as state lotteries.

In 2009, Sargsyan became co-owner and president of Orglot, the then operator of Gosloto. Three years later, the businessman took the hands of Sportloto. And in 2012, he bought Sportloto from Sberbank, after which he was chosen in 2014 as the operator of 30 Russian lotteries at once. Jackpot!

There are other scandals behind Sargsyan. According to the authors of the site "Moment of Truth," the entrepreneur allegedly has a sister Jacqueline, who previously worked in the Accounts Chamber, and then headed the apparatus of the Committee on Financial Markets of the State Duma. Earlier, she bought a large real estate portfolio from ex-co-owner of Vneshprombank Larisa Markus for 300 million rubles.

It could turn out that Jacqueline Sargsyan owns assets that may belong to depositors. Later, Larisa Marcus was found guilty of embezzlement of 113.5 million rubles from the bank. Kommersant wrote about this.

She was declared bankrupt, could not give the money. The owner of the bank's real estate portfolio, Jacqueline Sargsyan, could not give them away either. At the trial, she stated that her brother Armen gave her 270 million rubles. The court believed in this, and the Sarkisyans came out of the water dry. You can read the court order here.

In addition, Armen Sargsyan was suspected of fraud with the elite of real estate, including in the ruble village of Zhukovka near Moscow. He was called the likely buyer of land plots that a group of fraudsters tried to trade. Writes about this "Free Press."

Armen Sargsyan holds assets for Sergei Chemezov's team? Photo: 24news.am

Also, according to Pravda.ru, the owner of S8 Capital uses the scheme to underestimate the taxable base and withdraw money through the patent of all drawing technologies. Including the computer algorithm of lotteries bought from a Greek company. Moreover, Sargsyan receives copyright rewards for allegedly his own inventions.

However, all this was not and is unlikely to become the subject of attention of law enforcement agencies if the real owner of all this wealth - lotteries, banks, industrial enterprises for the production of elevators, is not him, but people close to Sergei Viktorovich Chemezov. Apparently, such an assumption allows Sargsyan to act without regard to any norms and rules.