"Knowledge Hacker" and "butan". Usmanov's ex-partner in e-sports invested in the startup, the head of SEB FSB

BBC

7 min

August 19, 2019

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Photo by Peter Kovalev/TASS

The largest manufacturer of wiretapping equipment for intelligence services invested in the startup of 23-year-old programmer Boris Korolev, the son of the influential head of the Economic Security Service (SEB) FSB Sergei Korolev, who is behind the high-profile anti-corruption cases of recent years. The search for Boris himself led the BBC to an apartment in an elite building in the Arbat area.

A source with access to personal data bases told the BBC that aspiring entrepreneur Boris Korolev is the son of the head of the FSB Economic Security Service, Sergei Korolev.

Sergei Korolev comes from the St. Petersburg State Security Department. After moving to Moscow, he worked as an assistant to Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and supervised the Main Intelligence Directorate in this post, Fontanka wrote.

In 2011 or, according to other sources, 2012, he was appointed head of the Internal Security Directorate (USB) of the FSB. The CSS, led by Korolev, was behind several high-profile criminal cases in recent years: against the head of the Main Directorate of Economic Security Denis Sugrobov, St. Petersburg billionaire Dmitry Mikhalchenko, governors of Komi Vyacheslav Gaizer and the Kirov region Nikita Belykh.

Korolev’s deputy in the CSS was General Oleg Feoktistov, who later, already in the position of vice president of Rosneft, played one of the key roles in the criminal case against the Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukaev.

Sergei Korolev is one of the candidates for the post of first deputy director of the FSB, Rosbalt wrote. and "Novaya Gazeta".

The 23-year-old son of Sergei Korolev, Boris, became known for the first time from the material of the Meduza journalist. Ivan Golunov, dedicated to the cemetery business in Moscow.

Golunov discovered that with the leadership of the Moscow State Budgetary Institution "Ritual" A number of high-ranking FSB officers in Moscow and the Moscow region are connected. Thus, the head of the department, Alexey Dorofeev, and the family of his assistant, Marat Medoev, are neighbors in the Lesnaya Bukhta cottage village near Moscow. together with the Mazaraki family, one of whose representatives, Valerian, works as the first deputy director of the “Ritual”.

Not far from their plots there is a land plot that was previously registered in the name of Boris Korolev, the son of the head of the SEB of the FSB of Russia, Sergei Korolev. And now its owner is listed as the “Russian Federation”. One of the sources of "Medusa" claimed that Boris Korolev could actually acquire the plot.

What kind of business does Boris Korolev do?

Transaction to purchase a plot in Lesnaya Bay was issued in September 2018. And two months before that, Boris Korolev officially went into business: together with his classmates at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, he registered and headed the Bastion company.

"Bastion" specializes in so-called "white" or "ethical" hacking, that is, testing the vulnerability of companies’ information systems: website, internal Wi-Fi systems, etc. As one of the company's clients, for example, on the Bastion website The St. Petersburg pharmacy chain LekOptTorg is listed.

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And in October 2018, a real “bison” entered the capital of the startup. IT market - Citadel holding. Now he has a share of 51%, Boris Korolev has a little more than 25% (data from SPARK-Interfax).

Holding "Citadel" unites more than 20 companies that specialize in developing programs in the field of information security and supplying technical equipment for operational investigative activities (SORM).

SORM is equipment for wiretapping telephone conversations and monitoring the Internet activity of citizens. Its telecom operators are obliged to install it on networks at their own expense in the interests of intelligence services, including in accordance with the so-called “Yarovaya Law”.

"Citadel" became the largest SORM supplier, gradually buying up some of its competitors. In 2018, the holding’s share in the wiretapping market ranged from 60 to 80%, RBC calculated. The main owner of the holding is 36-year-old Anton Cherepennikov.

The holding is also known for attracting people from law enforcement agencies to cooperate. So, in 2017, the vice president of Citadel became the ex-head of the "K" department Ministry of Internal Affairs (computer security) Boris Miroshnikov, later State Security General Sergei Efremov, who worked at the FSB Special Equipment Center, came to the company, wrote RBC and follows from open data.

Cherepennikov has long-standing business ties with the companies of billionaire Alisher Usmanov. In particular, they were partners in eSports. USM was a co-owner of one of the world's largest eSports holdings, Esforce, founded by Cherepennikov. "Megafon" became the largest customer of the Forpost company Cherepennikov. At Megafon and the USM businessman bought out several companies, including his largest asset - the billing developer Peter-Service, Vedomosti wrote.

Why is the IT giant "Citadel" Did you pay attention specifically to “Bastion”? The press service of the Citadel The BBC reported that Cherepennikov found out about him because he maintains an ongoing relationship with Baumanka, of which he himself is a graduate. The startup itself is considered “promising” by the holding company.

