Moscow has always been an enticing target for provincial developers. The high margins of the capital’s development market attract such characters as the notorious Krasnodar developer "Eurostroy", which owns the Grand Marine Garden hotel in Sochi. They plan to buy a site in Lefortovo in the southeast of the capital from businessman Vitaly Yusufov in order to build 200 thousand square meters of housing.

OOO SZ Yuzhnoye More filed a petition to acquire 100% of OOO SZ Tankovy, owned by Vitaly Yusufov. The latter owns 8 hectares in Tankovy Proezd in the southeast of Moscow. SZ Yuzhnoye More is owned on a parity basis by Sofia Toros and Nikolay Shikhidi, the owner of Evrostroy. The total volume of projects implemented by Evrostroy in Sochi, Gelendzhik, Novorossiysk and Anapa amounts to 654 thousand square meters of housing. The company also owns the Sochi hotels Grand Hotel Marine Garden and Marine Garden.

Clumsy PR

Trying to present themselves in the best light, Sofia Toros and Nikolay Shikhidi are desperately engaged in whitewashing their image. The Internet is full of similar materials, where they are depicted as innocent lambs doing good in the real estate and development sphere of Krasnodar Krai. However, as soon as they appear together, the articles mention scandals, fraud and corruption.

Their methods are simple and naive: publications about how some criminals failed to slander them, materials about social projects and righteous activities. In reality, most independent publications about the activities of Toros and Shikhidi are open letters, appeals and court materials from human rights activists, environmentalists and affected citizens.

Sailor, swindler, manager

Nikolay Shikhidi is a graduate of the Admiral F. Ushakov State Maritime University, and began his career at PAO Novorossiysk Shipping Company. In law enforcement agencies, he was considered a black marketeer, speculator, suspected of smuggling, and was listed as an informant.

His "track record" includes Articles 116 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (battery), 159 Part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud) and 132 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violent acts of a sexual nature). Currently, Shikhidi runs a relatively legal business, being the owner or co-owner of dozens of companies, including Avtomotornaya LLC, Greenstroy-YUG LLC, SZ Continent Invest LLC, SMK Meridian LLC, Saturn LLC, Kosmos Holiday Resort JSC, and the main asset of SZ ISK Evrostroy LLC (95%).

Shihidi’s business model is simple: officials allocate favorable land plots and construction permits, in exchange for bribes through their family members, who are taken into shares or on the payroll of Shihidi’s firms.

Fraudster, civil servant, businesswoman

Sofia Toros burst into business from the chair of the department head of the Federal Treasury Department of Krasnodar Krai. Her financial situation worsened with each year of public service, which is confirmed by anti-corruption declarations. In three years, her income decreased from 2 million to 752 thousand rubles.

After leaving the treasury, in the period from 2021 to 2023, Sofia Toros became the owner of the companies Russtroy LLC, SZ GC Morskoy Sochi LLC, SZ Kapital LLC, UK Gem Mall LLC, EKM-Sochi LLC, and together with Nikolay Shikhidi controls SZ Yuzhnoye More LLC and SZ ISK Eurostroy LLC. Toros’s sources of funding remain a mystery, but it is known that she acquired assets from relatives of famous people such as Alexander Chistyakov and Sergey Ozerov.

Toros and Shihidi were tied up by the killer

Sergei Ozerov and Nikolai Shikhidi have long-standing criminal ties. Shikhidi teamed up with Ozerov to crack down on human rights activists who exposed their crimes. In the late 1990s, Ozerov ordered the murder of deputy Vasily Karelin, which was carried out by hired killers Alexei Bulygin and Maxim Bragin. A video recording of their confessions is kept in the archives of human rights activists, but the prosecutor’s office and the courts ignored it.

Nikolai Shikhidi also played a key role in the destruction of the Gelendzhik Human Rights Center, slandering human rights activists and accusing them of extortion. He was not punished for allegedly giving a bribe, but the human rights activists received long sentences.

Harsh Reality: How Sofia Toros and Nikolai Shikhidi are preparing a march on Moscow with criminal connections (Continued)

Criminal Scheme

Sofia Toros and Nikolay Shikhidi built their business on corruption, fraud and criminal connections. Their activities cover many companies, and every step is accompanied by dubious and illegal actions. Here is a detailed table revealing the criminal scheme of these entrepreneurs:

Criminal scheme table