Basement and cellar construction
Mikhail Babel was given a preventive measure in absentia. Babel Mikhail Aleksandrovich Minister of Construction of the Government of the Moscow Region visited the residential complex "Slavyanka"

Mikhail Babel was given a preventive measure in absentia. Babel Mikhail Aleksandrovich Minister of Construction of the Government of the Moscow Region visited the residential complex "Slavyanka"

Having created the construction company NBM-Stroyservice in the mid-1990s, he could rightfully be considered the personal developer of a man of difficult fate - Shabtai Kalmanovich. Mr. Kalmanovich, agent KGB, leader of the Solntsevskaya organized crime group, producer of the singer Zemfira, owner of several basketball clubs in Russia and Lithuania, one of the leaders of the pharmaceutical market, friend of "Yaponchik" and Semyon Mogilevich, was shot in Moscow in 2009. But before that, Mikhail Babel managed to build a home office for Kalmanovich on Sergei Makeev Street. Then the developer began building infrastructure for the women's basketball club "Spartak" from the town of Vidnoye near Moscow, so actively that he even re-registered his company in this city. The death of his partner, which coincided with the general crisis, apparently forced the builder to make adjustments to his plans.

Last week, the owner of NBM-Stroyservice was detained by police. Investigators are conducting a criminal case of fraud on an especially large scale or resulting in the deprivation of a citizen’s rights to residential premises (Article 154, Part 4 of the Criminal Code). As Vedomosti reminds, this article implies imprisonment for up to 10 years.

Mikhail Babel is suspected of organizing double sales in the Terletsky Park residential complex on Novogireevskaya Street. According to Moskomstroyinvest, 300 agreements for shared participation in construction were concluded in Terletsky Park, and 72 people were included in the register of affected citizens. It is still unknown who will complete the project. Representative Moskomstroyinvest said that a change of investor can be discussed if the developer is bankrupt or has transferred the property to another person. None of these options were applied to the subsidiary company of NBM-Stroyservice - JSC Globinveststroy (developer of Terletsky Park, general director Mikhail Mikhalev).

Alexander Khrustalev, general director of NDV-real estate (realtor of the project), said that the company, together with Moskomstroyinvest and the Ministry of Construction, is working on the issue of reorganizing the developer of Terletsky Park. In November, Moskominvest Chairman Konstantin Timofeev announced the need to initiate a criminal case against Globinveststroy JSC under the article of fraud, as well as to check the use of public funds.

In addition to Terletsky Park, Babel could also be reminded of the residential complex “Western Gates of the Capital” in the Odintsovo district of the Moscow region. In May 2015, the city prosecutor's office of the Odintsovo district announced the initiation of a criminal case against the vice president of the Soyuz-Vozrozhdenie corporation (developer and investor of the project) Alexandra Vorobyova and the President of CJSC ISK Enbiem (co-investor) Babel on charges of fraud on an especially large scale based on double sales at the Western Gate of the Capital. In July of this year, the press service of the Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Moscow Region German Elyanushkina reported that the construction of this complex will be completed by PIK Group. Its representative said that in this project there are 1,271 defrauded shareholders; they will be given apartments with a total area of 90 thousand 087 square meters. m.

Before the 2008 crisis, NBM-Stroyservice was a partner of the company Rose Group for a number of projects, for example, “Microcity “In the Forest” (more than 1 million sq. m of real estate) in the Krasnogorsk district. In 2014, NBM-Stroyservis tried to buy from the Moscow government the project of a multifunctional complex (37 thousand sq. m of above-ground area) on Sofiyskaya Embankment, but Babel was unable to agree with the banks on co-investment. However, Rose Group is still associated with Babel’s company today - for example, the co-owner of NBM-Stroyservis Gargen Gevondyan (who is also the president of Soyuzkontrakt-Tabak AS) is at the same time a co-owner of the subsidiary Rosehill-Alfa JSC. As for Shabtai Kalmanovich, according to quoted According to the Ruspres agency archive, in the 1980s he could have worked for the KGB foreign intelligence service together with Vladimir Putin.

