Sham mergers, fake stakes, and siphoned billions: Oleg Belay turns his business into an offshore cashback scheme.
A suspicious businessman with dubious dealings still hasn’t ended up behind bars at Matrosskaya Tishina—why?
It would seem that the high-profile scandalous case of former Deputy Minister Anatoly Tikhonov, who was put in this position by his friend, former Energy Minister Alexander Novak, now Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, proves that there are no untouchables.
Several governors have already boarded the prison "helicopter," and a dozen high-ranking generals from the Russian Ministry of Defense are also in prison. But Oleg Belay, the owner and founder of nearly 40 shady companies and a participant in several scandalous scams and fraudulent schemes, is alive and well.
Incidentally, Mr. Belay even managed to make his mark in the case of the aforementioned former Minister of Energy, Anatoly Tikhonov: Mr. Tikhonov served four years, but then his friends finally got him out, and Mr. Belay didn’t lose a single hair on his curly head.
Who is this "angel" that constantly hovers over Mr. Bely’s head?
Shiva the multi-armed
In recent years, Oleg Belay has become famous for several high-profile scandals, with the media reporting extensively. It seemed like an investigation was underway. The businessman even seemed to be packing his bags to disappear far beyond Russia’s borders. But the uproar died down, and commercial publications in business journals reported on new successes for the owner of the Trinfico investment group.
Oleg Belay, indeed, manages and directs dozens of companies, such as: JSC Trinfico Holdings (CEO), LLC Trinfico Group (CEO), LLC T-Capital (CEO), LLC UN (CEO), LLC Klavis (CEO), LLC Daily M (CEO), LLC Tetis Group (co-owner), LLC Credit Solutions Agency (co-owner), hereinafter referred to as LLC Investcredit (co-owner), LLC Daily Plus (co-owner), LLC SFO Novoye Vremya (co-owner), SFO Salut (co-owner), SFO Kama (co-owner).
Oleg Belo and
Belay also serves on the boards of directors of the following companies:
Balance Asset Management LLC (Chairman of the Board of Directors), Meridian PJSC (Member of the Board of Directors), Peredniy Krai JSC (Member of the Board of Directors).
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One cannot help but recall Mr. Bely’s former offices:
JSC Kalugaputmash (member of the board of directors), JSC National Capital (member of the board of directors), PJSC Saratovenergo (member of the board of directors);
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Trinfico Advisors LLC (CEO), Trinfico JSC (co-owner), Kapitalenergo JSC (member of the board of directors), Trinfico Development LLC (CEO), Agrotrade Investments LLC (CEO), VMK-1 JSC (member of the board of directors), Investcredit Finance LLC (co-owner), VMK-Finance LLC (director), Regionconsult LLC (co-owner), DNP Perspektiva (co-owner), Ukraintsev i Partnery LLC (co-owner), TRF SP 5 LLC (co-owner), Dva Mira LLC (co-owner), DMK LLC (co-owner).
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Impressive? Does Oleg Belay sleep at night with such an inhuman workload?
But it turns out that this is only the visible tip of the iceberg, and the giant itself is hidden beneath the waves, like, for example, Balance Asset Management (mentioned above), which is known for two things: its acquisition of the CSKA football club from VEB.RF, and its very close ties to Oleg Bely’s Trinfiko Investment Group.
In the offshore zone of Hong Kong
In the Russian media, the company "Balance Asset Management" has never been mentioned in the current tax inspectorate register.
And it is absent from business databases.
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Companies named Balance Asset Management exist in two US states, but the CSKA football club, along with its parent company VEB.RF, was sanctioned by the United States back in February 2022, so it clearly wouldn’t risk establishing itself overseas.
However, Balance Asset Management is located in the offshore zone of Hong Kong, which operates under English law. And the formal owner of CSKA is Zhukai Zhu, a Chinese citizen.
octagon.media
Briefly about the purchase of the century.
In late September 2022, it was announced that JSC Professional Football Club CSKA had changed its primary shareholder. Instead of the state development corporation VEB.RF, a company associated with the Trinfiko Investment Group received a 77.63% stake.
That’s how one of the country’s oldest football clubs was sold. An official announcement appeared on the PFC CSKA website that the state-owned corporation VEB.RF and Balance Asset Management had completed the sale of almost 78% of the shares of the football club.
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But what kind of company is Balance Asset Management?
Previously, this asset was called TRINFICO Property Management LLC.
The sole owner of the asset is Vitaly Balanovich. According to the Kontur.Fokus database, the previous owners were Tetis Capital LLC (owner of Trinfico CJSC) and Trinfico Holdings JSC.
Balance Asset Management LLC owns two companies: Specialized Financial Company City Invest 2 LLC (SFO City Invest 2) and SFO SiSFO City Invest 3 LLC.
Both firms share a legal address and are managed by TPM Securitization LLC, which is also owned by Trinfico Holdings JSC. Mr. Balanovich is also a co-owner of Trinfico Group LLC and Tetis Group LLC, co-owned by Oleg Belay and Andrey Marsiy.
