Ivan Golunov

“ In a bank mortgage, however, the property can only be seized by court order, following overdue payments and visits by collectors, at which point the home is then auctioned off to the highest bidder. When obtaining loans from microfinance companies, victims sign over power of attorney and agree to other conditions that can be used to seize their property without a court order, transferring their apartment to an intermediary, and leaving the client with nothing. ”

“ Existing regulations do not prevent microfinance organizations from using questionable schemes to legalize their income. Several years ago, the owner of one MFO was arrested for cashing out federal subsidies paid to multiple-child families. The requirements imposed by the Central Bank and the control over the activities of more than 2,000 MFOs are far lower than the regulations enforced against [Russia’s] 473 banks,” says Dmitry Yanin, the head of the International Confederation of Consumer Societies. ”

“ In addition to country homes and penthouses, Irina Biryukova and her son own a nine-room apartment in a building with eight apartments in the Patriarch Ponds neighborhood. Her husband is actually one of her neighbors (in 2010, he brought a police squad to get rid of a restaurant’s veranda under his windows) , along with Yuri Bulanov, who worked as Biryukov’s deputy in the 2000s, when Biryukov headed the Moscow Southern Administrative Okrug’s prefecture. In August 2010, Bulanov was convicted of embezzling 17 million rubles ($256,900) . ”

“ The victims of predatory lenders rarely manage to get their homes back. For example, one debtor produced a schizophrenia diagnosis, which led a judge to nullify his microfinance agreement. In another case where the court sided with a debtor, the verdict describes a story that applies almost perfectly to hundreds of other victims: “A large number of documents were signed at the [Loan Center 365] office, so that [the debtor] could sign, without reading, a settlement agreement [for his apartment] as part of a number of previously agreed documents. ”

“ The real estate registered under the names of other family members is located randomly, and crossing from one plot to another is often possible only by passing through someone else’s land.
There are also several plots in the Biryukov family’s domain that don’t belong to the deputy mayor’s relatives. One of these is owned by a good friend named Viktor Pchelovodov, who worked with Biryukov beginning in the early 1990s, and served as deputy head of Moscow’s Housing, Utilities, Urban Amenities, and Beautification Department until late 2012. ”

“ In the late 2000s, Mateks Credit’s reputation was in crisis, and consumer rights officials opened an investigation into the company. To make matters worse, Latvia also introduced tougher regulations on credit financing.
In 2011, Malikov and two other Latvian nationals created a new company in Russia: the International Credit Bureau (MKB) — the same firm that issues shady home equity loans to Muscovites. One of Malikov’s co-founders was Andis Anspoks, who a decade earlier served as secretary for an advocacy group in Riga called “For a Latvian Society Without Homosexuals.” ”

“ Pyotr Biryukov himself owns only a small house and maintenance building in the area. The deputy mayor’s relatives live less modestly. Irina Biryukova owns three houses, the biggest of which has almost the same total area as the nine penthouses at the Legend of Tsvetnoy. The deputy mayor’s son owns a house, a guest house, and a stable; their total official value is 116.5 million rubles ($1.8 million) . The biggest building in Popovka belongs to Biryukov’s niece, Anzhelika Biryukova, the press secretary of the Luzhniki Sports Complex. ”

“ MFOs change names, but their addresses, staff, and other company data remains the same. MFOs actively recruit investors to obtain the money they use to issue loans. In several cases, MFOs have turned to investment from foreign citizens and banks that have been implicated in international money-laundering schemes. Experts say the existence of these home-equity-loan schemes is evidence that the industry is under-regulated, and Russia’s State Duma recently introduced draft legislation that could seriously complicate the work of these fraudsters. ”

“ Reviewing the records filed with Rosreestr regarding the property owned by the company’s clients, Meduza discovered that 25 of 37 debtors sold their property soon after receiving their loans. In 15 cases, the homes were sold directly to Loan Center 365. Another six homes were sold to Anton Titov (an employee at the firm) , “M2-Leasing” CEO Anatoly Fundobny, and Vladislav Snopok (the son of the president of the insurance company “Capital Life”) , with each man acquiring two apartments. ”

