Malofeyev Konstantin Valeryevich

He is also the chairman of the board of the Safe Internet League, the author of the idea of ​ ​ the volunteer movement "Cyberdruzhina."

Biography

Lawyer

Malofeev was born on July 3, 1974 in Pushchino near Moscow. In the early 1990s, he entered the law faculty of Moscow State University. "Kostya studied well - without triples, was charming and independent, he achieved everything himself," recalls a classmate Malofeeva. "He was very contact, active, literally boiling with energy," says his fellow student and close friend Alexander Provotorov (now he works as the general director of Rostelecom). Provotorov met Malofeev in the 1st year: "Let's go to potatoes, lived in the same room for a month and made friends." Students had common interests: both were fond of Russian and ancient history. And in the 4th year, Malofeev seriously plunged into Orthodoxy. Together with Provotorov, they went to the Church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University and still go, notes Provotorov. Later they became nepotism: Provotorov is the goddaughter of Malofeev, and Malofeev is the daughter of Provotorov. Another student friend of Malofeev was the son of Prosecutor General Yuri Skuratov Dmitry, who studied two years younger. Yuri Skuratov recalls that Kostya [Malofeev] and Dima [Skuratov] met at Moscow State University on the basis of their love of football. He assures that he did not provide any "state support" to friends; on the contrary, it was Kostya who helped Dima find a job at MDM Bank when many turned away from the Skuratovs (after the scandalous resignation of the Prosecutor General in 1999).

In the 5th year of law, in 1996, Malofeev got a job as a lawyer at the Renaissance Capital investment company. "We then did not take Malofeev's departure as a lawyer to some unknown company seriously," recalls Malofeev's fellow student. "But Kostya got into the trend and guessed." And Malofeev was invited to Renaissance by law school teacher Dmitry Bakatin (son of the last chairman of the KGB of the USSR Vadim Bakatin). "Then there were no special options for work, which was offered, then good," recalls Provotorov, who came to the Renaissance six months later than Malofeev. "The surnames Potanin, Jordan, Lisin did not tell us anything."

"This was the time of big projects - we participated in the 25% privatization deal," "Svyazinvest the sale of 10% of Sidanko to BP, IPO," "says VimpelCom Malofeev. "Despite our youth and inexperience, Konstantin and I were in good standing," says Provotorov. Their first project was the purchase of shares in the Novolipetsk Metallurgical Plant. Provotorov recalls that it was a real corporate war. From the legal department, Malofeev moved to the investment unit. And then there was a crisis.

Having left Renaissance in 1998, Malofeev left for Ukraine: "After the crisis, it was difficult to find a job, and I decided to start my own business." He opened his investment and consulting company Votum Consulting, but things did not go well: "There was not enough work experience." I had to become a hired manager again: Malofeev worked for a year as a director at the brokerage office of Regent European Securities, then a little in the Centrinvest investment company, then a little in Interros (since 2001 - head of the investment department of the Interros holding company). "It was a time of great opportunity for the investment business if we started then... But I was not a manager, but only a hired manager, "recalls Malofeev.

Banker

Malofeev gained experience at MDM Bank, where he distinguished himself in buying shares in regional energy companies for $1 billion and was one of the organizers of the IPO of the Irkut aircraft corporation. The head of the corporate finance department of MDM Malofeeva in 2002 was called by the board of directors of the bank Vladimir Rashevsky. "It turned out to be easy to work in a bank, its corporate culture resembled the culture of'Onexima' of the 1990s," Malofeev recalls. In 2002, when MDM-Bank was the organizer of the Volga Telecom bond loan, Malofeev met Yevgeny Yurchenko, then the financial director of Svyazinvest. From the reporting of MDM Bank, you can find out that in 2003 Malofeev and his colleagues Sergey Ogorodnov, Dmitry Skuratov (now working at Marshall Capital) and Mikhail Leshchenko joined the boards of directors of 11 energy companies. In all of them, MDM-Bank acquired minority stakes, all of them were transferred to the Siberian Coal Energy Company.

