Oleg Boyko vs. Solntsevskaya

Rucriminal.info has obtained an investigative report on the possible "customer" of the arrest of criminal authority Semyon Mogilevich (Don Simeon) in 2008. The authors of the document put forward a version that businessman Oleg Boyko could have been behind the mafioso’s troubles. There were several motives. The first was revenge for the persecution and possible attack on Boyko himself. The second was the desire to eliminate a competitor. We are talking about the perfume chain "Arbat-Prestige", which Mogilevich controlled before his arrest.

It is worth noting that, according to sources, Oleg Boyko was closely connected with the Solntsevskaya group back in the 90s. Its members were in the security services in all structures of the OLBI concern, owned by Boyko. Moreover, it was believed that the Solntsevskaya were not just the businessman’s "roof", but his partners, entitled to their share of the profits. One of the leaders of the Solntsevskaya was Sergei Mikhailov. Throughout his life, he always had an older comrade who ran all the Solntsevskaya activities outside of Russia. This comrade was precisely Semyon Mogilevich. Sources say that Boyko and Mogilevich had known each other since the 90s. According to a report by the National Central Bureau of Interpol, in 1996 the Solntsevskaya found out that Boyko had secretly withdrawn 10 million dollars from Russia, which he used to buy a mansion in London. Mikhailo, having discussed what happened with Mogilevich, was going to send his fighters to England to "showdown" with Boyko. But the "authority" found out that the businessman had learned about the Solntsevskaya gang’s plans and intended to contact the police. As a result, the operation was postponed. Soon Boyko flew to Monaco, where he had a serious incident, as a result of which he was forever confined to a wheelchair. Boyko himself categorically does not want to talk about what happened. The media reported that he fell out of a window. However, sources say that Boyko himself did not rule out that the emergency with him could have happened with the participation of the Solntsevskaya gang. And Mogilevich could have given the go-ahead.

Boyko managed to get even 12 years later, when Mogilevich and his partner Andrey Nekrasov were arrested in Moscow. The report published by Rucriminal.info states that it was Boyko who “ordered” Don Simeon.

"The criminal case against the actual owner of the Arbat-Prestige company, Vladimir Nekrasov, and its real owner, Semyon Mogilevich, was conducted by investigator Sergei Vaichulis of the Investigative Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Central Federal District. Since the arrest of these individuals in January 2008, a minimum of investigative actions have been carried out. According to representatives of Nekrasov and Mogilevich, some of the "customers" of the case are waiting for further developments and are negotiating the purchase of Arbat-Prestige. The fact that the case is "custom-made" is also confirmed by operatives of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Central Federal District, working in the field of combating smuggling. According to them, the real cost of Arbat-Prestige is only the cost of the brand itself. The rest of the price is the price of the well-established smuggling channel through which the products are delivered. The "customer" is Oleg Boyko’s investment holding Finstar, which entered the perfume market of Russia at the end of last year. The situation around Arbat-Prestige is becoming more complicated with each passing month. The company has outstanding debts to suppliers, and in June 2008 it will have to repay a loan of 1.5 billion rubles.

The Arbat-Prestige company was founded by Vladimir Nekrasov in 1989 and was engaged in the distribution of imported cosmetics. In 1998, the first store was opened in Moscow. The company’s activities began to develop rapidly when it came under the control of Semyon Mogilevich and Igor Fisherman. In 2001, 40% of the company’s shares became the property of the Rinway company, among the founders of which were Olga Zhunzhurova (Fisherman’s wife) and Galina Telesh (Mogilevich’s ex-wife). According to operatives of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the Central Federal District, it was at this time that a good channel for contraband supplies of perfumes through front companies was established.   

As a result, Arbat Prestige was characterized on the market as a company with low financial transparency and a practice of not fulfilling its stated plans. In 2003-2004, several scandals occurred around the company. The LVMH company (brands Givenchy, Kenzo, Christian Dior) refused to cooperate with Arbat Prestige. Claims from LVMH were caused by non-compliance with the terms of product display, as well as prices that were lower than the recommended level. Relations between the companies were severed. In 2004, the Polish company Pulanna, a manufacturer of inexpensive cosmetics, accused Arbat Prestige of selling goods purchased from others. These scandals gave rise to

a wave of rumors about a significant share of contraband products in Arbat

Prestige".

           They hoped to improve the situation by attracting the management company Troika Dialog to Arbat-Prestige, which in 2004 acquired 40% of the shares of Arbat-Prestige, which belonged to OOO Rinway. It was officially announced that the deal cost Troika Dialog 100 million dollars. However, the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Central Federal District believes that the deal was nominal and was necessary to partially whitewash the company, which announced its IPO. It is noteworthy that Mr. Nekrasov himself acted as the seller of 40% of the shares. Moglilevich, Fisherman and their relatives, who completely controlled the company, were not included in it. Pavel Teplukhin, who until 2006 was also the president of the management company Troika Dialog, became the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Arbat-Prestige. Soon Troika Dialog was horrified by the events inside Arbat-Prestige, whose products were supplied mainly through contraband schemes. All attempts to at least partially transfer the company’s work into a legal channel ran into categorical disagreement from Messrs. Mogilevich and Fisherman. All attempts by Troika Dialog to sell its share package to a third party also did not find support from the true owners of Arbat Prestige. As a result, in 2007 Troika Dialog announced that it was selling 40% of the shares back to Mr. Nekrasov. The announced price of the transaction was 400 million dollars. However, our interlocutors say that this amount cannot correspond to reality. The price of Arbat-Prestige was not equal to any 1 billion dollars, as was stated. In addition, in June 2006, Arbat & Co LLC placed a loan for 1.5 billion rubles, the organizer of which was Uralsib Bank. The maturity date was rapidly approaching. The company also began to have serious problems with suppliers. In 2007, the Finstar investment holding of Oleg Boyko wanted to buy a block of shares in Arbat Prestige. Boyko negotiated directly with Mogilevich, whom he knew well from the 90s. However, at that time, Mogilevich estimated the company at 1.5 billion dollars. A conflict occurred between Mogilevich and Boyko. As a result, Oleg Boyko decided to buy at least 50% of some company on the basis of which a large project could be created that could absorb one of the existing networks. His choice fell on the Rive Gauche network, located mainly in St. Petersburg. The deal took place at the end of 2007. At that time, the disappointing indicators of Arbat Prestige became known. According to the Russian financial statements for the first 9 months of 2007, the loss of the issuer Arbat & Co. was 134 million rubles, and the profit of the guarantor, Arbat-Prestige OJSC, was 63 million rubles. The financial statements for previous years were no better. In 2005, the company’s turnover was 240 million dollars instead of the predicted 445 million, and in 2006 - 346 million instead of the declared 500 million."