Author: Dejan Milovac, MANS Investigative Centre
In the period from 2015 to 2019, Russian businessmen, brothers Pavel and Valery Zadorin, managed to bring at least 15 million euros into Montenegro, using a complex network of offshore companies from the British Virgin Islands, Cyprus, Belize and Great Britain. That money was invested in the purchase and construction of luxury real estate on Montenegrin coastline through fictitious loans to local companies. Of that amount, at least three million dollars was invested by a relative of the Zadorin brothers, Lev Cherepov, who is connected with the Russian Minister of the Interior.
The companies financed in this way were used to buy the Hotel Mimoza in Tivat, luxury hotel La Perla and a beach bar under the prestigious Nikki Beach brand, also in Tivat, and the Adriatica restaurant in Kamenari, as well as tens of thousands of square meters of buildings and land in the Bay of Kotor. Until her brutal murder in 2018, the official owner of the Zadorin brothers’ empire was Ukrainian citizen Anastasiya Lashmanova.
In March 2022, part of these deals was taken over by Dukley Hotels company behind which are Startex Group and Neil Emilfarb that have shares in the Budva Riviera, and they also took over the management of the famous residential complex in Zavala.
Zadorin brothers own one of the largest companies for the import and export of beverages and luxury products in Russia – Aroma Trade House, which was also the subject of investigation in 2016 within “Panama Papers” due to suspicion of money laundering through related companies.
Documentation indicating suspicions of money laundering on Montenegrin coastline was obtained by the MANS Investigative Centre as part of the global investigation “Pandora Papers Russia” led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists – ICIJ.
OFFSHORE NETWORKS AND MILLIONS WORTH OF TRANSACTIONS
“Linstead Investments Capital Limited” company from the British Virgin Islands served the Zadorin brothers as the main means of inserting money in real estate business in Montenegro. In a period of four years, this company concluded at least ten loan agreements with Montenegrin companies founded by the Zadorin brothers. Thus, at least 15 million euros was paid into the accounts of the companies “Sea Trade”, “Sun Power” and “Mimoza Group” from Tivat through loan agreements that these companies concluded with the mentioned offshore company.
Scheme of bringing money into Montenegrin companies
As the formal founder of local companies on behalf of Zadorin brothers, Ukrainian citizen Anastasiya Lashmanova most often signed contracts on such loans. In the documentation analysed by the MANS Investigative Centre, Lashmanova appeared as Zadorins’ legal representative in most real estate deals, until her murder in May 2018.
On the other hand, the documents analysed within Pandora Papers investigation show that Zadorin brothers were also behind the offshore company “Linstead Investments Capital Limited” through which the money was brought into Montenegro.
The documentation shows that some of the Montenegrin companies owned by Zadorin brothers also took loans from local banks, and later, those debts were taken over by the company “Linstead”.
Where did the money that was thus brought into Montenegro come from? Data from “Pandora” show that Linstead also secured its capital by borrowing money from other offshore companies, as well as natural persons. In the period from 2014 to 2016, Linstead borrowed at least five million euros from companies registered in Belize, Cyprus and the United Kingdom.
Cherepov Lev, a cousin of the Zadorin brothers, for whom Russian investigative media claim has close ties with Vladimir Kolokoltsev, current Minister of the Interior of Russia, paid additional 3 million U.S. dollars.
Excerpt from the loan agreement between Cherepov and “Linstead” company
The documentation on these deals analysed by MANS shows that Montenegrin companies did not return most of the money paid to them. Instead, their debt to “Linstead” was taken over by a third company called Aviva Holding ltd. Zadorin family was behind this company as well. On the other hand, the debts of “Linstead” were taken over by other offshore companies from Belize, which were shut down soon after.
LUXURY REAL ESTATE THROUGHOUT THE BAY OF BOKA KOTORSKA
Individually, through this offshore scheme, the most money was brought into the company “Sea Trade” from Tivat which, through related companies, today owns nearly 15,000 m2 of facilities and nearly 45,000 m2 of land in Tivat, Kotor, Herceg Novi and Budva.
Through four loan agreements, over 12 million euros have been paid into the company’s accounts in just three years. The money was used to buy real estate and build new facilities. The company owns a luxury condo hotel “La Perla” in Tivat with a seaside resort under the prestigious brand “Nikki Beach”, then the attractive beach restaurant “Adriatica” in Kamenovo, as well as several individual villas in Krašići, Orahovac in the Municipality of Kotor and Budva.
One of the largest projects of this company is certainly the condo hotel “La Perla” with an attractive beach bar in Đuraševići, in the Municipality of Tivat. The construction works on this facility were performed by the company “Bemax” from Podgorica between 2016 to 2019, and according to the data from their website, it cost Zadorin family 3.5 million euros.