Yuri Skuratov recalls that when one of his longtime opponents, Anatoly Chubais, in 2003 saw that the son of the former Prosecutor General Dmitry was on the board of directors of Kuzbassenergo, he was very indignant and demanded that he be expelled immediately. But Malofeev defended his comrade. "If Rashevsky decided to dismiss Skuratov, then I would leave MDM Bank with Dmitry," says Malofeev.

For the exchange placement of "Irkutsk" Leshchenko and Malofeev used an interesting scheme. By law, trading in new shares could not begin immediately. Bankers figured out how to bypass these restrictions and immediately bring the shares to the stock exchange. Irkutsk shareholders sold 13.3% of the shares to MDM Bank and transferred another 10% under a loan agreement. This package was sold in 2004 to investors during the IPO, trading started the next day. And Irkut then sold 10% of the shares of the new MDM issue, which they settled under a loan agreement. Approximately such a scheme - the public sale of existing shares, followed by the restoration of the stake through a new issue - is now used in almost all Russian placements.

Malofeev also had less successful projects at MDM. Potanin decided to invest in agriculture and created Agros agro-industrial complex with a capital of $100 million - for acquisitions. Meat assets "Agros" helped consolidate just MDM-Bank. In October 2002, the bank, in the interests of Agros, bought a 57% stake in the large Smolmyaso pig complex, in 2003 - a 58% stake in the Tagansky meat processing plant (Tampa, Moscow). But both assets proved challenging. "Agros" could not immediately enter the "Tampa": the company was helped by the police, the bailiff service and sports young people in jeeps. As a result, Tampa had to be returned to its former owners altogether: it turned out that the meat processing plant was taken away from shareholders in violation of the law; after losing all the courts, Agros announced in 2004 that he was leaving Tampa. In Smolensk, Rusagrokapital challenged the purchase, and Agros left the pig farm, receiving from a competitor in exchange the Smolensk Bakery Plant.

Businessman: "Nutritek"

By 2005, Malofeev became, according to him, a wealthy banker and created his own investment company - Marshall Capital Partners.

The first asset for Marshall, one might say, came to Malofeev himself. One of the clients of MDM, with whom he worked, was the Nutritek holding (a manufacturer of milk and baby food). As the businessman told Forbes magazine (and confirmed to Vedomosti), the founder and owner of Nutritek Georgy Sazhinov tried to get a loan from MDM for business development under a 10% stake, but the bank refused. Then Malofeev himself took out a loan for Sazhinov at Uralsib and received 10% of Nutritek's parent company, Nutrinvestholding, for this. And in 2005, the Marshall Capital Partners and Sazhinov established Marshall Milk Investment acquired 100% of Nutrinvestholding.

Since then, the company has been very active in raising funds for business development, using all possible tools - from the issue of bonds to the sale of assets to newly created funds. In April 2007, the company held an IPO, in the summer of that year, London's Private Equity Fund UBS introduced Malofeev and Sazhin to major Western investors AXA Private Equity and Paul Capital Partners, a source close to UBS management said. Two private equity funds MarCap I and MarCap II were created for these companies, in which new investors invested $420 million, and Marshall Capital sold part of its assets to MarCap I (Nutritek). In general, more than $1.1 billion was raised over three years.

And then came the crisis. In October 2008, Nutritek announced the delisting of shares, then - default.

In the spring of 2009, the company was no longer able to pay even a coupon on ruble bonds - the equivalent of about $1 million. At the end of 2009, the board of directors ordered Ernst & Young a special audit of the company, which showed the true state of affairs in it. Several sources familiar with the report told about the content of the audit: auditors found shadow receivables of the Nutritek group for 2.6 billion rubles. - debts of 11 firms, some of them were controlled by top managers Sazhinov and Oleg Ochinsky. The Ernst & Young report also indicated that in 2006-2009 Nutritek transferred 1.8 billion rubles to the DRD Group offshore (not part of the group), of which only 929 million rubles returned through the Nutritek offshore chain. DRD Group was also used to pay "unofficial part of salaries and bonuses" to Nutritek employees. Auditors could not find over $30 million. And this is about half of Nutritek's EBITDA in 2007, said Vitaly Baikin, an analyst at Daiwa Capital Markets. Former Nutritek managers told Ernst & Young that several technical companies carried out fake transactions in order to increase Nutritek's revenue. Ernst & Young notes in the report that the company was able to provide documents for only 47% of the transactions that interested the auditor: according to the group's employees, some of the documents disappeared as a result of a car accident and a fire in a warehouse. According to sources, the Ernst & Young report was discussed at the board of directors of Nutritek, its content is known to creditors and investors of Nutritek. Malofeev and a representative of Ernst & Young declined to comment on the report, Ochinsky assures that he is not familiar with its content and "was not a beneficiary of legal entities that have a shadow receivable to the Nutritek group, and the firms through which the group's funds were carried out."

