How the mountain Jews captured Moscow in the 1990s
By Olga Filimonova
April 20, 2017
Rucriminal.com continues a series of articles about the "king" of Moscow real estate Yakov Yakubov. In this publication, we will talk about the formation of a businessman and how he got all his wealth.
Yakub Melik Sadih-Oglu Yakubov was born 68 years ago in the Azerbaijani town of Krasnaya Sloboda - the local capital of mountain Jews (Tats). From the same settlement come the current billionaires, who built their capital thanks to the capital authorities Telman Ismailov (owner of the AST group, Cherkizovsky market, etc.), his native brother Fazil Izmailov (born Ismailov, former deputy prefect of the capital's SAO), Zakhar Iliyev and God Nisanov (owners of the Ukraine Hotel, the European Shopping Center, Moscow Shopping Center, Sadovod market, secret co-owners of VDNH, etc.), as well as a group of less public rich people: Alesha Yakubov, Edin Khananiev, Don Mirov, Benyagu Shalmiev, Istakhar Ilkhanov. All of them appeared in the capital in the early 90s and thanks to the support of the community of mountain Jews, as well as established ties with Yuri Luzhkov's team, they made a huge fortune. All of them went through approximately the same business paths: tents - small market (shop) - large markets - casinos - real estate objects previously controlled by the Moscow government.
Little is known about the fate of Yakubov until the early 90s, when he appeared in Moscow: at one time Yakub was the chairman of the Uzbek football club "Pakhtakor", was engaged in business in Crimea, until he decided to settle in the capital.
In Moscow, most people from Krasnaya Sloboda, including Yakubov, had a loyal "guide" to the capital authorities - Agaragim Jafarov, who was born back in 1934 in the Lak district of Dagestan. In the bases of the capital's RUBOP, Jafarov is listed as a man who was engaged in farting in Moscow during the times of the USSR, and then established "corrupt ties in the Moscow government". At the same time, he was suspected of "financing illegal armed gangs in Chechnya".
Back in 1991, Jafarov became the general director of the JSCT "Prince Rurik" - one of the main brainchilds of the capital authorities of those times - a project to build a brewery in Biryulev. Thanks to the decision of Jafarov's close friend, Deputy Mayor Joseph Ordzhonekidze and the head of the city Yuri Luzhkov himself, more than $70 million was invested in this enterprise in a short period of time, but the plant was never born. Some funds were transferred in the form of investments by Luzhkov's personal order, others - in more mysterious ways. For example, at the end of 1991, the mayor's office signed a contract for the supply of food for the city with the foreign company "Contitrade". Under this agreement, $13.5 million was transferred abroad: 500 thousand of them went to the purchase of products, and the remaining $13 million were allegedly spent on the purchase of equipment for the JSCT "Prince Rurik". In fact, the money has settled in foreign accounts. Moreover, millions of dollars "spinned" through companies controlled by Alexander Rutsky and Boris Bernstein, a prominent representative of the Russian mafia abroad.
Of the remaining $60 million received on the Rurik paper from the capital authorities, the JSCT transferred a significant amount of money under the guise of its own profit to the company "Inteco", which belonged to Elena Baturina, Yuri Luzhkov's wife.
So since the beginning of the 90s, Jafarov participated in the criminal cases of the capital authorities and knew absolutely all its representatives of the time of Yuri Luzhkov. He communicated especially closely with the vice-mayors Joseph Ordzhonekidze, Vladimir Resin and the head of the consumer market department Vladimir Malyshkov. In particular, the latter helped Jafarov build a business empire for the production of bread in Moscow: most of the loafs and buns on the capital's counter were baked at his enterprises. Very quickly, all of Jafarov's friends became Yakubov's friends. At the same time, Agaragim brought Yakub to the leaders of the capital's criminal groups, primarily ethnic ones - Dagestan, Chechen, Azerbaijani.
From the sales tent to the Eliseevsky store
If Telman Ismailov started his business career from a small market in the Autonomous District of Moscow, then Yakubov started his business with a small sports goods store on 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street, where he held a modest position as deputy general director of JSC "Inzhstroyservice" (this company owned the store). As a result, quite quickly (with the help of bribes, threats, etc.) Yakubov managed to get ownership of the entire house where the sporting goods were located. The same fate awaited the building on 2nd Brestskaya Street, where another Yakubov sports store was located. This building became a kind of headquarters of the Yakub group.