11/28/2016, Detained for sales, Photo: RIA Novosti

Anton Filatov, Bela Lyauw, Alexey Nikolsky

The owner of the development company NBM-Stroiservis, Mikhail Babel (see), was detained last week by police officers, said three of his acquaintances and a Moscow government official. Babel was indeed detained, the police investigative units are conducting a criminal case of fraud on an especially large scale or resulting in the deprivation of a citizen’s rights to residential premises (Article 154, Part 4 of the Criminal Code), a law enforcement officer confirmed. This article implies imprisonment for up to 10 years, explains senior partner of Yukov and Partners Mikhail Voronin.

Babel is suspected of organizing double sales in the Terletsky Park residential complex on Novogireevskaya Street, according to two of his acquaintances and a Moscow government official. According to Moskomstroyinvest, 300 agreements for shared participation in construction were concluded in Terletsky Park, and 72 people were included in the register of affected citizens. It is still unknown who will complete the project. A representative of Moskomstroyinvest said that a change of investor can be discussed if the developer is bankrupt or has transferred the property to another person; none of these options was applied to JSC Globinveststroy (developer of Terletsky Park).

Alexander Khrustalev, general director of NDV-real estate (realtor of the project), said that the company, together with Moskomstroyinvest and the Ministry of Construction, is working on the issue of reorganizing the developer of Terletsky Park. A representative of Moskomstroyinvest reports that in November the chairman of the committee, Konstantin Timofeev, announced the need to initiate a criminal case against JSC Globinveststroy under the article of fraud, as well as to check the use of public funds.

Another acquaintance of Babel suggests that in addition to “Terletsky Park,” he might also be reminded of the “Western Gate of the Capital” residential complex in the Odintsovo district of the Moscow region. In May 2015, the city prosecutor's office of the Odintsovo district announced the initiation of a criminal case against the vice-president of the Soyuz-Vozrozhdenie corporation (developer and investor of the project) Alexander Vorobyov and the president of JSC ISK Enbiem (co-investor) Babel under the article of fraud in special cases. on a large scale due to double sales at the Western Gate of the Capital. In July of this year, the press service of the Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Moscow Region, German Elyanushkin, reported that the construction of this complex would be completed by the PIK Group. Its representative said that there are 1,271 defrauded shareholders in this project, and they will be given apartments with a total area of 90,087 square meters. m.

Before the 2008 crisis, NBM-Stroyservis was a partner of the Rose Group on a number of projects, for example, “Microcity “In the Forest” (more than 1 million sq. m of real estate) in the Krasnogorsk region. In 2014, NBM-Stroyservis tried to buy a multifunctional complex project (37,000 sq. m of above-ground area) on Sofiyskaya Embankment from the Moscow government, but Babel was unable to come to an agreement with VTB Bank on co-investment.

Babel's mobile phone was unavailable for three days. His lawyer could not be found. No one answered at NBM-Stroyservice during the day. A representative of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Moscow Region did not answer Vedomosti’s question.

[Pravo.Ru, 10/05/2016, "The capital's M2M Private Bank is bankrupting the former vice-president of Glavmosstroy: The Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region received an application from the capital's M2M Private Bank to declare the owner of the NBM group and the former vice-president insolvent" Glavmosstroy" by Mikhail Babel.
The credit institution’s application was registered the day before, on October 4, and has not yet been accepted for processing (case No. A41-66178/2016). The amount of claims, the details of which have not yet been disclosed, amounts to more than 1.34 billion rubles.
Babel graduated from the Moscow Institute of Civil Engineering in 1984, from the Law Faculty of Moscow State University in 2007, and from the Presidential Civil Service Academy in 2008. In 1994, he created the investment and construction company "ENBIEM-Stroyservice", on the basis of which he organized the NBM development group in 2006. In 2003–2006, he was vice president of the Glavmosstroy company (now part of the Glavstroy corporation) Oleg Deripaska). Owns 18% of the shares of the offshore Sucreti (building the residential microdistrict "In the Forest" in the Krasnogorsk district of the Moscow region), the rest belongs to the developer RGI International. Babel has more than 25 years of experience in the construction industry and is an honorary builder of Moscow and Russia. - Insert K.ru]