In June 2010, Malofeev told Vedomosti that an investigation by Ernst & Young showed that "Oleg [Ochinsky's] reputation is sufficiently protected to return him to the company." It was not possible to contact Sazhinov. As a result of investigations, he ceased to be a shareholder. 19% of the shares of Nutrinvestholding owned by Sazhinov were transferred in favor of the company during the restructuring of obligations, says Malofeev. Under the Group's consolidated special purpose balance sheet under IFRS as of December 31, 2008, the Group's liabilities were more than assets by RUB 1.76 billion. Now the company has debts of more than $200 million. AXA Private Equity and Paul Capital Partners did not respond to Vedomosti's request.

Businessman-2: SMARTS

Another notable project of Marshall Capital was the purchase of shares in the mobile operator SMARTS. "We have known Mr. Malofeev for a long time, even when he worked at MDM Bank," recalls SMARTS CEO Andrei Girev. SMARTS cooperation with Marshall Capital in Girev's presentation looks like this. When the company thought about an IPO in 2005, it agreed that Marshall Capital would pre-buy 20% of the shares from SMARTS minority shareholders (after the placement they could rise in price). Moreover, it could be a joint purchase, after which Malofeev and the main owner of SMARTS Gennady Kiryushin should have been 10% each, and there could only be mediation - if Marshall Capital simply raises money for the purchase, and then all 20% - Kiryushin. "We convinced minority shareholders to sell the shares, all the documents were ready, but Marshall Capital could not find the money. Minority shareholders have been sitting over the forms of contracts for six months, ready to put their signatures, "says Girev. And then Kiryushin took a loan and bought 20% of the shares from minority shareholders.

But Marshal Capital Partners, through which Malofeev worked with SMARTS, has five shares of the operator left. The fact is that SMARTS - a closed joint stock company and minority shareholders could not sell shares to the side without offering all other shareholders. To bypass this formality, Marshal Capital Partners became a shareholder, exchanging the same five shares from the son of the chairman of the SMARTS board of directors for the picture (although the new owner of the picture still withdrew $260,000 from the account of Marshall Capital Managing Director Sergei Azatyan, according to the materials of arbitration courts). When Malofeev realized that he no longer needed his services, he offered Kiryushin to pay compensation - to buy five shares from him for $10 million. And having received a refusal, he sold the company to a well-known specialist in mergers and acquisitions Pavel Svirsky. He renamed Marshal Capital Partners to Sigma Capital Partners and took up his business - the courts began, the arrests of shares, etc., the war for SMARTS continues to this day.

Malofeev and Provotorov tell the story differently. Kiryushin at some point stopped fulfilling the terms of the contract, bought back shares from minority shareholders and refused to pay for Marshall's work (Provotorov says that five shares were ready to give up Kiryushin cheaper than $10 million). And then Svirsky came and offered to buy the situation, they sold it to him. Svirsky gave a very short comment: he knows about such a person as Konstantin Malofeev.

Businessman-3: Astelit

In 2006, Malofeev brokered another deal that baffled analysts. Comstar-OTS, a member of Sistema, announced the purchase of Astelit, an outsider of the St. Petersburg communications market, for $7.8 million. According to iKS-Consulting, Astelit served about 100 clients and occupied 1% of the corporate communications market in St. Petersburg with a volume of $300 million.

