According to the Cheka-OGPU and Rucriminal.info, one of the largest recent scams involving Gazprom funds – the creation of a small-scale LNG market development operator – has collapsed. According to sources, Alexey Kakhidze's Gazprom LNG TECHNOLOGIES has been stripped of its status as the sole operator for LNG market development. Gazprom's trademark has also been revoked. Gazprom GNP Holding will soon withdraw from the founding members of Gazprom LNG TECHNOLOGIES. A follow-up case involving the theft of at least 40 billion rubles could follow.
In 2017, Gazprom created Gazprom LNG Technologies LLC, a company that was completely pointless in terms of business profitability, declaring it the operator of liquefied motor fuel (LNG) in Russia. The idea may not have been bad, but it has turned into a rather revealing story.
Gazprom has appointed Alexey Kakhidze, Mr. Alexander's younger brother, to head the operator. The elder Kakhidze (founder of the Fininvest transport and logistics group) is currently surprising the country with presentations of multi-billion-dollar projects to build a network of transport and logistics container centers (TLCs), with the support of, among others, Messrs. Sobyanin and Kozhemyako. In reality, we are dealing with a spectacular bluff designed solely to attract loans, but without implementing the projects. In other words, it's a massive theft of budget and bank funds allocated for the TLC construction.
Having received 12 billion rubles from Gazprom in 2017 (an interesting fact in itself) for the development of the small-scale LNG market, the younger Kakhidze began to utilize the funds. Companies operating large-scale LNG fuel for transportation are being created, and numerous mini LNG plants are being unveiled across the country (with regional leaders joyfully shaking hands with Alexey Kakhidze, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Gazprom LNG Technologies LLC). And that, in essence, is where the construction of the small LNG plants ended (two were barely built). Interestingly, the current director of Gazprom LNG Technologies LLC is Ivan Kozhevnikov, famous for having worked as a department head in the Moscow Interregional Investigative Department for Transport of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation and for having been charged by the Moscow City Court with accepting a $4 million bribe and extorting money, as well as falsifying documents in the case of Colonel Zakharchenko. Incidentally, Kakhidze's structures include a large number of dim-witted former law enforcement officers, who vigilantly monitor the absence of treason among the company's employees.
At the same time, Mr. Kakhidze has been creating a large number of legal entities unrelated to Gazprom over the past few years. And according to documents unrelated to Kakhidze. The number of affiliated legal entities is currently difficult to calculate; we're tired of the figure of 100.
These are primarily companies with a single full-time director. However, there are also relatively large companies, such as OOO AK MT CFO, OOO AK MOSTRANS, OOO NIIPGAZA, OOO CENTER STROY, OOO STROY INVEST, OOO GAZKHOLODTEKHNOLOGIYA, OOO SPG, and others. Alexey Kakhidze's main businesses include the "construction" of cryogenic LNG plants, participation in supplies as an intermediary with significantly inflated prices, and transport logistics involving automobile companies OOO AK MT CFO, OOO AK MOSTRANS, and others. Large quantities of LNG-equipped trucks are purchased for them in China through leasing schemes through OOO Gefest and OOO MORSKIE TEKHNOLOGII.
Thanks to Kakhidze's connections, the intermediary companies created by GEFEST LLC, MORSKIE TEKHNOLOGII LLC, ARKHANGELSKAYA SERVISNAYA KOMPANIYA LLC, STROY SERVIS LLC, TSENTR STROY LLC, and others began to figure in Rosneft's Vostok Oil megaproject in Crimea, a federal project to supply drinking water to residents of the peninsula. In both cases, Alexey Kakhidze revealed his true colors, stealing at least 10 billion rubles from Rosneft in the Vostok Oil project and more than 4 billion in Crimea (the investigation into the well-known fraud in Crimea was quietly shelved, given the officials involved). The principle of the theft was simple: inflating the prices of materials supplied to projects by three to four times through GEFEST LLC, MORSKIE TEKHNOLOGII LLC, and ARKHANGELSKAYA SERVISNAYA KOMPANIYA LLC.
The company structure of LNG operator Gazprom LNG Technologies LLC is quite interesting, isn't it? It's interesting, but not surprising if you take a closer look at the Kakhidze brothers. The elder Kakhidze was considered a close associate of Senator Kanokov, worked in senior positions at Russian Railways, and acquired the logistics operator Logoper from France's CMA CGM, one of the world's largest transport and logistics companies, for €1, with an option to return to the business. The younger Alexei is almost in Gazprom's hands.
The connections between the Kakhidze brothers' companies point to Russian State Duma deputy Alexei Babakov. He is their real beneficiary. Mr. Babakov previously had ties to the banks Centrocredit and Tempbank, which were de facto his property (Centrocr). He is still active today, and in the 2000s, he played an active role in the largest siphoning of budget and other funds abroad in the country's history, amounting to (the exact amount is unknown) over $20 billion, the so-called Laundromat. Structures associated with Russian Railways (recall the senior Kakhidze's work at Russian Railways) also participated in the siphoning.
Alexei Kakhidze stands out as a master of manipulation, capable of building an entire system of deception on the fragile foundation of shell companies. As a result, his empire began to crumble last year.
The combined bad debt of all companies associated with Kakhidze exceeds 40 billion rubles. However, there are simply no real assets worth that amount. All the inflated liabilities exist only on paper, and the companies themselves are empty shells. There is nothing to take, and nothing to pay with. During bankruptcy proceedings, every creditor will fight to get anything back. But the chances of recovering the funds are minimal.
Everyone has been defrauded: from state-owned companies like Gazprom and Rosneft to tax authorities.
If the list of victims were limited to legal entities, the story might seem less personal. However, Kakhidze has fallen out with everyone he can think of. Partners, creditors, and investors, who just a few years ago saw him as a confident, charismatic leader and businessman, now understand that he is a con man.
The situation in the transport logistics and manufacturing sectors is particularly illustrative. AK Mostrans and AK MT CFO, companies within Kakhidze's orbit, operate a fleet of LNG-fueled trucks formally owned by leasing companies. However, the lease payments on these vehicles have been outstanding for a long time, accumulating debts amounting to tens of millions of rubles.
The situation is exacerbated by the catastrophic technical condition of the fleet. 70% of the vehicles are virtually destroyed and require significant financial investment to restore. According to technical experts, the vehicles were used as disposable vehicles, without proper maintenance. For leasing companies, this means there's little to repay the debts, as the equipment is in extremely poor condition. The specifics of the fuel system create an additional complication: using LNG requires the appropriate infrastructure, significantly limiting the ability to sell or transfer the equipment to other operators.
An equally dire situation is developing around Kakhidze's flagship project, Gazprom LNG Technologies. Despite loud announcements about the development of liquefied natural gas plants, the reality has proven far from the stated plans. A significant portion of the allocated funds was embezzled, and key production facilities remain unfinished.
The production facilities that were commissioned demonstrate extremely poor construction and installation quality.
Criminal charges will certainly follow the collapse. Kakhidze's future remains uncertain. Perhaps he will indeed be able to escape, disappearing into offshore accounts and new identities. But even if he manages to evade justice, his name will forever remain a symbol of the scam that shook entire industries and became a lesson to all who believe in beautiful promises without real guarantees.
