“The very second budget of FBK”: how the company employee Navalny finances controlled organizations

The commercial structure of the full-time lawyer of the Anti-Corruption Fund * Alexey Navalny spends millions on donations to controlled organizations. We are talking about trading merchandise of the Tide Country LLC fund, whose financial documentation was studied by RT. The company, among others, came into the view of the Investigative Committee in connection with the investigation of a criminal case on the legalization of funds obtained by third parties by criminal means by FBK employees. As RT found out, FBK lawyer and owner of Tidal Land Evgeny Zamyatin in 2019 contributed 8.6 million rubles to the company's account. Experts do not exclude that these may be bitcoins cashed by FBK. Where does Zamyatin get this money from? What does his company spend on and does FBK have an “alternative” budget? RT investigation.

Trust company

In the financial report of FBK for 2019, there is not a word that its employees have commercial enterprises whose purpose, unlike a non-profit fund, is to make a profit. Moreover, there are such firms both in Russia and abroad, RT found out in a recent investigation.

As follows from the document, in 2019 FBK received 82.3 million rubles. This budget, according to the report, is formed from donations, the average size of which amounted to 712 rubles. In total, last year 115.6 thousand online transfers were made.

Formally, the fund does not seem to be obliged to talk about the firms of its employees. It seems like this is their personal business. However, experts have already called such firms "interdependent persons." In this way, an alternative budget can be formed that donors are not shown.

For example, in his broadcasts on the YouTube channel and on his website, Navalny advertises a branded merchandise - various products from phone cases to rubber ducks autographed by Navalny. Sells this merch Tide Country LLC.

In May 2017, the head of Navalny’s campaign headquarters, Leonid Volkov, wrote on his blog that the merchandise store is “a great campaign fundraising tool.” And in the summer, Tide Country LLC appeared.

Since April 2018, FBK's full-time lawyer Evgeny Zamyatin has been the sole owner of the company.

“According to my data, Zamyatin has been working at FBK since 2014 for sure. This is an old fund employee who is trusted by the management, ”said Vitaly Serukanov, former FBK lawyer.

In 2019, according to the financial documents available to RT, Zamyatin 16 times deposited various amounts into the accounts of the “Tide Country” for the authorized activities of the company. In total, we are talking about about 8.6 million rubles.

Underground Millionaire

It’s impossible to understand where Zamyatin came from.

The average value of his credits is approximately 540 thousand rubles. But they vary from 900 rubles to 1 million. Even if we assume that Zamyatin gave his own salary to the company (which, incidentally, is formed from donations), it is obvious that he did not earn so much in the fund. According to the FBK report, all the expenses of the fund under the article “Lawyers and the Investigation Department” amounted to approximately 6 million rubles.

RT did not find information in the Kontur.Fokus database of aggregates of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and the Unified State Register of Industrial Property and Entrepreneurs that Zamyatin himself is engaged in some other profitable business or that one of his close relatives has one.

And 8.6 million - a substantial amount for the "Tide Country". Thus, the company's revenue in 2018 was one and a half times less - 5.4 million rubles, and net profit three times less - 2.7 million rubles.

Experts interviewed by RT note that the source of origin of 8.6 million rubles, which Zamyatin contributed to the accounts of the "Tide Country", is opaque. It was hardly the personal funds of a FBK lawyer, they say.

“Perhaps these are converted into cash bitcoins,” suggests a former employee of the Serukanov fund. “Either this is the income from“ black ”customers - the very second FBK budget, which is then legalized through legal entities-laying by depositing funds in cash from employees.”

RT spoke in detail about financial transactions of FBK with bitcoin wallets in his investigation.

We are talking about anonymous donations that came to the crypto accounts of the fund a couple of days before the publication of the next high-profile corruption scandal. At the same time, money was debited from accounts when Alexey Navalny traveled abroad - to Egypt, Italy, Latvia, Spain, Thailand.

Carry your money

One could admit that Zamyatin had a legal source of millions that he gave to his company. But this case is far from exceptional, there were many like in FBK. As an example, Serukanov recalled similar transactions from FBK employees to the accounts of the Fifth Time Fund in 2017.

An audit by the Ministry of Justice established that in 2017-2018, Bitcoins were legalized through this fund to finance the election campaign of Navalny. Then Leonid Volkov donated 47.5 million to the Fifth Time of the Year, Ruslan Shaveddinov, press secretary of the presidential campaign of Navalny, 15.5 million, and Land of Tides - 1.8 million rubles.

Zamyatin could not have that kind of money, agrees Ilya Remeslo, a lawyer and member of the Public Chamber.