The details of this transaction were told to Vedomosti by the manager of one of the Sistema companies. According to him, the co-owner of Astelit Rinat Gazizullin, the son of the former Minister of Property Relations Farit Gazizullin, sold Astelit to M-telecom holding Malofeeva, and he sold M-telecom holding together with the asset Comstar-OTS"," receiving from the company $7.8 million. Moreover, at the end of 2005, Astelita refused to buy Alfa Group"," considering $5 million too high a price. Here Malofeev again crossed paths with, Yurchenko at that time, the deputy general director of Comstar for mergers and acquisitions.

But Yurchenko denies his involvement in the Astelit deal. Vladimir Roman, a former analyst at MDM Bank, then worked as the head of the acquisition department of Komstar, and he was preparing a presentation of Astelita for the board of directors of the company, a source in one of the Sistema companies says. Immediately after the deal, Roman moved to Marshall Capital. Yurchenko confirms that Roman led the deal for Astelit at Comstar. Immediately after the deal, Roman went back to Marshall, he concludes. Roman really worked for Marshall Capital for some time, agrees Malofeev. Co-owner of Sistema Vladimir Yevtushenkov refused to comment on this deal, and member of the board of directors of AFK Alexander Goncharuk said that he no longer remembers its details. However, Gazizullin has no complaints against Malofeev, he does not comment on the amount of the transaction.

In 2012, Malofeev's ill-wishers distributed on the Internet a memo prepared by the security service for the president of AFK Sistema, Alexander Goncharuk. You can read the document here.

2009: Rostelecom

During this period, Malofeev is not an official or top manager of a communications company, he is just a member of the board of directors of the state holding Svyazinvest. Nevertheless, many people working in the communications market, in a conversation with Vedomosti, call him a gray cardinal and say that without him at that time not a single more or less significant issue is being resolved (for example, about the distribution of frequencies). And when Malofeev's interlocutors flatteringly call him "Deputy Minister of Communications," he allegedly corrects them: "Not a deputy, but a friend of the minister."

On February 10, 2009, Malofeev was elected to the board of directors of Svyazinvest. A seat on the council was offered to him by the state. This is quite consistent with the idea of ​ ​ President Dmitry Medvedev to replace officials on the boards of directors of state-owned companies with active businessmen. But why did the state decide to invite the owner of a private investment company to the council of its telecommunications holding? Press Secretary of the Minister of Communications Elena Lashkina could not answer this question.

Svyazinvest is a story not only about communication, but also about finance, investment and law, explains Provotorov. The full name of the company is OJSC Investment Communications Company (Svyazinvest), he recalls. In 2010, Svyazinvest is undergoing reform: by the beginning of 2011, interregional communications companies controlled by it will be merged on the basis of Rostelecom, which will become the national champion in the field of broadband Internet access, fixed and, possibly, over time cellular communication. Reorganization is primarily a legal and investment process, emphasizes Provotorov. And Malofeev is just an investment banker and a lawyer.

The manager of Svyazinvest put forward two considerations why Igor Shchegolev chose Malofeev. The Minister of Communications and Mass Media - a journalist who had grown to the head of the presidential protocol department - having taken up the Svyazinvest reform, needed professionals. Moreover, what was fundamental for Shchegolev, not connected with any of the large interested groups.

"A minister is not a business person, he has no financial experience and a government official cannot manage business processes at all. Therefore, this position was delegated to Malofeev, "Yurchenko points out

.

The minister needed a trusted person. According to Yurchenko, Malofeev has long known Shchegolev. Several sources close to Svyazinvest companies said that Shchegolev and Malofeev were introduced by their mutual friend Arseny Mironov. Now he heads the department of information and public relations of the Ministry of Communications, and before that he worked with Shchegolev in ITAR-TASS and the protocol and organizational department of the president. Mironov avoided a direct answer, and Malofeev does not comment on who introduced him to the minister. He has known Mironov since childhood. But their close cooperation, according to Mironov, began in 2006, when the Orthodox gymnasium of St. Basil the Great was created (one of the main projects of the Malofeev Foundation). Mironov says he joined her academic council, helped develop the concept and compile new textbooks. According to him, when he worked on a literature textbook for the 10th grade of the gymnasium, he discussed the very idea of ​ ​ the gymnasium, including with Shchegolev.