Millions of meters

Mikhail Babel, former vice president of Glavmosstroy, created NBM-Stroyservice in 1994. Since then, the company, as stated on its website, has built about 1 million square meters. m of real estate in Moscow and other regions of Russia. About 1 million more square meters are in development. m, among the projects are the residential complexes “Valley of Dreams” in Krylatskoye and “Slavyanka” in Marfin.

Businessman Mikhail Babel, head of the famous construction holding NBM, was arrested in absentia. As the investigation established, Babel may be involved in the theft of 21 million rubles from four shareholders of the never-commissioned residential complex “Western Gates of the Capital” in the village of Marfino near Moscow, which could not be put into operation for 15 years. The businessman was in jail until recently, but after being released on bail, he fled to Israel. A criminal case against Mikhail Babel was opened back in May 2015.

After the intervention of the city prosecutor's office of the Odintsovo district of the Moscow region, local police officers opened criminal cases against the vice-president of the Soyuz-Vozrozhdenie corporation (developer and investor of the project) Alexander Vorobyov and the president of JSC ISK Enbiem (co-investor of the project, owner of the company) NBM-Stroyservice" by Mikhail Babel under the article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is fraud on an especially large scale, says a source in law enforcement agencies of the Moscow region.

The press service of the Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Moscow Region, German Elyanushkin, reported that the construction of this complex will be completed by the PIK Group. The register of defrauded shareholders included almost 1.5 thousand people. The total development area of the complex is more than 200 thousand square meters of housing. But out of 7 buildings, only one was commissioned, construction of three began, and the process of constructing the remaining ones did not even begin.

According to lawyer Ilya Alekseev, if Mr. Babel’s guilt is proven in court, he faces up to 10 years in prison.

It is interesting that in 2015, it was at the request of Babel that a criminal case was opened against his ex-companion - 58-year-old businessman, president of the investment company Territory Development Corporation - KRT, Yuri Gusev.

Babel then stated that Gusev had developed a fraudulent scheme, as a result of which he stole 333 million rubles from him.

As follows from the materials of the criminal case, in 2013, an agreement was concluded between Gusev’s Agro-City and the Tekhstroymontazh company (part of Babel’s NBM) - according to it, Babel buys one of Gusev’s companies with the right to lease until 2049 a plot of land 1.4 hectares on an artificial island, it is also called Golden, Swamp. But, having accepted the deposit, Gusev was unable to confirm Babel’s lease rights. Then Mikhail Babel refused the deal, demanding the money back.

And on December 23, 2015, the president of the investment company Territory Development Corporation - KRT, Yuri Gusev, after interrogation in the office of an investigator named Groza at the Main Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in Moscow, was detained and sent to a pre-trial detention center.

In April 2016, Mikhail Babel stated:

They simply cheated me out of the project, and they also stole my money,” Babel was indignant. - The NBM development group has built hundreds of thousands of square meters over 20 years. m. of housing and administrative premises. Famous Russian and foreign architects collaborated with my company - Yuri Grigoriev, Sergei Tkachenko, Philippe Starck, Norman Foster, but I was simply trampled. I, as a civilized person, a lawyer by training, filed a lawsuit against Agro-City demanding the return of the money.

Babel's lawyers won the lawsuit. The Moscow Arbitration and 9th Courts of Appeal supported the claims, pointing out that Agro City had no grounds for withholding 222 million rubles and was also due a contractual penalty of 111 million. In total, Gusev owes Babel 333 million by court decision.