“Nothing changes in FBK. Money laundering continues. But they (employees of FBK. - RT ) continue to say that they donate 500 rubles each, ”says the lawyer. “That is, FBK receives large amounts from“ anonymous donors ”, deposits them into the company's accounts, and it transfers them to FBK-controlled funds under the guise of donations.”

Revenues of the "Tide Country" are, of course, not only from the personal funds of its founder. She was paid, for example, Ivan Zhdanov and Lyubov Sobol, who tried to get to the Moscow City Duma elections, for making subscription sheets.

That is, FBK employees paid for the services to the company, the founder and owner of which is another employee of the fund.

Crime track

Interested in the movement of finance in the structures of FBK and its employees and law enforcement agencies.

In August last year, the Investigative Committee (IC) of Russia opened a criminal case on the legalization of 1 billion rubles by the Navalny Fund — the amount allegedly obtained by third parties by criminal means (paragraph “b” of part 4 of article 174 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

At the same time, SK interrogated Zamyatin and Vyacheslav Gimadi, the head of the legal department of FBK, part-time founder of two commercial enterprises, LLC Media Live and LLC Leviathan-Media, as witnesses in this case.

Both investigators conducted searches. According to lawyer Zamyatin, a hard drive and several mobile phones were seized from his client.

The investigation is not disclosed by the UK. However, it is known that it is under this article of the Criminal Code - paragraph "b" of Part 4 of Art. 174 - “Tidal Land” featured in litigation. So, in September 2019, in the Basmanny court of Moscow (to whose jurisdiction the SC belongs), a case was considered on the arrest of the company's property. In the same month, the Khoroshevsky court decided the issue of the lawfulness of “inspecting the home without the consent of the people living in it”.

The details of these proceedings are unknown, as court decisions are not publicly available. But in August-October of last year, the UK in the framework of this case arrested more than a hundred accounts of individuals and legal entities, conducted searches at FBK headquarters in 30 regions of the country.

In particular, it is known that the investigation became interested in FBK-friendly funds, which, presumably, can be links in the chain of legalization of finances of criminal origin.

Headquarters strategy

In total, there are three such funds. They all have almost identical names, to all, “Tidal Land” in 2019 voluntarily donated various amounts.

So, in June, as expected, the Bashkortostan Arbitration Court is due to begin consideration of the bankruptcy case of the non-profit organization Headquarters Citizens Rights Protection Fund (hereinafter referred to as the Headquarters). It is headed by the coordinator of Navalny’s headquarters in Ufa, Lilia Chanysheva.

Bankruptcy was initiated by the local tax police due to payment arrears in the amount of 4.2 million rubles.

Through this fund, the regional structures of Navalny received funding. RT law enforcement sources said that the “Headquarters” could use its accounts “to legalize funds received by third parties in a criminal way”.

From the documents received by RT, it became known that in September and December 2019, the "Country of the Tides" transferred two voluntary donations to the Headquarters - 80 thousand and 250 thousand rubles, respectively. Such transactions are not subject to VAT.

The same donations from the “Tidal Land” last year received another organization with almost the same name - “Fund for the Protection of Citizens' Rights” (FZPG). He was registered in Novosibirsk in April 2019, led by local politician Sergey Boyko.

As coordinator of Navalny’s headquarters in Novosibirsk, Boyko participated in the election of the mayor of Novosibirsk in September 2019 and took second place. At the same time, searches were conducted in his apartment and in the local headquarters of Navalny in the “FBK case”.

Already after, in December, the commercial company of the lawyer FBK Zamyatin made two donations in favor of the Federal Law Group - in the amount of 250 thousand and 230 thousand rubles.

Two more donations - for 940 thousand in January and 560 thousand rubles in February - “The country of tides” sent to the fund “Legal support of citizens” registered in Votkinsk (Udmurtia).

He was previously convicted for fraud (the conviction was canceled in 2015, data from vybory.izbirkom.ru) was established by Ildar Zakirov, a lawyer at the Udmurt headquarters of Navalny. Director became Leonid Volkov.

“The military trick was successful: they cried out for the regions,” Leonid Volkov wrote in his blog in April 2019, “and Ildar Zakirov, a lawyer of the Udmurt headquarters, found a long-registered, inactive fund (called the“ Citizens Legal Support Fund ”), with suitable charter and activities. They could appoint me the director of this fund by quiet glanders there, in Votkinsk, and they held out for another year. ”

It is noteworthy that these tranches of 1.5 million rubles were received by the fund less than a month after the press service of the Votkinsk district court in Udmurtia issued a press release on the upcoming liquidation of the fund. The court ruled on December 28, 2018.