“ That company’s owners include Anatoly Gramakov (the owner of “Medinar,” a network of affordable housing for workers) and two young people with no business experience. At HeadHunter, Alpha Potential-M describes itself as “a leader in home equity loans” and as a “joint project with Sovcombank.” According to the Federal Notarial Chamber’s loan-collateral records, both companies sign over their clients’ mortgaged homes to Sovcombank, which now holds 86 mortgages on apartments that belonged to Brighton Plus debtors, and 272 that belonged to Alpha Potential-M customers. ”

“ Put together, the Biryukovs’ penthouses cover more than 17,220 square feet (twice as much as the palatial Eliseevsky store on Tverskaya Street in Moscow) .
A real-estate development holding company called “Capital Group” built and owns the “Legend of Tsvetnoy.” In 2015, it so happens that companies linked to Capital Group were hired for some of the biggest contracts awarded in Moscow’s beautification program, which Biryukov supervised. For example, Meduza calculates that Capital Group entities received contracts for the “My Street” campaign worth almost 21.5 billion rubles ($324,900) . ”

“ The home equity loan company “Realty Capital Mortgage Center” is also registered at the Moscow Mortgage Company’s office address. “Realty Capital” belongs to a realtor named Maxim Lazykin, who has participated in a number of deals tied to MKB. How these microcredit organizations are interrelated
The average lifespan of a microfinance institution that issues home equity loans is about 18 months. Buying a turnkey microfinance company, already registered with Russia’s Central Bank, costs anywhere between 140,000 to 250,000 rubles ($2,160 to $3,850) , depending on the enterprise’s history. ”

“ However, the plaintiff did not intend to transfer the apartment to the defendant, which is also indicated by the lack of consent from his spouse,” ruled the Dorogomilovsky District Court, which invalidated the debtor’s settlement agreement with Loan Center 365. The court likely sided with the plaintiff because of his high social status. (A source familiar with the case told Meduza that the lawsuit was brought by a veteran of Russia’s intelligence community.)
Even clients who never fall behind on their loan repayments can still lose their homes. ”

“ Svetlana Podelskaya recognizes the smiling loan manager Sergey and remembers his Baltic accent from a photograph in the Latvian newspaper Dienas Bizness, in an interview with “AS West Kredit” Board Chairman Sergey Malikov, titled “Losing ABLV Bank, We Lose the Best.” In the article, Malikov criticizes the Latvian government’s policy toward banks that hold accounts for clients from former Soviet countries. “It’s geopolitics. These days, the Americans won’t let people from the former USSR — Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians — feel comfortable with their own money. ”

“ In the summer of 2015, Natalia Smelnitskaya was diagnosed with cancer. Despite government assistance and her job at a Moscow consulting company, she needed additional money to pay for an operation. So she took out a personal loan at a three-year 36-percent annual interest rate from Sovkombank for 2.7 million rubles ($41,420) , with monthly payments of 80,000 rubles ($1,225) . ”

“ These companies change their names, while maintaining the same staff, “holders,” and private investors, whose financing is used to attract debtors.
The company “Loan Center 365,” where Natalia Smelnitskaya borrowed money, was created in February 2016 by Anna Sukhanova. According to the Spark-Interfax database, Sukhanova has founded 21 microfinance companies. Meduza found for-sale listings for several of these firms online. A few months after Loan Center 365’s creation, the firm was transferred to Anton Velichko and Latvian national Yulia Kalinina. ”

“ Sovcombank press secretary Darya Piven told Meduza.
Many clients of these two businesses have also lost their homes. There are currently 242 court cases involving Brighton Plus and Alpha Potential-M filed with the Moscow City Court. In these proceedings, Alpha Potential-M has been represented by attorney Georgy Polyakov, who previously worked for Loan Center 365 and CreditFinance.
Experts argue that microfinance institutions have been able to fool debtors out of their homes so often because the industry is under-regulated. ”

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