"Shchegolev is fond of history, and he was interested in this project," says Mironov.

In Svyazinvest, Malofeev heads the strategic development committee under the board of directors. But the ideas of reorganization were proposed not by him, but by the entire team led by Shchegolev, Malofeev emphasizes.

In this team, in addition to Malofeev and Provotorov, at least three more immigrants from Marshall Capital can be considered in key positions:

• Deputy General Director of Svyazinvest Mikhail Leshchenko (in 2005-2008 he was Managing Director of Marshall Capital Partners, and then became an adviser to Shchegolev),
• Deputy General Director - Financial Director of Rostelecom Anton Khozyinov (held a similar position at Marshall) and
• Sergey Ogorodnov (heads Infra Engineering, a contractor for Svyazinvest subsidiaries).

Under Minister Igor Shchegolev, in fact, Malofeev was the curator of the reform of the Svyazinvest holding carried out in those years, which consisted in the unification of its operators on the basis of Rostelecom. At the same time, a number of key posts in the holding were taken by immigrants from MCP, in particular, the head of the combined Rostelecom in 2010-13 was the ex-general director of MCP Alexander Provotorov.

Malofeev in a short time managed to become a very serious player in the communications market. He has good organizational abilities and he very quickly delved into the topic of telecoms, says Comstar President Sergei Pridantsev, adding that Malofeev is an influential figure in the communications market.

Now the former general director of Svyazinvest Yurchenko believes that Malofeev is too influential a figure.

"The decision-making centre

has completely shifted to the former and present managers of Marshall Capital. After that, decisions began to be made that did not agree with me. During the negotiations on M&A transactions, neither the specialized divisions of Svyazinvest, nor representatives of regional companies and Rostelecom participated in the preparation of these transactions. All negotiations and elaboration of documents were carried out only by former and real employees of Marshall Capital. In fact, the management of the state-owned company passed into private hands, "he said in an interview with Vedomosti in September 2010, immediately after he wrote a letter of resignation. And he explained what such a decision-making system leads to: the Moscow Internet provider Akado is rated for purchase almost twice the industry average, Svyazinvest's contracts are covered by a company associated with Marshall Capital: "Imagine, they come to you and say: tomorrow your company will lose all orders. If you don't want her to go broke, give me 70%, and I guarantee from the state the transfer of government orders to you. " And Marshall Capital may become one of the shareholders of the already new, united Rostelecom, having collected stakes in Svyazinvest's subsidiaries, equivalent to 7% of the future national champion, with the help of Gazprombank, in which, by coincidence (and, undoubtedly, in compliance with all corporate formalities) just during the purchase, Rostelecom kept the money.

Malofeev claims that Yurchenko is lying, and on October 8, 2010 he filed a lawsuit against him (at the same time to the newspaper Vedomosti, which distributed an interview with the disgraced general director). Neither Minister Shchegolev nor any other of the top officials of the state have yet publicly commented on Yurchenko's accusations.

• At the end of October 2010, Malofeev asked the Minister of Communications Igor Shchegolev not to include him as a candidate for the new board of directors of Svyazinvest. He will have to be re-elected ahead of schedule by the shareholders of the state holding. Such a letter was received by the minister, an employee of the press service of the Ministry of Communications told Vedomosti. Malofeev's representative confirmed the fact of sending the letter, but refused to discuss the details. Instead, he redirected Vedomosti to Malofeev's comment to the RBC Daily newspaper: "I considered it inappropriate to remain on the council, since if in relation to 'Rostelecom' our interests fully coincide with the government as a shareholder of Svyazinvest (we are interested in increasing the capitalization of 'Rostelecom'), then in relation to the rest of Svyazinvest's assets - no."

Malofeev refused to run for the Svyazinvest council after the scandal caused by the dismissal of Yurchenko (see cut). Yurchenko himself welcomes Malofeev's act, calling it "courageous." The next step of Malofeev should be the departure from the board of directors of Rostelecom and the release of the position of the chairman of the strategic development committee under the board of Rostelecom, Yurchenko is waiting, since Malofeev has a conflict of interest in this company. Vedomosti could not find out whether these expectations are justified: Malofeev did not answer calls from the newspaper either on Friday or yesterday.