For more than two years I tried in arbitration courts to sue Gusev for my money, that is, the loan money that I took from Peresvet Bank precisely to pay this swindler Gusev the so-called security “collateral” for the purchase of the plot. This is $7 million at the exchange rate at the time of signing the agreement with Gusev, 222 million rubles, which are indicated in my claim against Agro-City LLC. He simply could not provide me with documents on the transaction, the total volume of which we estimated at $200 million, although he signed all the documents, personally guaranteeing the transaction. And when I told him that I was breaking the contract, I didn’t think that he would just “dump” me. Now Gusev does not comply with court decisions, so I wrote a statement against him to the police about fraud.

Yuri Gusev's former lawyer, Yuri Yakovlev, stated that during the investigation into his client's case, he saw that Mr. Babel himself was a fraudster, and all the materials about Gusev's criminal activities were fabricated.

“But, to my great regret, the investigators did not listen to my opinion. And everything that happened to Yuri Nikolaevich (Gusev) is a huge injustice,” says defense attorney Yakovlev. “And the fact that Mikhail Babel himself, although in a completely different case, found himself under investigation and is suspected of major fraud, is a pattern, I am sure of it,” said Yakovlev, a former defender of businessman Yuri Gusev. “I really hope that Gusev’s criminal case, which has now been sent to court, will be sorted out by the judicial investigation,” says the defense lawyer, calling the criminal case of fraud brought against his ex-client “lawlessness.”

Mikhail Babel himself was detained on the 20th of November 2016 by employees of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the Moscow Region. The reason for the arrest was suspicion of organizing double sales in the Western Gate of the Capital residential complex in the Odintsovo district of the Moscow region (a criminal case was opened for fraud on an especially large scale or resulting in the deprivation of a citizen’s rights to residential premises - Article 154 Part 4 of the Criminal Code). However, it is possible that in the future new episodes may appear in Babel’s case, including those related to the acquisition of land in the park of the Arkhangelskoye museum-estate, which ended up being owned by companies associated with members of his family.

In the forest not far from Arkhangelskoye on Ilyinskoye Highway there is an abandoned restaurant. The building, built in the 60s, has been empty for more than twenty years, but it was once bustling with life. In the 70-80s, legends were formed about this place. The Arkhangelskoye restaurant, named after the museum-estate, regularly attracted Moscow bohemia - from embassy employees to the creative elite and children of Politburo members. It was a cult place.

After the collapse of the USSR, the restaurant changed owners several times until it became the property of the government of the Moscow region. But in the end it was closed. In 2011, the authorities of the Moscow region decided to privatize the restaurant and accompanying outbuildings, and then the adjacent park area of 1.5 hectares, which is part of the boundaries of the Arkhangelskoye park-estate.

At the beginning of 2012, this entire farm was sold at auction, the winner was the Investtorgpro company. The company was founded in December 2011 by Sergey Kalmykov and Elena Sonina. The latter is a business partner of Rostislav Babel, the son of the arrested businessman Mikhail Babel. In particular, Sonina owns 20% in the construction company "Red Wall", where Babel Jr. has 80%. Now Sonina is not formally connected with the Investtorgpro company, but since April of this year, almost 40% of the company belongs to Rostislav Babel.

The company planned to resume the work of the Arkhangelskoye restaurant, having previously carried out its reconstruction. However, the management of the museum-estate in 2012 did not want to lose a large plot of land. Arkhangelsky's lawyers challenged two episodes in court. The first case examined the legality of the regional government's decision to privatize a plot on the estate. In the second - an auction for the sale of a plot and a purchase and sale agreement.

The first case was won by the museum's lawyers in October 2012. In total, the processes lasted several years. By mid-2015, the courts of the first, appellate and cassation instances in both cases took the position of the museum, obliging Investtorgpro to return everything received under the deal.

