The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel and Rucriminal.info revealed the corruption schemes of the developers PIK and Samolet in lawmaking and the judicial system of Russia.
In 2020, during the pandemic, to support developers, the RF Government Resolution No. 423 of 02.04.2020 introduced the first moratorium on collecting penalties from developers for late delivery of apartments and fines.
Starting from this Resolution, a "window of opportunity" has opened for developers, using their administrative resources PIK and Samolet, sending staggering sums to high-ranking officials, extend the moratorium, with the exception of 2021, January, February and March 2022, from July 2023 to March 2024, so from March 2024 the moratorium was introduced until the end of 2025 and there is a discussion about extending it further to 2026. At the same time, with each Resolution, even more restrictions are introduced on the collection of funds from developers. If in 2020 the moratorium concerned penalties for late delivery of apartments and fines, now there is a moratorium on the collection of funds to eliminate defects in the apartment that were made by developers, as well as losses incurred by people for renting housing, although people who bought apartments are forced to bear these losses precisely because of the developers' shifts in deadlines and the developers do not bear any financial risks to people.
But this is only the tip of the iceberg.
Having believed in themselves, in 2024 Samolet, represented by Andrey Ivanenko (currently transferred to Level), Klim Kostyuchenko, Valentin Kanevsky, Georgy Matevosyan, Yanina Bukreeva, PIK, represented by Elena Mikhailovna Gabrielyan, decided to pay for changes to Federal Law No. 214. In order to minimize the developer's losses, it was decided to enshrine in Federal Law No. 214 permission for developers to introduce their own standards for construction and a restriction for people who bought apartments from developers under a DDU to recover through the court an amount to eliminate the deficiencies allowed by the developer in the amount of no more than 3% of the price of the Agreement (apartment). But it was necessary to do everything as quickly as possible, with minimal publicity, therefore, in the bill N498549-8 of 2023, concerning the housing rights of family members of the owner of residential premises (Housing Code of the Russian Federation) and in no way affecting 214-FZ, the text of the bill was changed between the first and second readings, amendments were added to 214-FZ and immediately after the text of the bill was changed, it passed the 2nd and 3rd readings, all amendments were approved. Starting from 2025, buyers of apartments under the DDU cannot collect more than 3% of the cost of the apartment from developers by a court decision, although forensic experts set amounts for eliminating deficiencies from developers several times higher. Thus, a forensic expert can set the amount of elimination of the developer's deficiencies in the amount of 1 million. rubles, but since the price of the apartment is 10 million rubles, then no more than 300 thousand rubles can be recovered from the developer, and the remaining 700 thousand rubles to eliminate the developer's deficiencies, the person who bought the apartment must take out of his pocket. Developers have also introduced their own standards, which significantly worsen the quality requirements for objects (one of the absurd ones: if a defect in the wallpaper is not visible from several meters, then this is not considered a defect).
In order for all the innovations in the law to work now, and not apply only to Agreements concluded from 01.01.2025, Matevosyan Georgy, Bukreeva Yanina, Kostyuchenko Klim and Gabrielyan Elena, with the help of lawyer Tyutyunin Andrey, organized meetings in the Moscow City Court, the Moscow Regional Court, as well as with people closely associated with the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, as a result of which agreements were reached. Developers are once again shipping out huge sums, and the law is being applied to all decisions made starting from 01.01.25. A message was sent to the chairmen of all Moscow courts, regional courts and regional courts with instructions to inform judges that all decisions on developers should be made taking into account the paid changes to 214-FZ on 3%. Judges were also informed that in the Moscow City Court and the Moscow Regional Court all decisions that collected sums over 3% would be cancelled, but so that judges would not worry, they were warned that this would not affect the statistics of judges.
After these instructions, developers began to appeal all decisions en masse. At a meeting at the Ministry of Construction, it was said that the following wording would be included in the court decision: “the rights and obligations of the Plaintiff to pay the costs of eliminating the deficiencies under the court decision arise not at the time of the developer’s violation of the obligation to voluntarily satisfy the claim or file a lawsuit in court, but at the time the court awards monetary amounts.” (See the attached screenshot). This wording is far from consistent with current legislation and common sense. Firstly, the law does not have retroactive effect. And secondly, if the Plaintiff’s right arises at the time the court makes a decision, then on what basis does the Plaintiff go to court, if does he not have these rights on the date of filing the claim?