Malofeev is present in the current council of Rostelecom thanks to VEB, which voted for him, says Yurchenko (representatives of VEB, which owns 9.8% of Rostelecom's voting shares). Svyazinvest did not vote for Malofeev, Yurchenko emphasizes. But he may get into the new council as a co-owner of Rostelecom: in mid-September, Marshall Capital Partners signed an agreement to buy out a fund from Gazprombank that owns shares in Svyazinvest's subsidiaries, equivalent to 7% of the combined Rostelecom.

As a result, the MCP fund bought more than 10% of the shares of the combined Rostelecom. At the end of 2013, Rostelecom bought a block of shares from the Konstantin Malofeev fund for 38 billion rubles.

2011: Re-election to the Board of Directors of Rostelecom

On January 22, 2011, Konstantin Malofeev was re-elected to the board of directors of Rostelecom.

2012

Searches in the apartment

On November 20, 2012, it became known that Malofeev was involved as a witness in the case of VTB's loan to Nutritek. Details of the proceedings are here. On the eve of the searches, Konstantin Malofeev was removed from the elections of deputies of the Znamensky village council in the Smolensk region. With the help of these elections, Malofeev wanted, according to Izvestia, to become a senator, but the local court decided that he bribed voters. Thus, Malofeev lost the opportunity to obtain senatorial immunity.

Deputy of Council of deputies of the village Znamensk

In December 2012, the judicial collegium for civil cases of the Smolensk Regional Court declared unlawful the decision of the Vyazemsky District Court to remove K. Malofeev from the by-election to the council of deputies in the village of Znamenskoye, Smolensk Region, Marshall Capital said in a statement.

The court of first instance on November 17 canceled the registration of K. Malofeev as a candidate for the by-election of the council of the Znamensky rural settlement, which took place on November 18. The court decision at the time of the election did not enter into legal force, and K. Malofeev was elected a deputy, receiving 74.85% of the vote.

As evidence of violations by K. Malofeev, the court used receipts of several voters confirming the receipt of 500 rubles from representatives of the businessman in exchange for the obligation to vote for him in the elections.

"We have already turned to law enforcement agencies to identify those persons who allegedly bribed voters on my behalf," K. Malofeev said. "It is obvious that these illegal actions and their widespread media coverage served as the beginning of an information attack on me," he said.

Some media reported that K. Malofeev's participation in the elections of deputies of the village council was due to his intention to receive the post of senator from the administration of the Smolensk region.

2013: Purchase of Soyuztelefonstroy and 25% in NVision Group

In October 2013, it became known that Konstantin Malofeev became the owner of a 25% stake in NVision Group, his friend told Vedomosti. He bought a 50% stake in the authorized capital of Envizhn Group Management Company LLC from its founders - Dmitry Taraba, Anton Sushkevich and Alexei Glotov; she, in turn, owns 50% minus 0.5 shares of NVision Group (the rest is owned by AFK Sistema Vladimir Yevtushenkov).

Malofeev and the representative of NVision Group confirmed the information about the transaction. According to Malofeev, during this transaction the company was valued no higher than in September 2012, when the assets of NVision Group were merged with those owned by AFK Sitronics and RTI Group. Then the share capital of the company was estimated at 20 billion rubles. Malofeev does not disclose what funds the acquisition was made for, but says that "this is a profitable investment of money," because within three years NVision Group should go public.

After concluding a deal with Sistema, the RTI group controlled by AFK became the owner of 50% plus 0.5 shares of NVision Group. For her share, RTI Group paid the founders of the company with money (3 billion rubles) and assets (two main assets of the IT company Sitronics were included in NVision).

Malofeev has been a large minority shareholder of Rostelecom for several years: now he owns 8.2% of the operator's shares. And NVision Group has also been a major contractor for Rostelecom for several years - the company is building data centers for the operator. The friendship of the two companies began even when Malofeev was the largest minority shareholder of Rostelecom and was a member of the operator's board of directors. In 2010, Rostelecom even wanted to acquire NVision, but the deal did not take place due to the fact that the parties could not agree on a price.