Investtorgpro possessions on the territory of Arkhangelskoye

When the Investtorgpro company realized that they could lose their assets next to the museum-reserve, they tried to reimburse the expenses incurred for the purchase of the restaurant and land through the court. In April 2015, the company filed a claim with the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region against the Ministry of Property Relations of the Moscow Region and the Government of the Moscow Region. They demanded to recover damages in the amount of 487.6 million rubles, as well as 123.7 million rubles in lost profits. However, the arbitration court rejected the claim. The higher courts did not consider the company's claims convincing.

On December 1 of the same year, the vector of events around the Arkhangelskoye land changed dramatically. The Judicial Collegium for Economic Disputes of the Supreme Court overturned the decisions of the lower courts in the second case - on declaring the auction and purchase and sale agreement illegal. The case was sent for a new trial. The decision in the case of the illegality of the decision to privatize the site had long since entered into force and could not be appealed.

By that time, the management of the Arkhangelskoye museum-estate had changed. The head of Russia's largest private museum of technology, Vadim Zadorozhny, was appointed director. He decided not to continue the legal proceedings related to the privatization and sale of the park site. As a result, the museum’s lawyers sent to the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region a written refusal of claims against the Ministry of Property of the Moscow Region and the owner of the site, Investtorgpro LLC. On January 25, the court accepted the refusal of the Arkhangelskoye management to renounce the rights to a plot of 1.5 hectares.

The Ministry of Culture, which is the founder of the museum and is declared as a third party in the process, then said that they do not intend to interfere in the proceedings, since the plaintiff - the museum-estate - has the legal right to completely or partially refuse the claim before the adoption of a judicial act.

Managing partner of the BMS Law Firm, Alim Bishenov, believes that if law enforcement agencies have questions about the legality of the transaction to purchase land in the Arkhangelskoye Park, then ultimately it may be declared invalid.

There are all the prerequisites for the prosecutor’s office to pay attention to this situation from the point of view of protecting the rights of the state and its property and challenge the legality of acquiring rights to this plot of land in court, the lawyer believes.

Bishenov does not rule out that law enforcement agencies may also bring charges against officials associated with the deal for abuse of power.

If such charges are brought, returning the national treasure, which is the museum-reserve and its land, back to state ownership will not be difficult from a procedural point of view, the lawyer is sure.

“Russian Versailles” for 4.2 billion rubles

At the end of February 2016, the board of the Ministry of Culture approved a new project for the comprehensive restoration of the ensemble of the Arkhagnelskoye estate. The director of the museum-estate, Vadim Zadorozhny, when he first took his post, stated that he was faced with the task of making a “Russian Versailles.” The total cost of the work will be 4.2 billion rubles: the design will require 634.1 million rubles, and the restoration itself will require 3.64 billion rubles. According to the concept, repair and restoration work is scheduled for 2017–2018, and the facilities should be put into operation in 2019.

Deputy director of the Arkhangelskoye museum-estate for restoration and construction, Igor Bondar, explained that the 1.5-hectare area around the Arkhangelskoye restaurant was not included in the approved concept for the development of the estate, since it does not concern the park. However, the museum is thinking about another concept that will cover the surrounding areas. It may also include the territory of the restaurant, but it is too early to talk about this, the museum noted.

Now, according to Igor Bondar, there is no movement at the site. By law, a company can reconstruct a restaurant building, but it has no right to change the height or generally go beyond the boundaries of the existing building.

When they decide to start doing something, they will turn first to the Ministry of Culture of the Moscow Region, and then to us. They are behind the fence, we don’t intersect with them in any way. The restaurant is more in the forest. But if there was active construction there, we would know,” Bondar said.

According to the deputy director of Arkhangelsky, he does not know that the company that owns the land and the restaurant is connected with the family of Mikhail Babel - other names were mentioned when registering the site. He also noted that law enforcement agencies have not recently contacted the estate museum with questions about the deal.

The real Babel case

As stated in the investigation materials, the owner of the NBM holding in 2012 “concluded agreements with buyers of apartments” in a residential complex being built “in the area of the village of Marfino, Odintsovo district, Moscow region.” The shareholders invested “money in the project, but the houses were never built,” the case says. Let us note that so far only four victims are mentioned in the investigation materials and the amount of damage appears barely exceeding 21 million rubles.