La Perla & Nikki Beach
“Sea Trade” became the owner of the plots in Kamenari for nearly one million euros, where today there is a beach bar and a restaurant “Adriatica”.
Adriatica
Finally, this company was taken over in March 2022 by the company Dukley Hotels controlled by Neil Emilfarb, owner of the Stratex Group.
Another company of the Zadorin brothers is “Sun power”, which “borrowed” at least two million euros through the offshore network, and owns over 22,000 m2 of land in Montenegro and about 10,000 m2 of mostly office space. The company owns a recently opened shopping centre on the Adriatic Highway, near Tivat Airport.
BUSINESS WITH BAROVIĆ
Third Montenegrin company of the Zadorin brothers is “Mimoza Group” from Tivat, founded on September 24, 2015. Only four days later, on September 29, a contract was signed for the purchase of the Mimoza Hotel in Tivat, which had been majority owned by Montenegrin businessman Veselin Barović and Serbian citizen Đorđije Nicović. The hotel was sold for 6.35 million euros to a company that did not have a single euro in its account until then. According to the data obtained by MANS, the complete amount was paid by the end of 2015. Pandora Papers do not contain information on where the money came from, but it is stated that this company received a loan of nearly one million euros from “Linstead” in 2017.
Planned layout of the Mimoza Hotel
Current owners of the “Mimoza group” are Lilia Kail, wife of Lev Cherepov and a cousin of the Zadorin brothers, who has 75% of the ownership, while the other 25% belong to Blagoje Peković from Tivat. This company demolished the old Mimoza hotel with plans to build a new one. There was an initiative to protect the old hotel as a cultural property, but it was demolished before a decision was made.
WHO ARE THE ZADORIN BROTHERS?
In Russia, Zadorin brothers own one of the largest companies for the import and export of beverages and luxury products. In 2016, RISE Moldova, an investigative centre from Moldova, investigated them within Panama Papers, when it was discovered that they had laundered money through offshore companies in a similar way as the matrix established in Montenegro.
Igor Chuyan, a former associate of the Zadorin brothers in Russia who illegally made millions there, was arrested on October 1, 2021 in Tivat, on the warrant of Moscow’s Interpol, and criminal proceedings were initiated against him in Russia in 2018 for the crime of “giving/receiving bribery in a for-profit organization, committed for the purpose of knowingly and willingly undertaking illegal actions and the criminal offense of organizing the abuse of office, as a result of which severe consequences occurred”.
Together with Pavel Zadorin, Chuyan was in the company “National Sports Foundation” (NSF), which had significant benefits from the import of duty-free alcohol and cigarettes in the 1990s, during which Zadorin was detained several times, and in 1996 he was arrested along with three associates on charges of kidnapping and extortion. He then managed to get out of the remand prison, but the case was never finalised.
At that time, as the vice-president of NSF, Pavel represented the interests of his partners, among whom was the already mentioned cousin of the Zadorins – Lev Cherepov. In the mid-1990s, he already had several companies in Russia, the most prominent of which was VIP Reality LLC, which dealt with real estate.
Zadorin family bought the Selyatino terminal in 2014, the main facility for customs clearance of imported alcohol located outside Moscow. Proekt Media, Russia’s investigative media centre, wrote that former owners of Selyatino agreed to the sale only under pressure from Igor Chuyan, the then head of Russia’s Federal Service for Alcohol Market Regulation, whom their sources identified as a personal friend of the Zadorins.
The same portal connects Cherepov and his wife Lilia Kail with the family of the Russian Minister of the Interior, describing the real estate business between the two families.
TRAGIC END OF LASHMANOVA
One of the fictitious owners of assets in Montenegro for the Zadorin brothers, among others, was Ukrainian citizen Anastasia Lashmanova.
She was the authorized representative, CEO and formal owner of several of their companies, including the aforementioned Sun Power, Sea Trade and Mimoza Group, until she was killed in May 2018 by her former partner, Arsenije Stanović, son of Zoran Stanović – former commander of the Border Police branch at the Tivat airport.
Stanović was also one of the three police officers under the special scrutiny of the Internal Control inspectors, who were checking the veracity of the data they entered when handing over the documentation. It was then revealed that Zoran Stanović hid that he owned an apartment in the “Tre Canne” building in Budva, where Anastasia Lashmanova owned a beauty salon.
Last year, Arsenije Stanović received a non-final sentence of 15 years in prison for the murder of Lashmanova.
ZADORIN FAMILY IN THE ECONOMIC CITIZENSHIP PROGRAMME
In December 2021, it was announced that the list of development projects in the field of agriculture includes an apple plantation in the village of Vrulja, the Municipality of Pljevlja, which is a planned investment of the company “Platinum distribution”, based in Tivat, owned by the Zadorin family. As it was stated at the time, at least three million euros will be invested in it.