In the mid-late 90s, with the permission of the capital authorities, he began to build a trade pavilion and tents near the metro stations "Kitay-gorod", "Pushkinskaya", "Novoslobodskaya", "Savelovskaya", "River Station", "Voykovskaya", "Timiryazevskaya", "Prazhskaya", etc. In total, he owned more than a thousand such objects. All of them were rented to various merchants who officially paid Yakubov's firms, first of all "Terrabuildingengineering", a meager fee. And the main amounts (from 2 to 4 thousand $ per month) were collected in cash by Yakub's strong guys, primarily his relatives Sultanov and Mordakhaev. All the money received from the merchants (it was about $3.5 million monthly) was taken to Brestskaya Street. Part of the funds received went to the capital's officials. And not for nothing. Soon the Moscow government allocated land to Yaubov's structures for the construction of trade rows at the Riga metro station.
At the same time, Yakubov continued to seize buildings, primarily on his favorite Tverskaya Street. The scheme has always been the same. At first, shares were massively bought up from the labor collectives of stores, and then, with the support of the capital authorities, the entire building was taken over. If one of the store managers tried to resist, threats were used, as well as criminal cases initiated by controlled law enforcement officers. This is how Yakubov's stores located on Tverskaya "Dary Mory", "Dieta", houses №4 and №6, etc. passed into Yakubov's property. The "Pearl" of Yakub's collection became famous for the delicatessen "Eliseevsky", which he successfully captured in 2002, buying shares from employees and intimidating store managers. When the opening of "Eliseevsky" took place a year later after its reconstruction, the event was attended by close friends of Yakubov: Vladimir Resin and Vladimir Malyshkov.
Simultaneously with grocery stores, Yakub actively captured bookstores located in prestigious places. First of all, due to the fact that it was easy for their employees to buy shares, and the directors were simply "shut up". So, now the oligarch owns the buildings of the Akadembook and the bookstore in Sokolniki.
Boocat of the Moscow government
Yakubov records all his hundreds of real estate objects to companies whose legal founders go offshore through a long chain of various structures. And the physical founders are members of Yakubov's team. We managed to make an approximate list of companies controlled by the oligarch. It looks like this.
LLC "Buildterraincom", CJSC "Unotrans", LLC "Terrabildinengineering", PC "CRAUNLINE LIMITED" (Cyprus), LLC "AKADEMKNIGA+", LLC "CORONA K", company "MISTRALO COMMERCIAL LIMITED", LLC "SPORTTRADE INTERNATIONAL", LLC "INZHTRAST", OJSC "FIRMA DIETA", LLC "CHOP "AMEGA A" LLC, LLC "BASIMA", LLC "ESTILAERS", LLC "VIV LTD", PUBLIC CHARITABLE ORGANIZATION OF THE DISABLED "BLAGORUS", REGIONAL PUBLIC ORGANIZATION OF THE DISABLED "PROMOTION TO SOCIAL ADAPTATION OF THE DISABLED" (the last two structures were used to avoid paying taxes), LLC "DISPLAY HOLDINGS" (was liquidated), CJSC), CJSC "REKMARK", LLC "FIRMAENERGOKOMPLEK", CJSC "INVEST
We can add to this that at one time Yakubov, together with "thieves in law" and gangsters of all kinds, was a co-owner of the capital's casinos "Corona" and "Golden Palace" (the buildings where gambling establishments were located still belong to him). And, of course, Yakub actively developed his market business. Sometimes independently, sometimes together with other members of the community of mountain Jews. Thus, Yakubov, Zakhar Iliev and God Nisanov actually seized the territory of VDNH. In 2002, Jakub decided to make a chic gift to his children - sons Samir and Timur - and built a huge palace near the pond on the territory of VDNH. Even the new authorities of the capital cannot demolish it: Yakubov still has many connections in different echelons of power.
Together with Telman Ismailov, he also participated in the creation of the Cherkizovsky market.
At the behest of his friend Malyshkov, Yakubov for a long time controlled the activities of the State Unitary Enterprise "Mosregiontorg", which owns dozens of wholesale and small wholesale markets for food trade, as well as all "weekend" fairs. Moreover, Yakubov acted according to the scheme, adjusted on tents back in the 90s. Officially, the merchants paid the GUP pennies, and the real fee was collected from them by the strong guys of Yakub.
It is worth noting that Yakubov, like all owners of goods markets, had its own smuggling channel for the supply of Chinese consumer goods. Valeria Vladimirovna Kachura was responsible for this direction in his team. From 1996 to 2001, she worked in the Far Eastern Customs Administration, through which goods from China came. Then, with the assistance of Yakubov, Kachura moved to work in the State Customs Committee. And when she was kicked out of there in 2002, she had already officially got a job in the structures of Yakub. Kachura worked at PC "CROWNLINE LIMITED", LLC "AKADEMKNIGA+", OJSC "Hotel Globus". And now she is one of the heads of the Melnichuk Law Firm, which served the Moscow government and most of its main departments, as well as all Yakubov structures.
Source: https://kompromat1.online/articles/58831-krovavyj-jakubov