And recently, Malofeev acquired another major Rostelecom contractor, Soyuztelefonstroy. This is the main asset of Infra Engineering. Sources in many communications companies and construction contractors have spoken about the fact that Infra Engineering is related to Malofeev's Marshall Capital Partner since the day in 2010, the former general director of Svyazinvest Yevgeny Yurchenko first spoke about this holding in an interview with Vedomosti. According to Yurchenko, Svyazinvest (then the parent company of Rostelecom) transferred more than 80% of its contracts to Infra in 2010. The head of Infra, Sergei Ogorodnov and Malofeev, have always denied this.

Neither NVision nor Soyuztelefonstroy can now be called the main partners of Rostelecom, says a source close to the operator. He recalls that in April 2013, when a new management came to Rostelecom and the procurement system was revised, the operator significantly changed the terms of some contracts, saving more than 6 billion rubles as a result. This figure was also called by the vice president and CFO of Rostelecom Kai-Uwe Melhorn.

Immediately after the change of leadership, the execution of many contracts was suspended for the purpose of audit, said earlier Rostelecom President Sergei Kalugin. A source at Rostelecom said that not only the share of many companies in Rostelecom's contracts has changed, but also the amount of contracts.

Malofeev says that Soyuztelefonstroy and NVision are complementary assets. But in addition to "Rostelecom" they have other customers, he emphasizes. For example, the portfolio of the same NVision Group has contracts with more than 1000 clients. Among them, Russian Railways, Sberbank and VimpelCom^[1].

2014: Criminal case in Ukraine on charges of financing separatists

In July 2014, the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine opened a criminal case against a Russian citizen, the owner of the Marschall Capital Partners (MCP) fund Konstantin Malofeev. He is suspected of financing the activities of "illegal armed groups" in the country. We are talking about the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, whose supporters are fighting with the army of Ukraine.

In May 2014, Russian citizen Alexander Borodai became Prime Minister of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). He was previously an MCP spin doctor. According to the memoirs of one of Malofeev's former partners, Borodai helped him "solve the problem with law enforcement agencies."

The Minister of Defense of the DPR is another Russian citizen - Igor Strelkov (real name is Girkin). In April 2014, when Strelkov seized the city of Slavyansk in the Donetsk region, the Security Service of Ukraine posted a recording of his telephone conversations with "curators" from Moscow. On the tape, Strelkov communicates with Borodai and a certain "Konstantin Valerievich," whose voice looks like that of Konstantin Valerievich Malofeev.

Strelkov reported to Konstantin Valerievich about the successful operation to eliminate the "VIP-motorcade" of the attackers of the Ukrainian security forces. He also asked who was driving in it. A man with Malofeev's voice replied that the head of the Anti-Terrorist Center of Ukraine Gennady Bilichenko was killed.

"Congratulations to those who

need to be shot," Strelkov's source said. "And they celebrated the holiday well (Palm Sunday, - editor's note)."

In Russia, a criminal case was also opened against Konstantin Malofeev: this was due to VTB accusations of fraudulently obtaining a loan in the amount of $225 million to buy MCP agricultural assets. After the sale of a stake in Rostelecom in 2013, the bank's claims were settled.

Malofeev's former partner says that activity in Ukraine is not his initiative: it is allegedly a "pointer from above." Note that Igor Shchegolev, who now holds the post of assistant to the President of Russia, also suffered from the events in Ukraine: he was included in the US sanctions list.

2019

Unsuccessful attempt to enter the leadership of the Fair Russia party

In April 2019, Malofeev was refused to be elected to the governing bodies of the Fair Russia party (SR), to adopt amendments strengthening his place in the SR, to receive a mandate as a State Duma deputy from the SR, to employ his own personnel in the SR apparatus and, finally, Malofeev "refused to participate in the congress to avoid a scandal."

Deputy Chairman of the World Russian People's Council

In April 2019, Konstantin Malofeev became deputy chairman of the World Russian People's Council.

US Sanctioned African Funding Project

In September 2019, it became known that investor Konstantin Malofeev, who had completed his political career at Fair Russia the day before, will raise funding for African countries.