Thus, even if a person bought an apartment under a DDU in 2023, and filed a claim for recovery of funds to eliminate the developer's deficiencies in 2024, before the amendments were made to Law 214, the person will be awarded a monetary amount of no more than 3% of the contract price.
In addition to all this, after reaching an agreement, Olga Anatolyevna Novikova, Deputy Chairperson of the Moscow City Court for Civil Cases, said: "If one of the judges does not like something and the judge goes against the developers, let him immediately submit a resignation letter."
Also, at present, Georgy Matevosyan, Elena Gabrielyan, and lawyer Andrey Tyutyunin are actively working to equate the Purchase and Sale Agreements concluded between the developer and the buyer with the Agreements on Participation in Shared Construction. This is done so that people who bought an apartment under a DCT could not claim amounts over 3%, as well as those who bought apartments under a DDU.
2. How Samolet works with forensic experts, establishes its own order in the courts and withdraws money from the company.
Samolet, represented by Georgy Matevosyan, artificially created conditions for experts to become more accommodating in terms of reducing the amounts for calculating deficiencies that were subject to recovery in favor of equity holders.
Initially, this task was assigned to ordinary lawyers so that they would communicate with experts and they would begin to calculate as Samolet needed, but this did not work particularly well and the experts made calculations on average in the region of 10-12 thousand per square meter.
After this, Georgy Matevosyan came up with a plan according to which some experts stopped paying bills and they began to be blacklisted in Samolet's petitions for the appointment of examinations in the courts.
And after a while, this tactic started working, some of the largest expert companies were on the blacklist of Samolet, PIK and A101, namely: OOO Interregional Bureau of Forensic Expertise (INN: 7802927025), ANO Central Bureau of Forensic Expertise 1 (INN: 7802702787) and others.
In order to again receive payments on the bills that, according to the court's decision, were assigned to Samolet, the said expert companies began to negotiate with Samolet.
And Samolet, represented by Georgy Matevosyan and Yanina Bukreeva, had a plan on how to reduce the amounts for forensic examinations and earn some money themselves.
On behalf of Georgy Matevosyan, a certain IP Maslov Vitaly Vladimirovich began to meet with experts and negotiate so that the experts would start counting deficiencies at 3 thousand rubles per square meter, and not as provided for by the Law and generally corresponds to reality.
And of course, for each paid invoice through the individual entrepreneur Maslov Vitaly Vladimirovich (502715951450) Matevosyan Georgy and Yanina Bukreeva from the experts began to receive kickbacks, and the number of such invoices per month could reach several hundred pieces.
But after that, so that all the invoices went only to the right ones, Bukreeva Yanina and Matevosyan Georgy, the experts Samolet began to compile registers of cases for which lawyers had to file petitions in the courts of the Moscow region and Moscow.
For their part, the forensic experts with whom Yanina and Georgy have agreements went and negotiated with the judges so that they would give them cases and name the numbers of Samolet cases that they want to take for examination.
Separately, we will note that all forensic experts help the courts in terms of filing cases and in return receive cases for examination.
In addition, let's pay attention to IP Maslov Vitaly, this is only one of the individual entrepreneurs known to us, through whom Bukreeva Yanina and Matevosyan Georgy receive kickbacks from experts, but also through this IP they withdraw money from Samolet, providing fictitious contracts for the provision of services.
3. How PIK and Samolet lobbied for the opening of a state expert company.
In the spring and summer of 2024, a number of meetings took place between Samolet, PIK and high-ranking people from the Government of the Russian Federation behind closed doors.
Developers complained that they were being sued a lot for deficiencies in constructed objects, and in these cases, forensic examinations were appointed to independent organizations over which they had no influence. And it was proposed to open a state expert company with controlled persons. And again, PIK and Samolet, having shipped a decent amount, achieved the opening of the State Budgetary Institution "Center for Expertise in Research and Testing in Construction" with controlled and compliant persons. On 02.08.2024, at a meeting of judges in the Moscow City Court, this company was presented to the judges via a projector and they were told that forensic examinations on developer cases should be assigned there. (See photo) After which, the judges began to assign forensic examinations to this organization, but it physically could not cope with the volumes and began to return cases back to the courts without execution. Currently, the organization is actively hiring forensic experts, forensic examinations are assigned by the Shcherbinsky Court. But I dare to assume that after the staff will be fully staffed, it is this organization that will be assigned the overwhelming majority of forensic examinations in cases of developers, and how the deficiencies will be considered by the persons controlled by the developers, the managers of this organization, you yourself understand.
Arseniy Dronov
To be continued