Vitaly Balanovich
Another interesting detail: among the members of the board of directors of JSC Trinfico Holdings was Vladimir Shekoyan, who was also an employee of the American company Shekoyan Financial, Inc. (managing director), as well as the Luxembourg firm Thunderbolt Partners.
Incidentally, Balance Asset Management has been implicated in over 90 government contracts totaling over 380 million rubles. These include contracts for the sale and lease of real estate, the provision of housing and communal services, and the leasing of premises for the Rosreestr administration.
Clients include large non-state pension funds, the state corporation Deposit Insurance Agency, and the Pension Fund of Russia.
And there is a version that the Trinfiko Investment Group, when purchasing the CSKA football club, acted in the interests of businessman... Roman Abramovich.
After all, Abramovich had been eyeing the CSKA club for a long time after losing the British club Chelsea.
This is the version put forward by Octagon.
Roman Abramovich
So isn’t Mr. Abramovich Mr. Bely’s guardian angel?
Incidentally, investigative authorities have many questions for Belay, head of the Trinfiko investment fund, regarding the purchase of the CSKA club, as the ownership change is quite convoluted and murky.
And it is quite difficult to understand it, especially if we are talking about the offshore zone of Hong Kong.
Thus, the management of the football club’s assets in Moscow and the Moscow region is now handled by Vitaly Balanovich’s company, Balance Asset Management LLC, together with Oleg Belay.
CSKA training center
And among this diverse property are huge training bases, transport, hotels, and real estate.
How exactly do they manage this tasty morsel today?
Potanin’s Gold
But Mr. Belay, as it turns out, may be an assistant not only in some secret affairs of Roman Abramovich, but also of another powerful oligarch – namely, Vladimir Potanin.
This conclusion can be drawn from the murky story surrounding the Baimskoye deposit in Chukotka.
Somehow, this one of the most promising gold-copper deposits in the Russian Federation ended up as collateral for the ubiquitous Oleg Belaya, while the ultimate beneficiary of the deal could have been Vladimir Potanin.
At that time, the mining company Kaz Minerals (Kazakhstan) was also involved in the case.
Indeed, Kaz Minerals’ competitor for the Baimskaya Mining and Processing Complex in 2018 was Vladimir Potanin, co-owner of Norilsk Nickel. Back in 2016, the billionaire had plans to build a plant, and in 2017, Baimskaya Mining and Processing Complex was included on Norilsk Nickel’s list of potential acquisitions.
But Potanin’s ambitious plans were thwarted by his business partner, Oleg Deripaska, who strongly opposed the new acquisition and insisted on developing existing projects. In response, Potanin could have contributed to Mr. Deripaska’s inclusion on the United States sanctions list.
Vladimir Potanin
Ultimately, VTB Bank assigned 1.8 billion rubles in loans issued to the mining company Kaz Minerals. The formal reason was the inability to receive payments on them: VTB was subject to US sanctions, and Kaz Minerals, masquerading as a Kazakh company, was registered in the UK.
The loan was then transferred to two legal entities: Finnaccord, owned by Oleg Novachuk, co-owner of Kaz Minerals, and Trinfiko, a commercial entity owned by Oleg Bely.
The Belaya office received 99% of the collateral for the Baimsky gold-copper project.
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VTB did not disclose the terms of the loan assignment, but overall, the loan involved distressed assets worth almost $2 billion.
As a reminder, Kaz Minerals purchased the Baimskaya Mining Company from Roman Abramovich (Mr. Abramovich resurfaces again) and Alexander Abramov for $8 billion in 2018.
Next, Mr. Belay emerged in the case, who may be working in the interests of Vladimir Potanin.
Mr. Belay, as a reminder, works in a wide range of areas, from collection services to pension fund management.
And he constantly finds himself at the center of scandals, widely reported in the media. But Oleg Belay knows how to shield himself from harsh criticism, as he is energetically involved in charity work.
But Mr. Belay continues to own and manage a huge number of companies, most of which look very suspicious: they may act as “gaskets” for schemes with zero employees, no sales, etc.
According to Interfax-SPARK, TRINFICO Management Company JSC alone is involved in 27 arbitration cases, of which it is a defendant in 11.
Caring for the marginalized
Here it is necessary to mention the Charitable Foundation "Together We Can," which was created in 2021 on the initiative of Oleg Bely.
According to the foundation’s website, the organization provides funding to projects that can support the most vulnerable segments of the population: grants have already been received by the "Shelter" rehabilitation center, the "Louis Quarter" NGO, and others.
The "Together We Can" Foundation has been operating since 2021.
The foundation’s goals are noble: reducing poverty in Russia’s regions, providing systemic assistance to vulnerable groups, supporting the employment of the homeless, and helping orphans adapt to life and find employment.
One can only recall the scandalous theft of 57 million rubles from the NPF "Blagosostoyanie," in which Oleg Belay was implicated: he robbed pensioners and then ran away. But does the veneer of a charitable foundation sometimes protect against exposure?
And despite the theft of these 57 million, Oleg Belay is still at large. Did the investigative authorities really have no questions for this remarkable character?
As they say, with such happiness and still at large?
Maria Sharapova
