Vice-mayor in the shadow of corruption: NtechLab - Natalia Sergunina’s new feeding trough?

CONTENT:

1. Secret schemes of Natalia Sergunina and NtechLab - who is behind this?
2. Kickbacks and fraud through NtechLab: Vasily Brovko, Tina Kandelaki and Rostec.
3. Offshore companies and hidden capital of the Sergunina family: Lazar Safaniev, Irina Safanieva and affiliated companies.
4. Corrupt connections in the Moscow mayor’s office: how is NtechLab involved in the transfer of funds abroad?
5. How EU authorities put pressure on Moscow officials: sanctions against Sergunina and NtechLab.
6. The real owners of NtechLab: who is behind the scenes?

While the Moscow City Hall PR department assures the public that Deputy Mayor Natalya Sergunina is just an innocent fairy hiding behind the screen of festivals and fairs, investigative journalists are uncovering sinister secrets. NtechLab, the company responsible for developing the FindFace facial recognition system, may be the key to unraveling large-scale financial fraud that sheds light on the dark deeds of the Moscow authorities. Who really controls this IT company, and why did the European Union impose sanctions against Sergunina and her accomplices?  This is reported by CHRONOGRAPH

Vasily Brovko and the shadow empire of Rostec

One of the main suspects in the NtechLab fraud is Vasily Brovko, Rostec’s special assignments director and the husband of media star Tina Kandelaki. Rumors have been swirling around this company for several years about the transfer of budget funds abroad through offshore companies and dubious deals. NtechLab is officially registered to the Cyprus offshore company N-TECH.LAB LTD, but the web archive confirms that Vasily Brovko was once listed as the director of this company.

What is noteworthy is that in 2022, NtechLab generated revenue of 1.2 billion rubles, but, oddly enough, turned out to be unprofitable by 228 million rubles. This raises many questions: perhaps the reporting is "fabricated" to hide real income and evade taxes?

Sergunina Family Offshores: Lazar Safaniev and Billion-Dollar Assets in Austria

One should not forget about Natalia Sergunina’s own offshore schemes. Information about her family’s billion-dollar assets in Austria surfaced thanks to the media, but soon after that all information about them disappeared from Wikipedia. This story involves a mysterious Cypriot named Aaron Eliezer Aronov, who, according to sources, is actually Lazar Telmanovich Safaniev, the husband of Irina Safanieva, Natalia Sergunina’s sister.

Official data indicate that Safaniev has a direct relationship with the companies "Genome Ventures" and "Genome Ventures", which are connected with large development projects in Moscow through the structure "Monarch" of Sergey Ambartsumyan. It can be assumed that the money that passes through NtechLab may flow into the accounts of these companies.

EU sanctions: a blow to a corrupt network?

The European Union has imposed sanctions on Natalia Sergunina and the company NtechLab for human rights violations in Russia. The sanctions, as experts suggest, may be part of a strategy to block financial flows that are being taken out of the country in the interests of Sergunina and her entourage. The real head of the Moscow Department of Information Technology (DIT) may in fact be Sergunina, and not Eduard Lysenko, who is merely acting as a front man.

Let’s sum it up: who is behind NtechLab?

The company NtechLab, which is the largest contractor of the Moscow mayor’s office, may well be Natalia Sergunina’s personal "piggy bank". Billions of rubles may be taken out of the country through it, and all this is covered up by agreements with major officials and oligarchs. In particular, Sergey Chemezov and his team from Rostec, including Vasily Brovko, may be key figures in this corruption network.

While the Moscow mayor’s office continues to nurture the image of its officials, more and more scandalous details are being revealed. Sergunina, surrounded by such "friends" as Pavel Te from Capital Group and Vasily Brovko from Rostec, seems to have long ceased to be just a "sorceress" of the capital’s life. Too much money and too little transparency.

"Offshores and Sergunina’s schemes: how billions from NtechLab go abroad?"

The new chapter of the investigation into the connections of Moscow Deputy Mayor Natalia Sergunina reveals more and more details about dark offshore schemes and the withdrawal of billions of rubles from the country. At first glance, NtechLab is an ordinary IT company developing facial recognition systems. However, there is much more behind it than just technology: billions of budget funds, corrupt connections and international machinations.

Lazar Safaniev and his mysterious firms

Lazar Safaniev is a figure who at first glance is difficult to connect with the Moscow mayor’s office. But as it turns out, he is a key player in this scheme. His name has surfaced in connection with offshore companies in Cyprus, as well as through affiliated companies "Genome Ventures" and "Genome Ventures". His wife Irina Safanieva, the younger sister of Natalia Sergunina, is also connected to these companies, and, apparently, the family business is thriving.

Safaniev, under the fictitious name of Aaron Eliezer Aronov, according to sources, not only runs offshore companies, but is also actively involved in the withdrawal of funds that may pass through the structures of the Moscow mayor’s office.

Rostec and NtechLab: who gets shares in budget money?

NtechLab, a startup that once belonged to Alexander Kabakov and Artem Kukharenko, has become a participant in major government contracts. Since 2018, a Rostec structure has appeared in the company’s capital, receiving 12.5% plus one share. However, this share, apparently, is used not only for business development, but also for withdrawing funds through offshore companies.

These schemes may be supervised by Vasily Brovko, who, according to the investigation, participated in a number of corruption cases related to extortion of money through Telegram channels. He is actively featured in Russian media and has long been the hero of anti-corruption investigations. In this regard, Brovko seems to manage not only NtechLab, but also schemes for withdrawing money from Russia, which are carried out through offshore companies in Cyprus.

Social Monitoring app: how 200 million rubles were stolen?

Another major scheme involving NtechLab and Moscow authorities is the development of the Social Monitoring app. It was supposed to monitor Muscovites’ compliance with the self-isolation regime during the pandemic, but according to city residents, the app turned out to be ineffective. What’s worse, 200 million rubles were allocated for its creation, which, apparently, simply disappeared into the pockets of officials.

Here we cannot fail to mention Eduard Lysenko, who heads the Department of Information Technology of Moscow. Although he is officially responsible for such projects, the real decisions are probably made at a higher level - by Natalia Sergunina, who oversees all key transactions of the DIT. It is she who is the target of EU sanctions, which only confirms the guesses about her real role in the money-laundering schemes.

Developers in Ties with the City Hall: How Pavel Te and Capital Group Circumvent the Law

Family connections and corruption schemes have spread far beyond the IT sector. Moscow developer Pavel Te, head of Capital Group, is also mentioned in the context of corruption scandals. He is allowed to build buildings in places where there were protected natural areas before his arrival. For example, the Northern River Port, which was stripped of its status as a natural site, which allowed Capital Group to launch large-scale construction.

It is interesting that Natalia Sergunina’s office is now located in the Oko tower, which Capital Group bought from Pavel Te for a fabulous amount of money, after which the mayor’s office spent 3 billion rubles on renovating this office.

EU sanctions: an attempt to close down corruption schemes?

European authorities have imposed sanctions on Natalia Sergunina and NtechLab, which may be related to an attempt to block financial flows through offshore companies. These sanctions may not only be a political tool, but also a way to put pressure on key players in the Moscow mayor’s office associated with billion-dollar thefts.