He took over as head of the supervisory board of the International Sovereign Development Agency. The agency is non-state and consists of "consultants" who will provide access to the capital markets of the sanctions countries without the Anglo-Saxon world.

At this time, the United States is under various sanctions,,,,,, and Central African Republic (CAR) Burundi Congo Mali Somalia Zimbabwe Sudan Darfur.

2020: Blocking the TV channel "Tsargrad"

In 2020, Google blocked the YouTube account of the Tsargrad TV channel, owned by Konstantin Malofeev. The company itself explained this decision by the fact that Malofeev is on the US sanctions lists. The Russian court recognized that the company should fully restore the YouTube channel in the form in which it was before removal, otherwise it will be charged a penalty of 100,000 rubles a day and increase weekly in a progressive manner, while within nine months after the decision comes into force, the maximum amount cannot exceed 1 billion rubles. In 2022, the company paid a fine.

2022: US charged with violating sanctions and seizing millions of dollars allegedly linked to Malofeev

On April 6, 2022, US Attorney General Garland said that the authorities accused the Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeev of violating sanctions. Malofeev used accomplices to try to avoid sanctions and run media across Europe. The Attorney General also claims that the United States seized millions of dollars allegedly related to Malofeev from a US bank.

In February 2023, a court in the United States allowed the confiscation of $5.4 million from Konstantin Malofeev.

2023

Assassination attempt organized by Russian nationalist Denis Kapustin

In March 2023, FSB officers of Russia prevented an assassination attempt on the chairman of the board of directors of the Tsargrad group of companies Konstantin Malofeev.

The organizer of the attempt was Denis Kupastin, one of the participants in the nationalist movement "Russian Volunteer Corps," involved in the attack on the border villages of the Bryansk region a few days earlier.

The perpetrators planned to carry out a terrorist act by detonating an improvised explosive device attached to Malofeev's car. Earlier, journalist Daria Dugina was killed.

After identifying an attempted assassination attempt and finding the place of the explosive device, the car was cleared using a sapper robot. The department announced the initiation of a criminal case under articles on the terrorist attack, participation in the activities of a terrorist organization and illegal trafficking in explosives.

US transfers $5.4 million confiscated from Malofeev "to restore Ukraine"

In May 2023, US Attorney General Merrick Garland approved the transfer of the confiscated assets of Russian businessman and founder of the Tsargrad TV channel Konstantin Malofeev "to the restoration of Ukraine." He stated that this is the first case of the US sending confiscated Russian funds to restore Ukraine, but not the last.

A court in New York previously decided to confiscate $5.4 million on the account of a Russian businessman in the Denver bank Sunflower.

Interesting facts

• Malofeev is the godfather of two children of ex-minister Igor Shchegolev.

• Arseny Mironov in the late 90s wrote fantasy with a bias to Christianity - "Old Russian Game." The main characters of the trilogy are students of Moscow State University, in which you can guess Konstantin Malofeev and two of his friends, says Malofeev's^[2] minister^[2]

• Acquaintances of Konstantin Malofeev say that he loves an anecdote about a hare who beat an elephant and a rhino. The hare offered the elephant and rhino to compete in the tug of war, assigned time and place. The elephant and rhino came from different directions, saw the rope and let's pull each one in its own direction. And the hare sat in the bushes and laughed^[2].

• The office of Marshall Capital Partners, a group of companies in which Malofeev is a managing partner, is located in the Residence on Rublevka business center. Expensive furniture, cabinets crammed with history books, a large iconostasis in the office. Malofeev says that three things are really important to him: business, history and Orthodoxy. But he only agrees to discuss business. Malofeev does not name the size of his fortune. According to him, the amount can be calculated by multiplying by 10 the annual budget of the charitable foundation of St. Basil the Great established by him. But the fund's budget has not been disclosed.

• Malofeev does not strive for endless money making and jokes: "As a rule, the Russian oligarch dreams of becoming a barin, Jewish - of becoming even richer." "A rich man must always remember that wealth is given to him only in administration. And if he does not manage him well, then the Lord can dismiss him, "Malofeev quotes John Chrysostom.

Family

Married, two children.

Notes