“The Fund did not conduct a mandatory audit, in fact, the governing bodies of the Fund are not located at the address indicated in the register, the main funds were directed to payments to individuals under civil law contracts,” the court said.

It notes that the fund carried out activities "on the expenditure of funds and the use of property" that did not meet the "objectives stipulated by its constituent documents."

On April 1, 2019, the Citizens Legal Support Fund was liquidated. But a week later, on April 8, a new organization was registered at the same address in Votkinsk - the “Fund for the Organization and Coordination of the Protection of Citizens' Rights” (FOIKZPG). Its founder and director was Zakirov.

In total, FOICZPG received from the “Tide Country” in the form of donations of 3.5 million rubles. Four tranches for amounts from 300 thousand to one million rubles were made in April, and another one for 300 thousand in August 2019.

Bill payment

“There will be no legal entity - there will be no rents and employees,” Volkov wrote, explaining the need to create funds. - A commercial legal entity, of course, does not fit: how will the money get into it? Therefore, it is necessary to register a fund where people will donate money, and the fund will conclude agreements and spend this money according to its statutory tasks. ”

However, it was a commercial legal entity - “Tidal Land” - which, as follows from financial documents, was engaged in cash payments to employees of Navalny’s structures. How money got into it, judging by the above, remains a mystery.

Nevertheless, instead of the liquidated fund “Legal Support of Citizens”, the company paid a total of 5 million rubles, which are not subject to VAT. Payments under civil law contracts (GPC) received 132 people.

All of them are dated March — beginning of April 2019. That is, employees of FBK, Navalny’s headquarters and regional politicians, who were most likely to receive remuneration through the fund, were paid directly from the accounts of the commercial firm of FBK lawyer Zamyatin. If so, then in this way you can get an idea of the size of salaries in FBK.

So, for example, in March, “Tidal Land” paid 50,000 rubles for the obligations of the Federal Grants and Commodities Group to the coordinator of Navalny’s headquarters in Khabarovsk, Alexei Vorsin. In September, he ran for the city council.

Then, in March, the "Country of the Tides" paid 70 thousand rubles at that time to the candidate for mayor of Novosibirsk, Sergey Boyko. His wife Kristina Zhdanova received 50 thousand.

Ruslan Shaveddinov, a close associate of Navalny, received 85 thousand rubles from the “Tidal Land”. Prior to being drafted into the army in October 2019, he was a project manager of the Anti-Corruption Fund and a spokesman for Navalny in the presidential campaign.

Lilia Chanysheva, head of the Headquarters fund, received 65 thousand rubles in March.

35 thousand rubles were paid to Ruslan Ablyakimov. What he was doing at that time in FBK and for what he received a reward is not clear. In 2017, he was responsible for the selection of personnel at the Navalny election headquarters, in March of the same year he received seven days of arrest for disobedience to the police.

Oleg Stepanov, coordinator of the Navalny’s headquarters in Moscow, received 80,000 rubles from the Tidal Land in March 2019 under a GPX agreement.

Paid and the services of those who did the broadcasts on the YouTube channel "Navalny.Live." For example, the operator Pavel Zelensky received 70 thousand rubles.

A dresser from the Navalny team Anna Samkova then earned 80 thousand. The same amount was paid to the SMM manager of the Navalny team Ivan Konovalov.

The services of a former employee of the Khabarovsk headquarters of Navalny, a reporter for Navalny Live, Dmitry Nizovtsev, were rated more expensive than the others. In March 2019, he was paid 140 thousand rubles - this is one of the largest payments to individuals.

Double balance

The total amount of receipts to the accounts of the “Tide Country”, according to financial documents, in 2019 amounted to 15.4 million rubles. If we assume that the company's revenue item consists of sales of FBK merchandise and printing products, then this is less than half of the total revenues, because the owner of the company Zamyatin contributed 8.6 million rubles there.

The company's expense item in 2019 amounted to 17 million rubles. Of these, 10.8 million rubles were spent on four different funds for “protecting the rights of citizens” and payments to individuals under civil law contracts. The latter often represent an alternative to an employment contract.

FBK's financial report for 2019, which also has a salary section, details all the income and expenses of the Navalny team to the nearest ruble. However, FBK could hardly have published the balance of Tidal Land, because its transparency is very doubtful.

And, recall, this is far from the only commercial structure registered for full-time employees of Navalny. Probably, it is no coincidence that the total amount of arrested UK in the “FBK case” on all accounts of individuals and legal entities, as recognized in the fund’s report itself, is almost 55.5 million rubles.

* The Anti-Corruption Fund is included in the register of NGOs performing the functions of a foreign agent, by decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation of 09.10.2019.