Gadalov Alexander

Gadalov Alexander

Biography

2023: Sentence - 7 years in prison for fraud worth 550 million rubles

The Zamoskvoretsky court of Moscow sentenced Alexander Gadalov, ex-general director of the Almatel telecommunications holding, to 7 years in prison. His former subordinate Konstantin Antonevich was sentenced to 4 years. Both were found guilty of fraud in the supply of telecommunications equipment for companies of the Almatel Group of Companies, as well as a scam with bills of exchange of the Telephone 365 company. This became known on March 7, 2023.

As Kommersant writes with reference to the materials of the case, at the end of December 2016, Alexander Gadalov, who at that time was the managing director of Alma-Group LLC, together with the general director of this company, Alexander Parkhomenko (by March 7, 2023, was on the wanted list) organized a criminal group, the purpose of which was to steal funds from firms that were part of the Almatel holding. A little later, Antonevich, the general director of the Phone 365 provider controlled by him, joined the attackers.

Former head of the Almatel telecom holding Alexander Gadalov

On January 12, 2017, an equipment supply agreement was concluded between Zyfra One LLC and Telephone 365 LLC (part of the Almatel holding) in the amount of 78.2 million rubles, which was never delivered as a result. According to the same scheme, according to the investigation, a scam was carried out with the supply of equipment for 2Kom Company. In this case, the amount of theft amounted to 19.6 million rubles.

According to the newspaper, the largest episode of the case is connected with Alexander Udodov. In December 2017, Parkhomenko, being familiar with Udodov and knowing about the availability of free funds and the desire to increase them, offered the businessman to purchase promissory notes of the Phone 365 company in the amount of 450 million rubles. Parkhomenko convinced Udodov that he, as an investor, would earn well on interest when repaying securities, and the money received from Udodov would go to buy new assets. None of this happened, however. Having executed the transaction on December 27, 2017, the issuer redeemed part of the bills within two years, but then refused to do so. All attempts by Udodov to return his money did not lead to anything, the publication says.^[1]

2020: Detention in a fraud case committed by an organised group of individuals

Following the trial on September 12, 2020, Alexander Gadalov was taken into custody. The general director of the telecommunications company Almatel is accused under article 159 of part 4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation of fraud committed by an organized group of persons.

The election of such a preventive measure is reported on the website of the courts of general jurisdiction of the city of Moscow. Any details about the reasons for taking into custody the head of Almatel are not reported. It is only known that Gadalov was charged by Kazakhstan.

According to ComNews, the arrest of Alexander Gadalov may be related to the actions of the former beneficiary of the AlmaTel group (as well as Alma Group LLC) Zhomart Ertaev. Instead of Zhomart Ertaev, extradited from Russia and under arrest in Kazakhstan (on suspicion of organizing theft from Kazakhstan's Bank RBK JSC), Dmitry Nikulin became the owner of Alma Group, to whom 90.5% of the company then moved.

The authorities of Kazakhstan accused Ertaev of withdrawing funds from the RBK bank in the amount of 144 billion tenge ($373 million) by issuing loans to shell organizations under fictitious pledges. Among them was a loan in the amount of 16 billion tenge ($41 million) issued by the RBK bank to the Kazakh company Ordabasy Communications (subsequently renamed Asset Invest).

Part 4 of Article 159 "Fraud committed by an organized group or on an especially large scale or resulting in the deprivation of a citizen's right to a living quarters" provides for imprisonment for up to 10 years with a fine of up to 1 million rubles or in the amount of the convict's salary or other income for a period of up to three years or without it and with restriction of freedom for up to two years or without it.^[2]

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