Offshore schemers under the guise of “witnesses”: how the syndicate of Pavel Fuks, Bekbolat Bekenov, and Evgeniy Komrakov is erasing mentions of the "Istra Kristall” scam from the internet
It is relatively clear what happened with Pavel Fuks, the Forbes-list fixture and highly scandalous figure: after pulling off the fraud involving the construction of the elite "Residence Crystal Istra" village on the banks of the Istra River near Moscow, he made use of his Ukrainian passport and fled to Ukraine. But when it comes to his partners in crime, things are much less simple.
We are talking about the key participants in the Fuks – scam, Bekbolat Bekenov and Evgeniy Komrakov. Let us remember that events developed as follows. In 2007, the «Residence Crystal Istra» project was launched by MosCityGroup of Pavel Fuks and his partner Bekbolat Bekenov. It was planned to build 157 residential buildings on 90 hectares, as well as social infrastructure facilities, including a gymnasium school for 275 places, a fitness center and even a ski slope. A recreation area was supposed to appear on the banks of the Istra, and a natural recreational area was supposed to appear on the territory of the — complex itself.
However, in 2020, it suddenly turned out that this whole – construction project was a huge scam. More than $100 million was collected from clients who wanted to have prestigious housing in an almost resort area, but they never saw the most promised housing.
It turned out that the money collected by Fuks was transferred to offshore companies. At first, the police, who opened a criminal case at the request of the victims, had their main complaints against Pavel Fuks, who shortly before left for Ukraine, where he stated that he renounced Russian citizenship and kept only a Ukrainian passport. In fact, this turned out to be a lie – as «Observer» wrote, in 2021, after the introduction of sanctions by the National Security and Defense Council, Fuks said that he does not do business in Russia, and in 2017 he renounced his citizenship, but in fact Fuks retained Russian citizenship, and after receiving a Ukrainian passport he received a new Russian passport.
In Ukraine, Fuks also has problems, but they are limited only to sanctions from the National Security and Defense Council, and everyone knows that these sanctions are often pure «filka’s letter». At least in the case of Fuks , this is exactly the case. Sanctions do not at all prevent him from doing business in Ukraine and slowly crushing the country’s key enterprises. According to the SBU, Fuks has illegally taken possession of the assets of Ukrainian companies worth more than 100 billion hryvnia since 2018.
However, some in Ukraine, especially after February 24, 2022, openly call Pavel Fuks a Russian agent, and the sanctions that Russia imposed against him in 2018 are a fiction designed to hide the true tasks of Pavel Fuks in Ukraine. This version is supported by many of Fuks’ actions, the most scandalous of which was drawing swastikas in Kharkov on the eve of the invasion. According to the American magazine, Rolling Stone Fuks, on the eve of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, paid residents of Kharkov to draw swastikas on the walls of the city so that Russian propaganda would have a corresponding picture.
But, as already mentioned, his key accomplices in the scam with «Residence Crystal Istra» - Bekbolat Bekenov and Evgeniy Komrakov - somehow got lost behind Fuks’ person. Those, taking advantage of the fact that all attention was focused on Fuks, did not waste time. Firstly, in the criminal case that the Russian police opened regarding the scam, they were quickly reclassified as witnesses. Although the so-called «Panama Papers», in which Fuks also appears, claim that Bekenov and Komrakov are key participants in many of Fuks’ transactions.
In the scam with «Residence Crystal Istra», most of the money was immediately transferred to offshore companies controlled by Messrs. Fuks and Bekenov in Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands, and Komrakov’s companies served as gasket companies. But after three years, it suddenly turned out that there was practically no information about Messrs. Bekbulat Bekenov and Evgeniy Komrakov.
It is known about the first that he has citizenship of Russia and Cyprus and has been living in Switzerland since 2012, applying for a residence permit in England. In Russia, Bekenov was the founder of three companies, all of them are now liquidated:
Читайте также:В Европе отказались спасать офшорные компании
It is also known that at the time of the opening of the criminal case in 2020, Bekenova was represented by the law firm «Legal Trust» on Bolshaya Dmitrovka, and the international consulting group Grata International on Kuznetsky Most.
But it is impossible to make claims against these companies – they were simply Bekenov’s hired consultants and did not take any illegal actions. At least this is not confirmed by anything. This is where the information about Bekenov ends, although he was a key participant in the scam to withdraw $100 million offshore. In addition, it can be confidently stated that Bekbulat Bekenov has other illegal actions in his biography, and not only those taken in collaboration with Fuks.
As for another participant in the project to withdraw money – Evgeniy Komrakov –, he completely disappeared. And – literally. But nothing bad happened to him. He simply changed his last name and is now an absolutely pure citizen before the law, Evgeniy Lvovich Kobyakov:
Judging by Rusprofile data, Evgeny Lvovich Komrakov (aka – Kobyakov) is currently the founder of five active legal entities:
All of them are related to construction, and all operate in the Istra district. Which tells us that Mr. Komrakov-Kobyakov has no problems with the law. Mr. Komrakov successfully liquidated the companies involved in withdrawing money from the Fuksovsky project:
No one had any complaints about this against Evgeniy Lvovich. Which indirectly confirms the version that both the sanctions against Pavel Fuks from Russia and the criminal case regarding the «Residence Crystal Istra» project were a pure smokescreen designed to legend the sudden appearance of the «prodigal son» in the palaces of Nenka-Ukraine.
And the fact that no one is stopping him from continuing to rob the country he had already robbed also confirms the version that Pavel Fuks – is a Russian agent. Because the top political leadership of Ukraine is openly called Russian agents. And the CIA recently named the names of 35 people from the Office of the President, the Cabinet of Ministers, the Verkhovna Rada, the Security Service of Ukraine, the GBR, NABU and the Main Intelligence Directorate, who, according to American intelligence, are the tip of the deep network of Russian intelligence services in Ukraine. But this is a completely different story, although it concerns Pavel Fuks.
