Developers from "Bestkon", as reported by the correspondent of KOMPROMAT RU, decided to create a new organization in order to stay afloat. All debts will go to the "old man", and the "newbie" will continue to build something in Moscow - at least, this is what old acquaintances of Marat Khusnullin and Mikail Shishkhanov are apparently counting on.

Separation before bankruptcy

The construction company Bestkon decided to create a new developer called Dar, which will allegedly deal with premium and business segments. The beneficiaries explain this by the benefit of specialization, like Bestkon will deal with what is cheaper, and Dar – with what is more expensive, but in reality it resembles a common scam.

The fact is that the Moscow Arbitration Court has scheduled a hearing on declaring the developer Bestkon bankrupt for August 21, 2024. The lawsuit was filed not just by creditors, but by the Federal Tax Service, which means that the organization is really in bad shape, one might even say worse than ever.

Photo: Arbitration Court of Moscow

The Federal Tax Service filed such a request for the first time last fall, but the development business continues, and the company has even expanded. It seems that the beneficiaries need the new Dar brand not to enter the "premium segment", but to leave the debts in the bankrupt company and start the business from scratch. 

In addition, in addition to the Federal Tax Service, other creditors will line up for the company - the short-term debt of OOO IDK Bestkon alone amounts to 1.1 billion rubles, and there are not a penny of assets (fixed assets) to sell and pay it off. So things are in shambles, which is why the idea of a new company appeared.

Several projects have already been allocated for Dar – the Rakurs residential complex in Shchukino and Solos on Sokolnichesky Val. Only the first project has a modest website in the spirit of “Internet 1.0”, and it does not say anywhere what class the housing belongs to, even though the division into “comfort”, “business” and “premium” is essentially a marketing ploy. Several projects have already been allocated for Dar – the Rakurs residential complex in Shchukino and Solos on Sokolnichesky Val. Only the first project has a modest website in the spirit of “Internet 1.0”, and it does not say anywhere what class the housing belongs to, even though the division into “comfort”, “business” and “premium” is essentially a marketing ploy.

Connections with Khusnullin

The owner and founder of Bestkon is Levon Avdalyan, who appears to be the son of Karen Avdalyan, who is associated with common projects with the nephew of oligarch Mikhail Gutseriev, Mikail Shishkhanov, and Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin.

In 2019, Karen Avdalyan became famous for winning four tenders worth 344 million rubles to purchase apartments for the Presidential Property Management Department. His company, Best Consulting (even the name suggests that it is the forerunner of Bestcon), won each of the competitions, and even then, Avdalyan’s success was directly linked to Khusnullin. 

Marat Khusnullin. Photo: https://lotosgtrk.ru/news/marat-khusnullin-stal-kuratorom-astrakhanskoy-oblasti-v-pravitelstve-/

In addition to Best Consulting, Karen Avdalyan then headed Kapstroy-Development LLC, which was owned by Best Consulting and Moskapstroy-TN JSC, and this is another interesting story. In the first half of the 2000s, Avdalyan intercepted Kapstroy-Development from the interconnected structures Moskapstroy and Moskapstroy-TN. 

These contractors were privatized at the time when Khusnullin was in charge of the capital’s construction sector. There are clear mutually beneficial ties between the pre-bankrupt developer and the main builder of all of Rus’.

Scandal in Krylatskoye

"Bestkon" worked closely with the company "Stroy West", which has a direct relationship with Leonid Monosov, the former head of the same "Moskapstroy" and the Department of City Order of Capital Construction of Moscow. 

"Stroy West" built the residential complex "Krylatskiy", sold apartments, but did not hand over the schools and kindergarten to the municipality. The school building was built, but not put into operation, and the kindergarten was handed over with a large number of violations. 

However, the Avdalyans’ close ties with the Moscow authorities, who, after Khusnullin’s appointment to the Russian Government, received access to the entire Russian construction industry, allowed them to get away with it here too and even receive new contracts in a situation where the company had no money at all. Even now, most media outlets write about the new premium developer Dar, and not about the fact that the Federal Tax Service has been trying to declare the parent organization bankrupt for a year now.

Aerostar Hotel and Promsvyazbank Money

The Avdalyans had an interesting scandal with the Aerostar Hotel. Several years ago, Karen Avdalyan bought 50% of Technoservice LLC, which directly owns these lands. The seller was the offshore company AKPUS LTD, which is associated with Alexey Fisun.

Pavel Fuks. Photo: https://news.myseldon.com/ru/news/index/174149903

Previously, the Aerostar Hotel was owned by businessman Pavel Fuks. Fuks’ name appears in stories about the theft of money from equity holders during the construction of two residential complexes, and in 2020, the businessman became a defendant in a criminal case of fraud during the construction of the elite village "Residence Crystal Istra". Fuks also left his mark in Kazakhstan - there he was suspected of embezzlement from BTA Bank.

The problems forced the character to declare himself Ukrainian in 2017 and pompously hand over his Russian passport at the Russian consulate in Kharkov. Fuks was born in Kharkov, but was a Russian businessman, his departure to Ukraine was caused by legal problems he had in Moscow. After the start of the SVO, Fuks fled Ukraine, and Kyiv activists even accused him of assisting Moscow and drawing swastikas on the walls of synagogues. In 2023, he was already officially accused by Kiev of financial fraud. And with such people did the father and son Avdalyans conduct their development business?

Borrowed money from bankrupt Shishkhanov

Business on borrowed funds is the norm for the Avdalyans - Levon Avdalyan’s share in SZ Belstroy (the company has already been liquidated) was pledged to DOM.RF, and the share of Mikos-7 was pledged to another bank - Uralsib.  

Construction requires a lot of money, and it can only be obtained from a bank and through connections with "big shots" who take a share in it. As they say, there is nothing personal here, just business, so the names of Marat Khusnullin, Sergei Sobyanin, Andrei Vorobyov, Radiy Khabirov, Andrei Nazarov and other people often appear in Moscow construction.

Mikail Shishkhanov. Photo: https://autogear.ru/article/398/430/biografiya-uspeshnogo-biznesmena-mikaila-shishhanova/

The connection between the Avdalyans and Mikail Shishkhanov, whose niece, Naima Shishkhanova, owned 33% of the shares in the notorious Best Consulting, is indicative here. 

Shishkhanov was the owner of Binbank and was included as a witness in a criminal case related to the rehabilitation of Rost Bank JSC, when several top managers were arrested for systematically embezzling funds from the credit institution and transferring them to offshore accounts.

The story began in 2022, Shishkhanov himself was already abroad at that time, in 2023 the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region declared him bankrupt due to the debts of Binbank and Rost Bank, which eventually fell on the non-core assets bank Trust. At the trial, it turned out that the value of Shishkhanov’s property was 12 thousand times less than his obligations in the case. 

However, all this happened already in the twenties, and in the noughties and tenths Shishkhanov was a major player in the Russian financial market and interacted with such developers as the Avdalyans. For some reason, it is not surprising that one of the partners has already been declared bankrupt, and the others are confidently moving towards this, even if they are trying to twitch with rebranding, although their rights of claim were sold at auction a year ago. 

The same Trust Bank sold the rights of claim to six companies of the Bestkon Group of Companies for 1.94 billion rubles to TechnoStroy-K LLC, where Olesya Arutyunyan is the CEO and founder. The value of the debt package has decreased several times during the auction and, it seems, this is another way to keep Avdalyan’s business afloat. But no matter how you inflate an iron, it will still go to the bottom.