“Now I’m betting on “young blood,” from which new managers may emerge in 10 years. ["Bastion"] are seven students from the Bauman Moscow State Technical University. To teach them everything faster, within the holding we give them small subcontracts [...] In this way, we pump up the startup from the inside, and the guys get real experience and develop expertise,” Cherepennikov himself said in an interview with Vedomosti. in March 2019.

“A nerd with a backpack, a typical programmer,” is how one of the Citadel employees describes Boris Korolev.

When asked whether Korolev’s interest in the company is connected with the fact that his father works as the head of the FSB SEB in the Citadel. responded that they do not comment on “the personal lives of employees and partners.”

Activities of the "Citadel" connected with the FSB. For example, it is there that the holding companies receive licenses to develop encryption systems. But this alone is not enough to conclude that after the investments of Citadel in "Bastion" the head of the SEB FSB Sergei Korolev may have signs of a conflict of interest, says deputy director of Transparency International - Russia Ilya Shumanov.

“You need to understand whether Korolev’s powers intersect with the activities of the holding,” he says.

The FSB did not respond to the BBC's request about the presence or absence of signs of a conflict of interest.

Who lives in an apartment for 100 million rubles?

An elite residential building on Kompozitorskaya Street in Moscow begins in the area of ​​the Lotte Hotel on Novinsky Boulevard and ends closer to the residence of the US Ambassador near Arbat. BBC correspondents walk for a long time along the gray-blue wall in search of a residential entrance and finally run into a barrier that reliably blocks the passage to the courtyard.

You can call the security guard via the intercom. One of the correspondents presses a button and calls the number of the apartment in which the young Moscow IT entrepreneur Boris Korolev supposedly lives: the BBC intends to transmit an official request to him.

The guard demonstrates good knowledge of the residents and reports that the Queen is not at home.

- Does he ever come here?

“It happens,” the guard answers.

- And the older one or the younger one?

- You ask a lot of questions.

Korolev Jr. was born in St. Petersburg. In early 2015, at the age of 19, he officially checked out of the apartment in the north of the city where he was registered with his father, a source with access to personal data databases told the BBC.

When changing his registration, he indicated that he had gone to Moscow to an apartment in that very elite building on Kompozitorskaya Street near Arbat.

According to an extract from Rosreestr, the area of ​​the apartment is almost 200 square meters, the current market value is about 100 million rubles (data from CIAN).

Since April 2015, its sole owner is the full namesake of Boris Korolev’s relative, Maria Koroleva. At the time of purchasing the luxury apartment, she was 26 years old; no official business was registered in her name.

Her mother Tatyana Koroleva was then involved in entrepreneurship. A source with access to personal data bases spoke about the relationship between Maria and Tatyana Koroleva and a high-ranking security officer at the BBC.

Tatyana Koroleva owns a share in the Voda spa hotel, located in the suburbs of St. Petersburg between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Razliv. On the shore of Razliv, Vladimir Lenin was hiding in a hut from the Provisional Government.

From 2011 to 2014, the hotel building and the land underneath it were registered to a legal entity with the ironic name "Shalash" (data from Rosreestr). Its revenue for this period did not exceed 50 million rubles. At the same time, part of the small profit went abroad: co-owner of 21% in “Shalash” listed as a company from the UK. As of 2016, it was registered in offshore companies from the Marshall and British Virgin Islands, but its ultimate beneficiary, according to the company’s own statement, was a citizen of Uzbekistan, Aibek Buribekov.

Another co-owner of the hotel, businessman Vadim Bogatov, first stated that Koroleva was not among his partners, then added that this was “probable,” and finally concluded: “I don’t know who her relatives are.”

After the apartment on Kompozitorskaya went to its namesake, Maria Koroleva, she opened an eyebrow care studio, BrowArt, in one of the shopping centers in the south of St. Petersburg.

The owner of the Moscow salons of this chain, Evgeny Korolev, told the BBC that Maria Koroleva is simply his namesake. According to him, the St. Petersburg salon operates as a franchise, and the income from it is “tiny.” The Queen herself comes to the capital “at most once a year.”

Who then lives in an elite apartment on Kompozitorskaya? Boris and Maria Korolev read the questions sent by the BBC correspondent on VKontakte, but did not answer them. Maria Koroleva immediately closed her page after that.

Sergei Korolev did not answer questions sent to him through the FSB Public Relations Center.

It is symbolic that, in accordance with the resolution of the Moscow mayor’s office, the title investor in the construction of the house on Kompozitorskaya was the “Top Secret” media holding: its editorial office is still located on the ground floor of the building, as indicated by three signs at once.

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