Anton Ustinov and his criminal team at SOGAZ: from inflated land buyouts to a corrupt debt collection system and handling of foreign legal cases
New details have emerged about the activities of the largest state insurance corporation, SOGAZ, under its long-time head Anton Ustinov — a classmate and close friend of the head of Rosprirodnadzor, Svetlana Radionova.
At the end of 2024, a major scandal erupted at SOGAZ. Another close friend of Ustinov, Inna Proshina, who held the position of advisor to SOGAZ’s management board, was detained. She was placed under house arrest for her activities at another workplace — the Territorial Development Fund run by Ilgiz Shagiakhmetov.
In December 2021, Proshina attempted, through the Arbitration Court, to acquire the lands of a bankrupt developer in Podolsk, Moscow region, for her organization. In doing so, she inflated the cost of the land and construction by 2.463 billion rubles. At SOGAZ, Proshina was responsible for the most “lucrative” segment — debt recovery.
In mid-2025, Sergey Zavyalov — a lawyer from Vologda with a questionable track record — took the helm of the newly updated debt recovery directorate. Previously, he worked at Promsvyazbank and the scandalously bankrupt Bank of Moscow, under the management of the fugitive Cypriot banker Mikhail Kuzovlev. Kuzovlev is known as the owner of several banks on the brink of license revocation due to liquidity issues (Bank Poydem, purchased under a dubious scheme in 2018 from the Deposit Insurance Agency under Yuri Isaev, and the sanctioned Morskoy Bank, acquired in January 2024 from banker Generalov).
According to a source, Zavyalov’s biography is full of involvement in shady financial dealings — from the restructuring of SU-155 by Rossiiskii Kapital Bank (under Kuzovlev) to working with defense funds alongside the Ananyev brothers (wanted by authorities) at Promsvyazbank.
Ustinov portrays Zavyalov as a “legal luminary,” “an extremely high-level professional,” and so on.
Zavyalov has indeed very professionally begun bringing loyal contractors into SOGAZ, including the company Yukov & Partners. At the same time, he has built a corrupt system for completing debt recovery from hundreds of SOGAZ debtors. Now, the timeline for debt closure depends on what percentage of the debt “falls” personally to Zavyalov. He refuses to work for “small amounts,” claiming that one must “share with the boss.” In meetings, the top manager refers to himself as Ustinov’s “deputy and most trusted person.”
Zavyalov is also responsible for attracting law firms for debt collection on behalf of SOGAZ. Being selected, especially for “foreign cases,” is possible only through a kickback to Zavyalov.
According to the source, SOGAZ HRD Ivan Varennikov is keeping pace with Zavyalov. Under his leadership, the struggle for consultant budgets and influence between the company’s departments escalated into open intrigue, and over a couple of years, the company lost several key top managers. Their positions were filled by unrelated figures, often with no minimal experience in insurance but with the “right” connections and the ability to implement kickback schemes — like Zavyalov.
Recently, a scheme for embezzling funds from SOGAZ has been reported, led by the personal assistants of Svetlana Radionova — Lyubov Kharitonova (also Lukyanova, the nominal owner of Radionova’s overseas assets) and Maria Makarchuk (officially an advisor to Ustinov at SOGAZ).