Honorary builder of Moscow, owner of the NBM-Stroyservice holding, Mikhail Babel - former vice-president of Glavmosstroy, and now one of the largest debtors of Peresvet Bank - was accused of major fraud in November 2016. It was about the missing money of shareholders of the Western Gate of the Capital residential complex in the village of Marfino near Moscow. Until the circumstances were clarified, the court placed Babel in a pre-trial detention center, where he spent almost six months. And when he was released on bail of 10 million, he flew to Israel.

The other day, an investigator from the Moscow Region Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs through the court obtained the re-arrest of the developer - although this time in absentia. Besides, Mikhail Babel, as it turned out, was put on the international wanted list. According to the investigation, the owner of NBM-Stroyservis, accused of particularly large-scale fraud (organizing double sales), is now in Israel. And the two-month arrest in absentia became the necessary basis for the transfer of documents to Interpol.

The Western Gate of the Capital residential complex, in the construction of which Mikhail Babel took part as a co-investor, was supposed to consist of seven buildings with a total area of more than 200 thousand square meters. However, only one was built, three more were started and abandoned, the rest were not even started.

According to the materials of the case initiated in 2015, Babel owed shareholders of unbuilt houses in the Odintsovo district of the Moscow region 21 million rubles. The amount is relatively small, since only four buyers appear in the case so far (in general, the register of defrauded shareholders, as reported, contains almost 1.5 thousand names). While others are gathering their thoughts, the arbitration court declared Mikhail Babel bankrupt.

Agreements with future apartment buyers were concluded back in 2012. Is it true, Pavel Gorelov, Mikhail Babel’s lawyer, claims that his client did not take part in this, “did not enter into or sign agreements with the victims,” and they could not even identify him in a confrontation (the last argument, of course, is so-so - not necessarily the owner construction holding personally met with each of the buyers).

According to the defense lawyer, it was not at all necessary to take Babel under arrest again - “while he was on bail, he could have gone abroad”, notifying the investigation. This, according to Gorelov, was done. According to the lawyer, Mikhail Babel flew to Israel not because he wanted to escape justice, but because of the death of his parents who lived there. And in general, the investigation that has been launched, according to the lawyer, is not particularly legal - the dispute with the defrauded shareholders lies in the plane of civil law relations, in which it is unknown why the police “interfered.”

Background

“Western Gate” is generally catastrophically unlucky. Back in 2002, the construction of this residential complex was started by the Social Initiative company, which soon went bankrupt. The shareholders' money disappeared, the company owner Nikolai Karasev accused of stealing money from co-investors (in 13 regions of the country at once) and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

In 2006, Babel’s CJSC ISK Enbiem, part of the NBM group, took the baton and received a credit line from VTB for 5.5 billion rubles for the implementation of the project. The then leadership of the Moscow region allegedly attracted Enbiem to participate in the construction of the residential complex, promising to significantly increase the quota, so that in the end the company received about 120 thousand square meters of housing. For their part, the builders promised to complete the work “in a year and a half.” And then, as in the famous joke about a horse, they couldn’t. And they generally flew away.

Meanwhile, the site was transferred to PIK Group Sergei Gordeev. In December 2016, PIK renegotiated share participation agreements with the affected shareholders and committed to completing the construction of the Western Gate. But this company was not able to continue construction without problems. The management of the Soyuz-Vozrozhdenie corporation, which previously acted as a developer and investor in the project, stated that it had become a victim of Mikhail Babel’s dishonesty and challenged the transfer of land by filing claims against VTB, PIK Group and the Ministry of Construction of the Moscow Region.

On the real estate website cian.ru, the Soyuz-Vozrozhdeniye Corporation is currently listed as the developer; the completion date for the project is the 4th quarter of 2017.