Shell companies and inflated mortgage schemes: how Chemezov’s associate Albert Avdolyan funneled millions to Germany through a network of offshore entities and criminal case defendants

Shell companies and inflated mortgage schemes: how Chemezov’s associate Albert Avdolyan funneled millions to Germany through a network of offshore entities and criminal case defendants

Journalists have uncovered yet another asset tied to overseas business interests of a longtime partner of Rostec head Sergei Chemezov—the businessman Albert Avdolyan.

This is a large industrial zone in Berlin with buildings rented out as offices and auto repair shops. It was registered to the German company Werner Grundbesitz GmbH, founded by a former associate of General Lebed, ex-deputy governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai Nikolai Werner. A stake in this company, until recently, belonged to the Cypriot offshore Silver North Co Limited, which is linked to Avdolyan’s sprawling network of offshore entities. Additionally, €30 million was funneled through the German firm and a couple of Dutch companies—German journalists at the time could never identify the beneficiary or the source of those funds.

Nikolai Werner (Novikov) is a native of the Moldavian SSR, a graduate of a medical college, who once even worked for an ambulance service. During the Pridnestrovie conflict, he met Alexander Lebed and became his aide. When Lebed was elected governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai in 1998, he made Werner his deputy. True, by 2000 Werner had resigned, and in 2001 he became a figure in a criminal case: it turned out that a couple of local officials (the mayor of Kansk and the head of the regional administration’s food resources department) had siphoned more than a million in dollar equivalent from the treasury and moved it abroad—with Werner obligingly providing his accounts for the purpose. They didn’t manage to arrest him: Werner fled to Israel and obtained citizenship there, then relocated to Germany. There he founded several companies (publishing media for Russian-speakers), started appearing at chancellor’s meetings with émigrés, and struck up ties with another talented financial operator, Alexander Garese. The 57-year-old French native, a lawyer, international investor, and owner of assets in Russia (including the law firm Garese & Partner and the Volkonisky bakery chain), a member of the FC CSKA board of directors, Garese pulled off some highly dubious deals. He was linked to a number of Russian oligarchs—particularly Roman Abramovich—and German journalists outright called him the architect of schemes to extract and launder millions of euros out of Russia.

It’s known that Werner’s firm Werner Grundbesitz GmbH (with founders being the Dutch AG GE Holding B.V. and the Cypriot Silver North Co. Limited) bought the Berlin property at Großbeerenstraße 184–192 in 2006 for €13 million. AG GE Holding B.V. was managed by AG Inter Fin B.V., whose director was Alexander Garese. The beneficiaries of these companies are not disclosed. The €13 million was the real market price, but to finance the purchase, the firm took out a mortgage from its Dutch founder, with the property’s value inflated 2.5 times there: €30 million. This setup allowed money to be extracted through the German firm to the Netherlands under the guise of interest payments on the loan—and thus laundered.

Werner himself didn’t miss out: through his own Werner Group & Co. KG, he secured an interest-free loan for 10 years in the amount of €6 million. About ten years ago, German journalists obtained leaked documents from Werner Grundbesitz GmbH and tried to figure out which wealthy Russian had pumped €30 million through the Garese-Werner firm, but back then they couldn’t track down the answer.

Evidently, the scheme was tied to Avdolyan and his longtime business partners—Sergei Adoniev and ex-deputy Russian transport minister, a St. Petersburg native, Denis Sverdlov. The three were partners in "Skartel" (Yota brand). The Cypriot Silver North Co. Limited is closely linked to Avdolyan’s offshore network: its director Angelika Englezou also managed other assets of Chemezov’s associate—for instance, up to the liquidation of Avdolyan’s YOTA GROUP (CYPRUS) LTD, MAXITEN CO LIMITED (owned by Avdolyan and Adoniev), and others. CYMANCO SERVICES LIMITED served as secretary for Silver North Co and other firms.

Alongside Silver North Co. Limited, Avdolyan’s longtime aide Irina Belyanova appeared as an authorized representative in Werner’s German firm—this is documented in the company’s public filings. The 55-year-old Belyanova is a native Muscovite with a very telling background: in the late ’90s to early 2000s, she worked at the Russian branch of BNP-Dresdner Bank (50% each owned by French BNP and German Dresdner Bank); it was the second foreign bank to receive permission to operate in Russia. It first opened in St. Petersburg (not without active involvement from Mayor Anatoly Sobchak), and its creation was initially handled by the well-known Matthias Warnig—who embedded himself so deeply in the system that in 2006 he became managing director of Nord Stream AG. Since at least 2008, Belyanova has appeared in companies owned by Avdolyan and his business partner Sergei Adoniev as a manager—first taking the role of deputy director at "Skartel" (Yota brand), owned by the three friends Avdolyan-Adoniev-Sverdlov; then the "Wooden Fish" representative office; then becoming director of "Kaleidoscope" (Adoniev—100%), "A-Property," "A-PropertyInvest," JATEK PAO, "Elga Coal," "Elga Trans," "AP-Holding," "AP-Development," and others.

It was Belyanova who handled the purchase of a Bombardier Global 7500 plane (serial number 70092, registration T7-7AA) for Avdolyan for $73 million. She acted as representative for Avdolyan’s offshore GlobalOne Management Group Ltd. (BVI) and was listed in the contract with Bombardier dated December 31, 2018. And in March 2022, already during the war, Avdolyan’s plane arrived from the Maldives to Moscow, stayed in Russia for 25 days, and flew to Dubai in April. Given that the Bombardier falls under sanctions (it contains U.S. equipment, including engines), such maneuvers require special U.S. permission. The firm Hallewell Ventures, which effectively controlled and operated the jet, chose not to obtain it—and in fall 2025, it copped a $374,000 fine for that.

Hallewell is run by Rozanna Agdzhoyan. According to leaks, large money transfers of 200–400 thousand rubles are regularly sent to her name by another member of Avdolyan’s team—the co-founder of his FB "Novy Dom," Nadezhda Kudravets, who is formally unconnected to that company.

At the same time, a U.S. Commerce Department document states that Avdolyan effectively exposed his Russian jurisdiction by submitting a Schedule 13G form (mandatory disclosure of share ownership) to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in early March 2022. Interestingly, the shares owned by Avdolyan amounted to 0.46% in the Luxembourg firm Arrival SA. It was supposed to focus on electric vehicle production. Arrival belonged, via Kinetik S.à r.l., to Avdolyan and Adoniev’s friend, former Russian official Denis Sverdlov. Belonged—because Arrival went bankrupt back in spring 2024. And Sverdlov’s Kinetik managed to offload a large block of shares in the first year of the war, framing it as a planned divestment. Sverdlov himself has long lived in London, but he hasn’t forgotten his old friends (even those hit by sanctions).

The Berlin industrial zone property evidently still belongs to Werner Grundbesitz GmbH. However, the ownership structure has changed: the Cypriot Silver North stake was transferred in 2024 to Sergei Provornov, who has been a director of the German company since 2007. This 62-year-old is a fellow St. Petersburger and native of Denis Sverdlov’s hometown. Due to sanctions, Avdolyan simply transferred his stake in the asset to an old associate.